5 Ways to Clear Closet Clutter
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Here are five simple ways to reduce the clutter that’s crowding your closet. These tips can also be expanded to include whole rooms, but I feel the closet is a great space to start.
Photo by Dan
1. Remember the 80/20 rule
As with most things, you will find you wear 20% of your clothing 80% of the time. That means you have a whole bunch of clothes hanging around that you don’t actually wear very often.
Use this fact to motivate yourself. You don’t want to have your closet so full of things you don’t wear that you can’t locate your favourite items, do you? No way!
2. Top of the pile
This is a great method to sort the useful 20% of your clothing from the remaining 80%. It takes some time, but it’s so easy that it’s well worth it!
Stack up folded items like t-shirt and jeans into piles. Every time you wear and wash an item, place it on the top of the pile. Do this for a month. Over time, you will quickly see that the items you wear all the time have migrated to the top of the pile, and the items you hardly or never wear are on the bottom of the pile.
For items on hangers, simply turn all the hangers to face the “wrong way” on the bar, so you have to lift the hanger off toward the back of the closet to remove the item. When you wear an item and return it to the closet, place the hanger on the bar the proper way. You will see the items you wear frequently are now all facing the right way, and the items you don’t are still the wrong way.
Take the bottom half of the piles, and at least half of the “wrong way” hanging items and donate them to charity. This will instantly free up a lot of space for the clothes you do wear, and you will be able to locate them easier the next time you look into your closet.
3. Use a 4 bin system to sort your clothing
Grab 4 boxes and label them Keep, Donate, Trashand Storage.
As you pull items out of the closet, place them into one of the 4 bins.
The Keep bin is for items you love and wear regularly.
The Donate bin is for items that are still serviceable, but you don’t wear them. Donate them to your local charity of choice (Good Will, Value Village, the Diabetes Association, etc.) or donate them to a homeless shelter.
The Trash bin is for items that are too torn, ripped, or stained to be accepted by the charities.
Many people opt for a 3-bin system and stop right there, but I like the addition of a 4th storage option. This Storage box is intended for items you want to keep, but will never (or rarely ever) wear again. Things like your wedding dress, or your Christening dress you are keeping for your own daughter to wear. If they are really worth keeping they do not count as clutter, but what are they doing taking up valuable space in your clothes closet? Place them into a long-term storage bin to store them safely until you need them again.
4.Once and for all
As you pick up the clothes to sort into the bins, allow yourself to touch each item only once. Decide right away which box to put it into, and then don’t pull it out of one box to put it into a different box. This will keep you on track
The only exception to this rule if if you are taking something out of the Keep box and putting it into the Donate box.
5. Get rid of the freeloaders
Do you really need those jeans that haven’t fit you in 3 years? What about that blouse that would be more appropriate at an 80’s theme party than the office?
Perhaps you loved them, but if you have not worn them in a very long time, chances are you will never wear them again. In fact, you have probably already replaced them with newer items that fit properly.
These items are freeloaders. They take up your space. They can make you feel bad about yourself if you no longer fit items you loved. Get rid of them!
Recap:
- Remember the 80/20 rule - you wear only 20% of your clothes 80% of the time
- Use the top of the pile method to sort the 20 from the 80
- Use 4 boxes (Keep, Donate, Trash, Storage) to sort your clothing
- Only touch each item once when sorting
- Get rid of the freeloaders
What are your favourite closet clutter busting tips?
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Comments
Houses are taxed by the number of rooms they have. Closets are counted as separate rooms. So they use wardrobes to hang clothes in. Also you’ll find kitchen cabinets are few and far between. Most kitchen cupboards are also pieces of furniture.
The [i]Top of the Pile[/i] idea is excellent – I’m going to give this a go and donate anything I’m not wearing regularly to charity. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks Caitlin. He hasn’t got a name yet, but I’ll probably be running a competition soon to come up with one!
I like the “wrong way” hanger tip. If you do that, there’s no kidding yourself into believing that you actually wear those clothes!
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I just can’t wait to have closets again! We don’t have a single closet in our house! I think closets in Europe are sparse.