Fashion Theory: Spring Clean Your Closet
"You wake up in the morning and eagerly open your closet. Minutes later you have easily selected the perfect outfit to wear and you leave your home looking like liquid gold."- Barbra Horowitz, Closet Control
The Prize:
The key to staying stylish is keeping your wardrobe current and in great condition. This is best accomplished when your wardrobe is well organized and easily accessible. It comes as no surprise that most women admit that they struggle with finding something to wear frequently. Contrarily, these same women admit that their closets are literally bursting at the seams. The manifestation is somewhat cyclical, "nothing to wear, so you buy something to wear", "buy something to wear, realize you have nothing to wear it with, so you buy something to wear it with". Meanwhile your closet is bursting at the seams with clothes that are ill-fitting or unflattering. The clothes that your closet is now brimming with reflect hours of effort and time, in some cases credit card debt or that vacation you could have taken to San Tropez, and alas the unquenchable desire for "that perfectly stylish wardrobe that fully represents your stellar self". If this routine sounds familiar here's my advices for pulling it all together. Take a deep breath... ready... go!
How To Spring Clean Your Closet:
1. Get five boxes and mark them 'Keep,' 'Donate' 'Dump' 'Fix' and 'Maybe'.
2. Evaluate each item you remove from the closet. Classify each items as follows:
Keep: Start with jackets, suits, and separates. Keep your essentials, the clothes that make you feel good, the clothes that have worked for you over and over--as long as they're in good condition, still fit, and don't look dated.
Donate: If you're the same size and haven't worn something in a year or more (some recommend two years), plan to give it away--unless it's evening wear. An evening outfit or separates that look and feel great can be worn for years.
Dump: Throw out clothes that aren't fit to donate (c'mon, you know they're in there!) Keep a few things for dirty jobs like gardening, painting, and store them with your tools. Unless you keep your tools in the garage, because then you'll never wear them because you'll be afraid they're full of spiders or something.
Fix: Put anything that needs a hem, button, alteration, or cleaning into this box. Once everything else is organized, come back to this box and get to work. For things you can't fix yourself, go to the dry cleaner or tailor (every woman needs a good tailor--if you don't have one, ask your friends and acquaintances for recommendations). Make sure this box is empty by the end of the day, even if you've just put the things in your car to take to the designated repair person. One more caveat--make sure you really want to keep the things you're fixing--or you're just wasting money.
Maybe: This box is for the shirt you got on sale but never wore because you don't have anything to go with it, or just never bothered to figure out what to wear with it, the pants that are a little too tight, etc. At the end of the day, seal this box and put it somewhere else, away from your closet. Anything you don't miss after four months should be given away.
3. Once you've completed these steps, look over your keepers again and see how they coordinate with one another. If one piece doesn't fit with anything else, donate it. (Shopping to find things to go with it will recreate the problem you just finished solving--your wardrobe should be a coherent, cohesive unit. It's great to have pieces that express different aspects of your personality, but they still should all fit!).
4. Now make a list of things you need, like a new shell for a favorite suit, or a new white shirt to replace the one you just got rid of. Put the keepers back in your closet and revel in all your new space--and in being able to see your clothes. And enjoy getting dressed the next day; it'll be so much easier and faster...and now you get to go shopping!
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