Decluttering Your Wardrobe

Decluttering anything is soothing for the soul. With the change in season, it’s a great time to sort the wardrobe – from the top to the bottom. If the thought of organising your heaving wardrobe overwhelms you, don’t panic we’re here to help with our getting started guide and tips to maintain the order!

If you are serious about a big clean out, the first plan of attack is to remove EVERYTHING, give your wardrobe a good clean out (it gets surprisingly dusty), and start from scratch.

Have A Pep Talk With Yourself

Sadly, some things never come back into fashion. Some things astoundingly do. Let’s take, for example, stonewash jeans. Amazingly, last summer stonewash denim cut-offs were all the rage, made current by dyeing them fluro and cut short and low. What this shows is even if your originals (or hand me downs) from 1987 are still around for the 2012 revival they’re cut completely wrong, aren’t dyed the right hue and probably don’t even fit you anyway.

Get Rid Of Clothes Too Big Or Small

They are clothes that take up space in the wardrobe that don’t fit you, and have to be sorted through to find something that does fit. Unless you are pregnant or currently losing weight there’s no excuse to hold onto fat pants or clothes you’ll never realistically fit into for a while. If you’re losing weight, spoil yourself when you reach your goal. Be ruthless! You may even want to invite a trusted friend or two over for moral support, decision reinforcement and they can take away any hand me downs!

The Plan Of Attack

Have the following on hand:

• A Bucket of warm water
• Washing Up Liquid
• Clove Oil
• Magic Erasers
• Soft Microfibre Cloth
• A few large strong garbage bags

Step 1: Purge

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Take out all the clothes from your wardrobe and drawers and divide them into three separate piles. Keep, Donate, and Mend.

Step 2:  Clean

Whilst your wardrobe is clothes free, take the time to give it a good clean.  Grab a bucket of warm water, add a teaspoon of washing up liquid and a few drops of clove oil (the clove oil will deter any moths).  Wipe over the walls and the hanging rail using the Microfibre Cloth.  Give the floor under the clothing a good vacuum, wipe or mop.  Let it dry and air whilst you’re sorting out the clothing. For any harsh scuff marks from furniture that has been shoved in there and damaged the walls, try the Magic Eraser which can easily erase scuff marks, crayon and other hard-to-hide stains.

Step 3:  Donation or Rags

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Put the clothes you are donating into a bag.  Make sure they are clean and in a wearable state.  Anything suitable to be kept as rags for the garage, put in a separate bag.

Step 4: The Mending Pile

The mend pile.  Oh the mend pile.  Will you seriously ever mend it?  Do you have a handy Mum or friend that can sew?  Is it worth fixing?  Be ruthless here – anything you will mend, send it off to be done – everything else should be placed in the donation bag.

Step 5:  Organisation

Start returning all the clothing that you do wear regularly in colour order.  Make sure all the clothing are on the hangers the right way and all clothing is facing the right way, this makes locating clothing so much easier.  Check each garment for any damage or if they need ironing.  For your foldable, neatly fold all clothing (here is a great Youtube video on folding neatly).

There are some terrific organisational products available now that can really help you sort things out.  Grab yourself some shoe boxes for your good shoes (it keeps them dust free and because they are clear, you can see what shoes are where).  Old shoe boxes make for terrific containers for socks.  Belts can be hung on a coat hanger.

Maintaining The Order

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When buying new clothes carefully consider how often you will wear it, if it looks good on you and if you love it before purchasing. Consider adopting a system where every time you get something new, you recycle one of your other garments.

Now that your wardrobe is wearer-friendly and sorted, make sure you give your wardrobe a regular ‘spring clean’ to keep the clutter at bay. By sorting out the clutter you’ll not only have more space but actually more to wear than you first thought!

Does your wardrobe need decluttering? What’s the longest you’ve held onto an item of clothing for?