Your morning routine usually affects how the rest of your day will look like. A strong start can set you up for a calm, productive day. In the same way, a chaotic start can quickly turn into a nightmare of a day.
Thankfully, there is ONE thing that can help you simplify your routine and be focused for the rest of the day.
Purging your closet.
How cool would it be if you didn’t have to waste precious time every day looking at your closet and wondering what to wear?
That’s what streamlining your wardrobe can do for you.
Without further ado, here is the 6-step process to declutter your closet in just a few hours.
RELATED POST: Top 4 free planners to build a capsule wardrobe from scratch
6 STEPS TO PURGE YOUR CLOSET
1. Set Your Goal
Before you do anything, sit down, take some time to reflect and answer the questions below:
- Why do I want to purge my closet?
- What do I want to achieve in doing so?
- How many pieces of clothes am I ok to live with?
I would recommend building a capsule wardrobe of 35-40 items max (excluding sportswear, underwear and loungewear). Capsule wardrobes are ideal if you need to make more space in your life.
RELATED POST: 7 ways building a capsule wardrobe changed my life
2. Take Inventory
Most of us have so many clothes that we don’t even know what we own anymore. The first time I decluttered my closet, I was surprised:
a/ by how many clothes I owned
b/ to find clothes hidden in the back of my closet I didn’t even remember I had in the first place.
And that’s exactly why taking inventory is so important; so you become more aware of what and how much you own. Be ready to be surprised!
Now let’s take inventory of your closet
- Get all of your clothes out of your closet – even the ones stashed away somewhere.
- Lay them onto your bed. If they don’t all fit on your bed, lay the rest on the floor. What matters is that you can see them all.
- Stop for awhile. Look at all your clothes and take a mental picture of everything you own.
- Assess :
- Do you have way too many clothes?
- Do you have over 50 shirts and only 2 pants?
- Do you have 10 dresses but actually never wear any?
- Take a piece of paper and draw a conclusion (here is an example)
- I have way too many shirts (I only wear about 5%) => get rid of most shirts
- Most of my pants don’t fit me anymore => donate what doesn’t fit
- I don’t like any of my dresses => donate
This assessment will make the next step only the more easier.
3. Create 3 Piles
You are ready to purge!
Create 3 distinct piles: throw away + donate + keep.
Now pick up cloth by cloth and decide in which pile it should go. Don’t forget to look at the assessment you just made to help guide your decision-making process.
- Throw away : clothes that are stained, have holes in them or are too worn out.
- Donate : clothes that you never wear or don’t love.
- Keep: keep the clothes you love or wear often.
4. Deal with the Donate Pile
Donate your clothes right after you are done decluttering. If you don’t, they will end up cluttering another area of your house for who knows how long.
There are two things you can do with the donate pile:
- One is to donate your clothes to not-for-profit organizations (salvation army, goodwill, local churches, community centers)
- Another option is to sell them to a second hand shop or online (craigslist, facebook marketplace, ebay, etc.)
5. Organize Your KEEP Pile
With the items from the keep pile, re-organize your closet in a way that you can see all of your clothes when opening your wardrobe. It makes it easier and faster to scan your closet and decide on what to wear in the morning.
Organize everything by category. Here’s an example:
- Underwear
- Evening wear
- Lounge – stay at home clothes
- Sports / active clothes
- Work pants
- Work shirts
- Leggings and tights
- etc.
6. Follow the One in One out rule
The secret to keeping a streamlined closet long term is the “one in one out” rule. It’s pretty easy: if you buy a piece of cloth, you will have to donate (or sell) another one that is currently in your closet.
The “one in one out” is the best way to prevent you from suffering from the “my closet is jam-packed but I have nothing to wear” syndrome ever again.
The secret to simplifying your morning routine and become a more focused individual is to eliminate (or reduce) decision-making. Streamlining your closet by getting rid of the things you never wear (or don’t actually love) is the best place to start.
In 6 easy steps, you can save time, avoid the mental clutter that comes with decision making and save energy for the day ahead.
Ready, set, declutter!