We have too many clothes, that seems to be the case according to social commentators and environmental groups. The rise of “fast fashion” and seasonal clothes that you only wear once and then either discard or they become too worn to wear. One of the issues that is currently being blamed for this is the fact that we cannot organise our wardrobes properly so that we don’t actually have a proper record or even the faintest idea as to what we’ve got hidden away in it’s innards. If there was a proper structure to the wardrobe we could see what we have, what we wear on a regular basis, where the essentials such as underwear are and also the amount of shoes we own. In what ways can you go about making sure you have an organised wardrobe?
- Sort and prepare to declutter. The first thing to do is to get out all of the clothes and wipe off all of the shelves. Let’s give the whole thing a good old dusting and take a look at what we’ve found. The best approach is to separate everything into piles. Pants/knickers, socks/tights etc all in different piles. Then it’s on to joggers, trousers both formal and informal including workwear. Next is jumpers making sure that your Aran Sweaters from Shamrock Gift have pride of place, there’s no way they are going to be removed from your collection. Once you have all of the clothes in piles it’s time to go through everyone and decide what you are going to keep and what you are going to recycle. It might be an idea to save up some charity bags before you do this.
- Take a look at the empty shelves. It’s probably the first time since you bought it and put it up that you’ve seen it like this. This view of the space will allow you to get a good idea as to how you organise and fill it up. What shelves will be used for shoes? What order will you arrange the hangers in. What is the largest space? Do you have more vertical shelves? Looking at the clothes you have left, what is the best way to store them. Do you even need a space this size in the first place?
- Invest in some internal organisers. There are plenty of handy devices to maximise the space you have like hanging shoe racks. These are suspended from the hanging bar and mean that you don’t have to devote huge amounts of shelf space.
- Get into the habit of category. Now that we know the space we are dealing with and the amount of clothes involved let’s think about how we are going to put what’s left back in again. This is where it makes a lot of sense to categorise your clothes. One of the easiest ways to do this is work on a seasonal basis. This can just be a straight winter/summer split if you haven’t the time to inclination to go that deep into it. However, if you do then try and work in Autumn and Spring as well. Block of workwear as a whole separate function along with bed and chilling clothes for bumming around the house. Not even Beyonce or Justin Timberlake want to look A grade everyday all day.