‘National Clean Out Your Closet Week’

hanging shoe holder          clothes in color order

Did you know that the third week of March is ‘National Clean Out Your Closet Week’?  

Even though it’s not quite spring outside (20 degrees today, but feels like 6 degrees below with the wind chill factor) in the Boston area, the third week of March is a great reminder for everyone to begin taking small steps towards spring cleaning.

Remember that, March 14 is ‘Clean Out Your Home Office Day. And, once you’ve taken care of your home office (or even if you haven’t), you can begin to overhaul your closets the following week. I’m going to clean out and organize the back hallway closet, and then see if my clothes closet needs help.

Below are some tips on cleaning out your closets:

  • Begin with one closet, perhaps your clothes closet. Schedule a block of time to begin and complete the clean out in one session.
  • Remove everything from the closet. Clean the inside walls, shelving, and the floor. You may decide to paint the interior a more pleasing color, install new lighting, or use some decorative containers for storage to save space. If you decide to make some changes, set aside extra time to do so.
  • Sort the items into categories; shoes, pocket books, belts, scarves, shirts, sweaters, pants, dresses, skirts, jackets, and anything else that was in there.
  • For items that don’t belong there, put them aside to relocate later.
  • Get rid of what you don’t need, don’t love, doesn’t fit, is damaged, out of style, and haven’t worn during the past year. This means throw out, repair, give away.
  • Decide on a plan so you know where to put things back in the closet. Do you want to put your shoes in a hanging shoe holder bag or in a shoe rack instead of jumbled on the floor, hang your clothes in a particular order, (I like hanging my clothes by color scheme; all blacks, greys, whites, blues, reds, etc. in that order on the clothing rods), or arrange folded items on the shelves differently.
  • Then begin putting them back one category at a time. You can always change or rearrange the items.
  • When the first closet is clean and re-organized, reward yourself by doing something fun or pleasing for a job well done!
  • Then, it’s on to the next closet; clean, purge and reorganize.

There’s seven days during the third week of March, hopefully allowing you time to take care of all, or most of your closets.

Organizing your closets will make it easier to locate items in a timely manner, thus simplifying your life. Let me know how it goes, and if you have any clever and creative ideas you’d like to share with my blog readers.

 If you live in the Boston area, and would like a FREE 1/2 hour telephone consultation to discuss your clutter issues, contact me at [email protected]

 

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