Spending too much time looking for specific outfits, clothes getting too wrinkled or getting wrinkled more often, hampered visibility, a musty smell, and not having hardly enough space for new clothes are among the various indicators of a cluttered closet.
Living with a cluttered wardrobe leads to time wastage, can contribute to overall stress, and negatively impacts health since clutter encourages dust accumulation, which causes allergies and other respiratory-related issues.
Most unfortunately, it reduces the visual appeal of your living space, thereby reducing your life quality.
While closet decluttering ought to be simple and fulfilling, failure to plan and prepare adequately can make the process tiresome and less effective. In that view, this article guides closet decluttering and organizing your home.
Declutter your closet with Radiant Services.
Set Aside Time
The process begins with you creating time since the chore is engaging and might take a few hours off your busy schedule. If that is not feasible, you can schedule the decluttering on a weekend or your day off. If you have kids around, you might consider engaging them in an outdoor activity so they do not increase the lead times through periodic interruptions. It is also a good opportunity to listen to those favorite jams you have been postponing.
Closet Emptying
With your favorite jams playing on your stereo, empty the closet by removing everything to set the stage for cleaning and reorganizing. Have a cloth set on the floor to prevent the clothes from collecting dust from the rug or floor. Alternatively, you can place them on the bed. The same goes for the shoes.
Closet Cleaning
With the closet now empty and clear of clutter take up a spray bottle filled with dish soap or any other detergent of your choice and a microfiber cloth wipe to off dust on the surfaces. Ensure to reach all corners to avoid pollutant accumulation.
Clothes Sorting
Take each clothing piece from the heap before you and sort them into keep, seasonal, discard, donate, give way, and recycle categories. Do this for all the clothes so that you have a clear view of what you are faced with. When you are done with category sorting, you should have several piles based on specific categories.
Evaluate Items
Take each clothing piece from the ‘to keep’ pile and ask yourself how much you need it, how often you need it, and its condition. This is because even some needed clothing pieces might be too worked up to continue serving you. Go the extra mile, try out the ‘to keep’ clothes and shoes, and ask yourself how you feel about them. They are worth keeping if you feel good and confident in them. You are not sure what to think about specific pieces, so it is high time you get rid of them through disposal, recycling, sale, or donation.
Organize the Keep-Pile
By now you are left with the clothing that you indeed intend to keep and it is surprising how smaller the pile has become. Take this opportunity to organize these clothes in tops, pants, dresses, jackets, underwear, and seasonal categories. Hang items such as jackets, dresses, pants, and shirts, while folding items such as jeans, sweaters, and t-shirts can go in shelves.
Store Seasonal Items
Seasonal clothes should be stored in clearly marked transparent bins for easier retrieval whenever you need them. Items such as socks, underwear, and vests can go into the under-the-bed storage compartments for easier retrieval.
Use Organizers
As you organize the closet afresh, leverage the use of organizers and shelf baskets to store items such as socks, underwear, belts, and scarves. The organizers also come in handy in the storage of seasonal items.
Dispose of Unwanted Items
With everything now tucked in the closet, it is now time to get rid of the clutter you managed to set aside. Since they are in clear categories, put each category in clearly labeled plastic bags, ready for disposal. Take pictures of ‘sale’ items and post them, take those meant for donation to the collection centers, put the discard category in the trash bin, and retain the recycle category somewhere else.
By following this closet decluttering sequence, the commonly known intricate process should be easier and more fulfilling. It is, however, important to note that the sequence may be a little different for different people, based on personal preference and the size of the clutter. For instance, some people might choose to do it in phases, spread over a few days, compared to same-day work approach.