New Year, New You: How To Organize Your Closet

Today I’m so excited to have my friend Amanda of Advice From A Twenty Something here as part of my New Year, New You series. Amanda is incredible at putting together how-to posts (some of my favorites here & here) and I thought she’d be perfect for teaching us how to organize our closet.

Now that we’ve spent the majority of January planning on New Year’s Resolutions and recouping after a crazy Holiday season, it’s time to take some action. On your closet that is. Reorganizing your closet can make you feel like you have a whole new wardrobe. You notice items you forgot you had and put pieces together you may not have thought of in the past. So how do you tackle this project? It’s easier than it seems. Just follow these easy steps…

First you must purge. Go through each item in your closet one by one and ask yourself, “Do I get excited to wear this?” and “When was the last time I wore this?”. If the answer to the first is “no” and to the second is “I can’t remember”, then it’s time to get rid of it. As I like to say, be brutal. Once it’s out of sight, it’ll be out of mind, I promise.

Now, let’s get organized.

Step 1: I like to start with the larger pieces in my closet first, like my coats. I like to keep these at one end of my closet so they don’t interfere with my daily wardrobe. I’m also a crazy color coder, so I like to organize them according to shade as well.

Step 2: Next move on to the second largest items, your sweaters. I like to separate these by cardigans vs. pullovers, and also by color. Keep these close to your coats on one end.

Step 3: Now that the bulky side of your closet is taken care of, let’s move on to the more delicate items. Blouses and tops are next on my list. Once again, I color code and line them up next to my sweaters.

Step 4: The second half of my closet is filled with skirts, dresses, and other bottoms. I like to keep all my tops on one side of my closet, separate from my bottoms so when I get dressed in the morning I can start with one side of my closet and then move on to the next. I keep my dresses all together, then skirts, then any pants or shorts I hang. I also keep any nice dresses in dress bags at the far end of my closet.

And now, ladies, you’re organized!