Want to sort out your clothes but aren’t in a place to pay an organizer? Here’s a quick run though on how you might do it on your own.
Step 1:
Choose.
Go through absolutely every item of clothing in your home. Take it out of the drawer, out of the closet, and really look at it, one piece at a time. Everything. If you have limited energy and/or time, you can do a drawer at a time, a foot of closet rod at a time. Choose what to keep with this in mind:
Do I even like this?
Does it serve my life right now?
You may keep anything you like, you are the boss of your things, and also, I don’t recommend keeping clothing that doesn’t fit your body right now, or clothing that is torn (in a bad way), stained, or worn out. I don’t recommend keeping clothes out of guilt either. Tell it “thank you for the lesson” and send it on. Was it a gift? Remember, a gift’s job is complete once you receive it. Whatever happens to it after that is irrelevant. You are not ungrateful, or wasteful, or whatever other message you’ve got in your head. People who love you don’t want your life cluttered with items that aren’t useful to you.
Step 2:
Sort and assess.
Once you have chosen the clothes to keep, sort your clothes into type, so all your shorts, shirts, socks, underpants, are gathered in their respective piles. This way you can see how much you have of each thing for two purposes. One, so you can choose where it will best fit in your space (drawer, basket, hung up). Two, so you can see where you have holes. Maybe every single one of your white t-shirts had to go to recycling, so you need a fresh set. Or maybe all of your underpants are just sad. You are worth new underpants, ok? Ok.
Step 3:
Put it away BUT do it in a sustainable way.
I like to fold most things because I can fit more things into the space and it’s easy to see what is in there. HOWEVER, if you are honest with yourself and know you are not a “folder”, then set yourself up with a drop-in drawer or basket solution. And if you find yourself shoving to get it to fit right off the bat, you either need a bigger basket or less of that category. If you’re shoving it in now, I can almost guarantee you that you won’t be successful putting away that item in the future.
Step 4:
Plan maintenance.
Choose your laundry day(s) and put it in your phone calendar. Make an appointment with yourself. On that day, wash, dry, and put the load away immediately. I promise that putting away a load of laundry takes an average of 5 minutes (10 minutes tops). Now that you have less, laundry should be way easier.
Lastly, choose a day in 6 months to reevaluate your clothes and put it on your phone calendar also. Maybe you don’t go through the whole take-everything-out process, but you take 30 minutes to flip through your clothes and send on what isn’t for you anymore.
There is nothing like having a closet full of clothes that suit you and your current life. It's worth the effort and time, promise.
When you are ready and able to invest in your future calm, you can hire me or any of the talented pro organizers listed with the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals (NAPO) at https://pro.napo.net/.
I'm fully vaccinated and now open for in person organizing sessions, sanity saving cleaning services, as well as packing and unpacking services. Gift certificates available.