Tackle Your Closet (You Know You Need To!)
by Tara Murphy

Description: Tips for purging and organizing your clothes closet.

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Do you have a closet stuffed with clothes, shoes, and belts and yet wear the same few outfits over and over? Stop wasting all of your great finds and organize your closet for good. It will not only make you look better on the outside (you are sure to discover some great outfits lurking amongst the chaos) but it will dress you up inside too by releasing current stress and eliminating a source of future stress.

1. No sock left behind.

First things first, you MUST take everything out. It's overwhelming but the only way to truly end up with an organized space, and if you're going to take the time to help yourself, why do it half way?

Accept that anything other than clothing, shoes or accessories (things you wear) is not going back in. Chances are you're not really using any other random items you shoved in your closet as a temporary fix when your guests were knocking on the door anyway. You know the drill--a place for everything, everything in its place. Now put the drill somewhere else because it does not belong in your closet.

Avoid distraction while emptying your closet---no strolls down memory lane. Quickly put aside any item not going back in for proper storage elsewhere (assuming it is something you really need to keep, of course. But that is for another day).

2. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Everything out? Time to be a woman and let go--anything that is stained or damaged is not going back in, no matter how cute it was or how cute you looked in it. It's wasting space that you don't have to waste.

Be honest with yourself--if you haven't worn it in a year (OK, two years if you just have too much trouble with this), do not let it go back into your closet. In denial about when you last wore that skirt? Go ahead and keep it, but when you hang up all of your clothes in the "fashion" you'll learn below, hang everything with the hanger hook facing towards you. After you wear an item and return it to your closet, hang it the traditional way (hook it away from you). After a year, you'll no longer be able to fool yourself about what you really do use!

Feel better about letting go by donating anything in good condition to charity or invite your same-sized friends (this time, it's OK to discriminate) to tackle their own closets and have a trade-in party (new wardrobes for free!).

3. Restore order.

With the painful purging over, it's time for the fun part! The key to all organizing is to keep like things together so follow these steps to making your closet work for you:

a. No mingling: group items together by type--pants will hang with pants, jackets will hang with jackets, etc. No exceptions; follow this even for suits--it will multiply your outfits by opening your mind.

b. Color commentary: within each group, hang by color (side benefit, ladies: great way to really find out how many pairs of black pants you own).

c. Go to great lengths: take it one step further and hang by length -- shirts by sleeve length and pants/skirts by length. Need a sleeveless shell to throw on under a jacket? The search is over within seconds.

d. Top to bottom: don't forget your shoes and accessories. Group shoes by color and style (separate those loafers from those evening pumps). Now that you've convinced yourself you need THAT many pairs of black shoes, you might as well organize them to make sure you always pick the perfect pair from your arsenal. Have a lot of belts? Hang them from nails inside your closet or dust off and make use of that tie rack the kids bought dad 12 years ago for Christmas.

Invest the time in these steps and reward yourself with a greater view of your options and make coordinating outfits quick and painless--and fun!

Tips for over-achievers:

Snooze opportunity alert! Take advantage of any extra space at one side of your closet and pre-plan some outfits for your work week by hanging all of the pieces of the outfit together. It's always a plus to have one less thing to worry about in the morning.

No empty hangers, ever! When you take an article of clothing out of your closet, don't leave the empty hanger adrift amongst the rest of your clothes. Keep the empty hangers together (either hanging in some extra space or grouped at the bottom of your closet) and make it easier to put laundry away.

Box em up! It's generally best to store shoes in their boxes (or splurge on see-through shoe boxes for each pair). Boxes can be stacked on the floor or on shelves above your clothes, keeping you more organized. Go crazy and tape a Polaroid pic of each pair onto the box. Too much? Keep it real and write on the box in marker a brief description of the shoes (i.e. black strappy sandals). No more trying to remember what the shoes look like from looking at the box.

Do it once (the right way), keep it up, and love the new style-maven within you!

Tara Murphy is a Lawyer and CPA. She is also one of the editors of Simplify Right Now. Simplify Right Now is a website dedicated to helping you relax, restore and remodel your life. Start today! Visit the site to subscribe to the FREE monthly ezine.

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