It’s the new year, and there’s no better time than now to bring a little organization into your life. Whether it’s a New Year’s resolution or you just want to start 2024 feeling fresh (and tidy), organizing your wardrobe is the perfect chore to cross off your list early. But, if you ask us, any day is a great day to organize your wardrobe, especially if the piles of clothes on your racks have gotten out of hand.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have a clothes shed. It may not actually be a chair, but a stool or a corner of the room. But it’s a place where we toss our clothes when we’re too lazy or tired to keep them neat. To get rid of this bad habit once and for all, you need to know how to organize your wardrobe “correctly”.
You’re probably thinking there’s no right way to organise your clothes. Think again. We spoke to organisation experts to make the whole process a lot less stressful. Elika Gibbs from Practical Princess and Virginia Feacey, UK Country Manager at Rebelle, a resale site for second-hand designer clothes, shared their best tips to help us all live clutter-free lives.
The result is not only a more organized wardrobe, but a more organized room, too — plus, it makes a huge difference when it comes to actually getting dressed: When every blazer, dress, jeans, and skirt is clearly visible, styling your outfits becomes a dream.
How to Organize Your Wardrobe
1. Start with a major cleanup
Virginia suggests going through every item in your wardrobe and adding it to the following categories:
Side note: this actually works.
If you’re not sure what should go in which pile, try things on. “You might have forgotten about some lost treasures that you don’t wear regularly but that are sitting in your wardrobe that you could revamp and make more current,” says Erica.
2. Make money from unnecessary things
Lack of motivation? Selling your old clothes pile is a great place to start, as it allows you to make money off your old clothes. “Just because you don’t like it anymore doesn’t mean someone else won’t,” says Virginia. “Making money off your old clothes will make you feel better when you want to buy new ones.”
For high street purchases, use sites like Ebay, Depop and Vinted, and for more high end items, Rebelle is a great option. If you have designer pieces that you don’t want to part with but don’t wear often, you can also list them on fashion rental sites, which can be a great source of income.
3. Continually edit your wardrobe
Once you’ve decluttered your wardrobe, Virginia recommends starting a buy-one, get-one-out policy to avoid cluttering again. She says: “Every time you buy a new item, you should get rid of one old thing. Or, if you really want to challenge yourself, try two.”
Why? “If you don’t organize your wardrobe, you might think you have a lot of clothes, but in reality, you just have a lot of clothes that no longer fit or are out of style,” says Erica.
“Having an organized wardrobe can help prevent this from happening and make getting dressed in the morning a lot easier.”
4. Organize your closet by item type, then by color.
You can’t achieve the highest level of organization without multiple categories. We start by organizing by item — all tops in one section, all blazers together, all jeans in the same place, etc. — and then within those categories, by color.
“This makes everything look much neater and saves you time in the morning when you have to rush to get dressed,” advises Virginia.
Plus, there’s nothing more beautiful than a rainbow!
5. Invest in the right equipment
“I like to have matching hangers so I don’t have to worry about a messy closet,” says Erica. Virginia agrees: “Get good hangers with rounded corners and use boxes to organize your drawers. These are especially great for belts, underwear, and socks.”
If you don’t have time to fold things, tossing them in a basket will make them seem more organized when they really aren’t, and you’ll just have to remember to come back and organize them later.
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6. Separate seasons
“If cupboard space is an issue, separate your summer and winter clothes and store the seasonal clothes you’re not using out of the way,” says Virginia.
Erica agrees that this is just convenient: “There’s no point organizing your closet in the middle of winter if you have summer dresses hanging up that you can’t wear.”
7. Keep everything in its proper place
An organized wardrobe also involves wardrobe maintenance. The point here is to make your life easier, and taking good care of your clothes will do that.
“Knitted items should be folded and laid flat to dry, to avoid stretching or deformation,” advises Virginia.
8. Don’t forget your shoes
“If you have a lot of boxes of shoes, tape pictures of the shoes to the outside of the boxes so you can see what’s inside without having to dig through multiple boxes,” Virginia says.
Erica adds: “Boxes are ideal as they keep out dust, and cardboard is breathable.”
You can also stack the boxes to make use of valuable wasted space, preventing damage to your shows and preventing messy piles.
9. Take good care of your expensive items
“If you’re spending that much money on luxury items, you better look after them,” says Virginia. “Put your designer bags in dust bags and stuff them from the inside to prevent them from getting misshapen.”
Change the way you shop:
10. Invest in quality staples
“These will be the workhorses of your wardrobe,” says Virginia, “and they have a low cost of wear, so choose quality, versatile, easy to mix and match pieces that are a little pricier and will last.”
“Think a good trench coat or coat, a basic white shirt, a basic cotton T-shirt, a black blazer, dark blue denim, a cashmere sweater, white sneakers, black heels and black flats.” For more inspiration, read our winter wardrobe essentials now.
11. Stay on trend with easy-to-mix, affordable pieces
Love the ruffle trend? Don’t splash out big bucks on a sweater you’ll only wear for one season and then throw away. Instead, opt for an easy high street update on the trend. “That way, it won’t be as painful when you no longer wear the piece,” says Virginia.
12. Take your time before buying
Before spending money on anything new, Virginia says it’s important to think about your purchase first.
“Think of three ways you can pair a new outfit with something you already own,” she suggests. “If you can’t think of three, reconsider the purchase.”
13. Make sure you sleep and think.
“To avoid impulse buying, research the things you need and like, put them on a wish list, and then think about it overnight before buying. If you still want the item the next day, go ahead and buy it,” says Virginia.
14. Find a great tailor
Can’t afford luxury items, but want your clothes to look more premium? Virginia says it all depends on how well the clothes fit.
“This means hemming trousers or sleeves, checking the fit of blazers and jackets at the shoulders, etc.,” she says. “Be sure to consider the additional cost of tailoring before you buy.”
Do you think you can? We believe you can!
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Jess Edwards is editor of Cosmopolitan.com/UK and oversees all things digital.
