Closet Cleaning: 7 Effective Ways to Clean Your Closet

Spring is the perfect time of the year to kick some excuse in the backside. But with all the spring cleaning checklists I already had, closet cleaning is the least task I want to do. For me, closet cleaning is hard to tackle and too overwhelming. Especially when I don’t have the right mind and time for it. So I will just kind of forget about it (on purpose hahaha), I’m too lazy and always think NOBODY will see it BUT ME.

Until this happened, my closet got out of hand! I don’t have anything to wear, always picking the same few outfits cause I can’t see all my clothes. I always have to squeeze all my clothes to make everything fit inside my closet.

Then on Saturday morning, when I was home alone, I decided to tackle some closet cleaning. Cause I was tired of looking at my unorganized closet and wouldn’t be able to find clothes I wanted to wear.

So if you are like me, always feel too lazy or do not have time to clean your closet and wait to handle things when they get out of hand. I got you!

But before we jump to the step-by-step of how you’re going to do your closet cleaning, you will need to create a master plan (I like to do one section one day, so I don’t have to clean out everything in one day) and buy closet cleaning essentials.

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How To Do Closet Cleaning: Guide Step By Step

1. Divide your clothes into 3 piles: Give, Trade, Trash

Give: Donating gently used clothes to a local charity will make you feel good parting away with some of your old items. There are many local charities, such as Goodwill or Salvation Army that will help those in need.

Trade: There are tons of websites nowadays where you can sell or trade your gently used accessories and clothing. Sites like DePop or Poshmark are the two most popular with bloggers. Also, you can try to go to eBay if you already have an account there.

Trash: This one should be very obvious! Nobody will want old, stained, worn, stretched, ripped clothes. I mean I don’t want it either hahaha.

2. Take on A Section At A Time: Coset, Drawers, Containers

Taking it on all at once can be too overwhelming and time-consuming. My advice is to take on one section at a time.

3. Have Everything In Sight – Lay it All Out

When you go through section by section, lay everything out so it’s in plain sight. For example, say you’re going through your jeans…lay everything out so you can see exactly what you have. This method will also help remind you of things you may have forgotten about. Once you have everything laid out, start to sort out and separate items based on what you want to keep, give, trade, or if you want to toss them out.

3. Try On Everything From Your Closet

Trust me I know how painful it is when I thought my clothes would fit on me but turns out they don’t. I know I’m certainly guilty of this! Keep things that fit right now, not fit 2 years ago. Clothes that don’t fit probably can not be extremely restrictive and uncomfortable, but they can be unflattering. By trying all of your clothes you will know which clothes you want to keep, give, trade, or if you want to toss them out.

4. It No Longer Fits, Stained/Poor Condition

Know what to toss! Do not give or trade something that is not wearable. If an item is overworn, has a hole, or stain, or isn’t in the best condition, it’s okay to toss them out.

5. Sort Through Similar Items

Try to cut down on similar items. For example, if you have a similar denim jacket or black turtleneck, try to keep the ones that you wear most often. Cause how many of those items do we really need right hahaha. Plus this will help you wear your favorite items more often and also help you cut down on space.

6. Does It Still Match Your Style?

If you haven’t gone through your closet in a while, there are probably a lot of items from years ago that don’t fit your style. When I purged my closet, I still had clothes from middle school (yikes). So if you wouldn’t still wear an item or if it doesn’t align with your current style, just get rid of it.

7. Keep Things That Make You Feel Good: Fits Well, In Good Condition, Has Sentimental Value, Things You’ll Wear Again

When you clean out your closet and suddenly find something that you love or holds sentimental value to you, just keep it! If you don’t or can’t wear it for whatever reason, find a nice spot to store it so it doesn’t get ruined or take up much space. I have a few clothes that I can’t get rid of because they remind me of my home country, I keep them in my storage box. It’s okay to hold onto some things, just not everything!

How To Organize Your Closet

Whoop! Whoop! You’ve almost made it to the light at the end of the tunnel. Now that you know exactly what you have, it’s time to start organizing.

1. What To Hang In Your Closet

• Dresses
• Sweaters & Cardigans
• Dressy Pants
• Skirts
• Jackets

2. What To Fold In Your Closet: Shelves, Storage Bins, Dresser

• T-Shirts
• Underwear
• Jeans/ Pants
• Activewear (leggings, tanks, etc)

3. Closet Organization Method

There are a few organizational methods. You can easily pick whichever one suits your day-to-day routine and needs. But you can also combine the methods (which is what I do).

By Color

So I’m more like a neutral girl so I find myself reaching for my whites, blacks, and tans more often than any colors. If you’re like this as well, try to keep your neutrals towards the front and then sort out the rest by rainbow colors.

By Type

This is the classic closet organization method and probably the easiest one. All you have to do is establish different sections in your closet for each clothing type. For example, I like to keep jackets in the back, then dresses, sweaters, and pants. And finish it off with the clothes I wear daily.

By Season

If you opt to organize your closet by season, you can easily do this in a few different ways

1. In-season at the bottom, out-of-season at the top: this will look best if your closet has a high railing.
2. In-season at the front, out-of-season at the back: this method will work best with deeper and wider closets.
3. In-season towards the middle, out-of-season on the sides: this method works well for standard reach-in closets.

All Three Methods

Now this is where you can take things to a whole different level! You can organize your closet using all the 3 methods together (color, type, season) at once. This method may be a little bit more time-consuming but it will be worth it in the end.

I know closet cleaning is one of the toughest tasks and can be too overwhelming but with the right plan, everything is doable. Tackling an entire closet in one day can cause you serious burnout. So my best advice is to try not to do everything in one day as much as you want to get it done and over with.

I hope you find this post helpful. Let me know in the comments below some of your best organizational tips!

Until next time,