Spring Clean a Closet

Look around your home. How much “stuff” do you have? Downsizing, clutter, and work-life balance are all current buzz words. While each have a unique definition, they all relate to a feeling of overwhelm in our everyday lives.

Did you ever stop to ponder that an overflowing closet could be an underlining reason for stress? What would happen if you streamlined areas of your home, like closets and garages? Would you feel less restricted with the upkeep of items thus allowing more leisure time?

When the season changes, it signals a good time to reorganize and purge the most lived-in areas of our home, such as garages, basements, and closets. Let’s start with spring cleaning a bedroom closet that is full of sweaters and boots that you won’t need for a few months.

• Start by evaluating every piece in your closet. Do I like this? Did I wear it? What can stay in the closet and what needs to be moved out due to the weather?  Seasonal switching of closets happen more up north than down south because we can wear most of our clothes year-round. Wonder if architects think about that when designing our homes? Just sayin’.
• Try it on. Many times our closets hold clothes and shoes because we did not want to take the time to try something on. Sometimes we just don’t want to make a decision about what to do with something. Be honest, do you have more space or time?
• Invest in good hangers. “Flocked” are space efficient, sturdy, and perfect for those garments that just can’t seem to “hang on.” You can almost double the space in your closet by using the same hanger style throughout.
• Hanger trick. This tip is worth repeating every season. You started to purge by using your emotions. Now the real test begins when you see for yourself what you actually wear in the next few weeks. Start the season by hanging all of your clothes with the hanger head pointing “out.” After you wear it, turn the hanger head as you normally would with it facing “in” towards the wall. At the end of the season you can easily see what you did or didn’t wear. What is still facing “out”…out it goes for good. What an honest eye-opener. Remember styles change every year and our clothes can quickly move from on-trend to outdated from season to season.
• Organize your closet with “like with like.” Group blouses, pants, etc. together. Then organize by color starting with the lightest color and ending with black. Hang the garments all facing the same direction, putting the “front” of the clothes facing you as you open the closet. It is easier to see what you have when looking at the front of the garment versus the back.
• Enough is enough. Consider adapting the “one in, one out” rule. Before you buy another pair of shoes, which pair will you move out of the closet? Women hate this and men love this one.

The acronym for SPACE has been around for years and is a simple way to remember 5 steps to organizing any area. Sort, Purge, Assign a home, Containerize, Equalize.When you implement these simple tips, you will have a closet that is organized and streamlined with the clothes you wear most often, with room to spare!  Now, on to the garage. It’s that simple.

Lisa Phillips, owner of SimpleWorks

www.simpleworksmtsp.com │ lisa@simpleworksmtsp.com │ 205.981.7733

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