Pretty Closets

Now imagine, you're in Target. You're there for diapers, some groceries, a new tooth brush because the kids decided to see just how much they could put in the toilet before it wouldn't flush, and wine. Definitely some wine. As you make your way in, knowing you want to make this child-free trip last as long as you can, you take the long way to where you need to go and browse through the clothing. Five cute tops, two pairs of jeans and one sundress later, you are finally making it to the items that you really need.

Upon arriving home, you go to put your new finds in the closet, but can't because it looks like a tornado throw up the laundry basket and most of it landed on a hanger. You push and squeeze and fold until you can make the new items fit. They stick out a bit, but hopefully it should hold.

You're feeling a bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start. You're not even sure of what you should get rid of and you know if you start you will be reminded of that one time you wore that one super cute dress five years ago to your sister's birthday. But do you really still need it?

Here are easy steps to help turn your closet from the hot mess on the left to the neat and organized magic on the right without having to spend the money to renovate your closet.

1. What The Heck Is Even In Here?

This step is probably the most important. At this point you aren't making the hard decisions quite yet. Start off by simply seeing what's in your closet. If it is something you know that you will 100% without a doubt never wear because your mother-in-law gave it as a gift and you didn't have the heart to tell her how god-awful hideous it was, get rid of it. Easy, right?

I recommend going in with two bags: one for garbage clothes (those tattered pieces of "passable" clothing that you can't believe you've still held onto) and one for donating to your local clothing box/Good Will/Salvation Army/etc.

2. Does It Like My Body?

This is a bit trickier, kind of time consuming, and at times a little mortifying, but totally worth it. TRY IT ON. The items that are left in your closest from the initial purge, you HAVE to try them on (unless it's something that you've worn in the past month). This part is so important. Your body has probably changed since you have last worn a lot of things that are in there and your memory is most likely playing tricks on you of how they actually look.

This goes for shoes as well. If it's something you know you haven't worn since you bought them 3 years ago, you should probably get rid of them. Also look at the quality of your shoes. I know some of my favorite pairs have holes in the sides. Unfortunately you should toss most of these, but always keep one or two run down pairs for activities around the house like painting, yard work, etc.

Now, having said this, you don't have to get rid of EVERY item that doesn't fit. You are allowed to keep some. And I put heavy emphasis on the some. The items that you really like and hope to fit into again once you slim down can be "goal clothing". It's nice to keep these kind of items around and try them on from time to time to see how you are progressing with your health goals. But keep realistic goal clothing. That favorite shirt you had in high school? It's probably never going to fit again, no matter how much you try.

3. Add Some Organization

Depending on how anal-retentive you might be varies on how organized you want to get. Here are a couple ways you can go about organizing by varying degrees:

• keep it the way it is, if your current system works for you, don't fix what ain't broke
• Organize by style. This is the method that I personally use and I've found that it makes it easier to find what I'm looking for, especially when I'm in a hurry. So from left to right, my closet looks like: tank tops, t-shirts, long sleeves, sweaters/jackets, dresses, skirts, pants/leggings, holiday/sport. I've done something similar with my shoes of: flipflops/sandals, flats/slides, tennis shoes, heels. (You could also organize by casual, formal, athletic wear)
• Organize by color. If you have a wide variety of colors in your closet, this method might be helpful to you.
• Organize by style and color. This is the pro-level organizer here. Probably a bit time consuming, but I can imagine how beautiful it will look when you're done.
• Freestyle. Make up your own organizing system.

4. The Old Switch-A-Roo

Now that you've limited your closet down to things that you know you wear, might wear because they fit, and hope to wear items, you need to flip all of the hangers around so they look something like this:

So this may seem silly, but it is actually a great way to keep track of what items in your closet you are and aren't wearing. After you've worn something and put it back in the closet you can put it back in normally. So all of the items you have worn (and probably wear regularly) will be hanging the normal way and every thing that you haven't worn will be hanging the "wrong way" still, so it'll end up looking something like this:

As shown above, there are hangers both ways. The next time I purge my closet, anything that is hanging the wrong way automatically goes into the bag because I haven't worn it in a year. The ONLY exceptions to this are: goal clothing and formal (as long as the formal wear still fits), because you may still be working on your goal and it depends on how often you have something fancy to go to (i.e. weddings, etc).

I usually go through this process once a year (every "spring cleaning"), but you can do this more frequently if you'd like (i.e. every 6 months). Though, I recommend doing it annually especially if you have a lot of seasonal clothing such as sweaters vs. short sleeve/summer dresses.

And there you go! It seems (and is) a bit of work, but I promise the end result is more than worth it. The first time I did this for my closet the relief and ease that came from it was so rewarding!

Good luck and happy spring cleaning!