After a mild autumn it is now well and truly the time of the year when our summer clothes are put away, and it’s also the ideal time to have a good clearout. Here are some tips to help you clear out your closet.

 

During autumn many of us have to do the annual clothes changeover putting away our denim shorts, floaty dresses and skimpy vests in favour of snuggly jumpers, chunky boots and winter coats. Unless you wear the same clothes every single year, it is likely your seasonal clothes collection will grow as the months go on. This means your clothes collection for hot and cold seasons is likely to be taking up more space than you have. It is likely there are clothes you own you haven’t worn for years, you have never worn, or that you don’t plan to wear again because they were uncomfortable or a fashion fad. That is without even mentioning any clothes with holes, stains or rips that you just can’t face letting go of.

 

With this in mind, the winter wardrobe changeover is a fantastic time to have a good clearout of both your summer and your winter clothes. That way you get to save space storing less of your summer clothes, and have loads of room in your winter wardrobe to add this season’s latest trends.

 

Here are some tips to help you clear out your closet:

 

Put Some Music On

This might sound a bit random, but adding a bit of a soundtrack to your clearout will help you out. Sorting the clothes out in deadly silence makes things tense and a little boring and you’re less likely to stick the job out. Pop your favourite music on and create a nicer atmosphere – make this an uplifting thing to do.

 

Go In Prepared

If you have clothes you need to sort in your self storage unit, go and fetch them and have them in your room ready to sort out. Or get the clothes down from the loft or from the garage – anywhere you have them stashed. You should also make sure your diary is clear for at least an afternoon – as long as it takes to get it all sorted. And don’t forget to get strong bin bags, boxes or anything else you need for your organising.

 

Sort ALL of The Clothes

Don’t bother just doing one drawer or one half of the wardrobe – sort out all of your clothes. This will involve your room getting really messy and somewhat chaotic, but when everything is sorted out you will feel absolutely epic.

 

Get Organised

Once everything is terrifyingly splayed all over the place, you can start to get organised. Have clear piles for wherever the clothes are going. Charity, Ebay, car boot, self storage unit, loft – make clear categories. It might help to simply start with keep and throw piles and then progress to splitting those piles into different categories – whatever works for you.

 

Don’t Bother Wearing Much

You are likely to want to try items on to see if they fit or if you still like them, before you chuck them out. So it really isn’t worth getting dressed properly at all, or making an effort with your hair or makeup for that matter – changing clothes can be exhausting!

 

Get Plenty Of Ventilation

Every woman has been through that dreaded afternoon in the shop changing room where you’re so hot and bothered you have stopped caring about what the clothes look like. This will happen if you don’t ventilate the ‘sorting room’ properly so get the windows open and a fan if you need to, as the moment you start getting red in the face and angry, you’re unlikely to want to finish the task.

 

Be Ruthless

Don’t go into this task with anything other than a ruthless attitude. Any clothes with holes in, stains or any other issues that mean they are not wearable any more (including the 50 pairs of bad leggings!) need to be binned. Unless an item is particularly valuable and warrants being repaired properly, it needs to go. Any clothes you haven’t worn in the last year (or six months if you want to be really ruthless), clothes that just do not fit or suit you – all need to go.

 

Prepare Places For The Items To Go

It is all well and good organising all these clothes to go to self storage, the loft, the garage, or to a car boot, but is there actually space for them to go there? For example; if the clothes need to go in the garage before you can car boot them, is there space in the garage for them to be stored there? Have you tidied your storage space so that it can store all of your summer clothes? Think ahead and make sure you have a place for all the clothes that won’t be going back in your wardrobe.