The change of seasons are always great opportunities to clean out your closet and change over your wardrobe. If you need to make room and organize your closet, check out these easy steps:
1. Store seasonal apparel. You don’t need summer clothes cluttering up your closet. If you have warm vacations on your calendar, leave a few favorites behind.
2. Split clothes into 3 piles: KEEP, DONATE, and THROW AWAY. The keep pile is for items that you wear and love. As you review each item, ask yourself “does this garment make me feel confident, do I feel amazing when I put this on?” If the answer is no, then get rid of it! The general rule (that does NOT pertain to formal wear) is if you haven’t worn an item of clothing in the past 18 months, donate or dispose! If it is stained, torn and irreparable then throw it away.
3. Organize the KEEP items with a system that works for you. Many people like to organize by item type and/or color. Other’s organize by occasion. With the latter, you can create shirt categories like: dress shirts for business days, shirts for business casual days, weekend shirts, formal occasion shirts, etc.
4. DONATE what you can. Suits for Success Inc., CareerGear, and Dress for Success give the donated clothes to unemployed men and women for job interviews. Veteran’s and Salvation Army are other options. Most clothing donations are tax deductible.
5. THROW AWAY or re-purpose the rest. Some items are beyond hope and need to go straight into the trash. If you know someone who is crafty, they might be able to use the fabric for costumes.