Time to Flip Your Closet for SPRING!

• Posted on 8 April 2024
• By Debra Campbell
• 0

Make choosing your outfit of the day easier to look and feel your best without decision fatigue with these tips and tricks for organizing your closet.

There's just something about SPRING that makes me want to renew and refresh everything! Spring cleaning and organizing, getting rid of things that no longer serve a purpose or bring joy and make room for things that do. Spring always gets me excited to start new home projects, redecorate and get a whole new wardrobe refresh! I'm sure you feel the same way!

For April, my focus is on cleaning out my closet and refreshing my wardrobe. I love the ritual of cleaning out my closet. It just FEELS GOOD! It's a great way to set yourself up for success throughout the current season too.

My word for 2024 is EASIER so anything that can eliminate little stresses and make each day go a little more smoothly; and day to day life just a little bit EASIER; is what's guiding all my decisions this year. 

Look, I love clothes. But even I have to admit that sometimes decision fatigue is very real and deciding what to wear can be stressful at times. Having outfits curated ahead of time that make me look and feel my best, makes the start of the day EASIER. And, you'll hear it said around my house a lot: Look good, play good. And that extends beyond sports--it's true for school, work and life! 

So, now where do you start? There are a few ways to go about the closet cleaning task and I think I've done them all over the years so I'm going to give you my best proven method and tips that I've found work the best.

First, start by taking everything out of your closet. Yep, pile it all on your bed! Use the floor and/or a couple of chairs too if you need more space.

Now, dust your shelves and hang rails. Vacuum the floor. Make your closet a blank, clean slate before you start putting things back in.

Now you're going to pick up one item at a time and decide if it is a KEEP, THROW, or MAYBE.

KEEP: These are the items that you love the way the look and the way you feel wearing them. Hang these back in your closet organizing them as you do by putting like styles together: pants, shorts, skirts, dresses, sleeveless tops, short sleeves, long sleeves...you get the idea.

THROW: This is really going to be two piles. The first is literally the garbage can. Anything that is stained (sweat or food), torn, worn out, faded, etc. Throw them away--nobody needs these.

The second throw pile are things you know you don't like or don't fit but are still nice things that can be given a new life with someone else. These can be donated or consigned (or brought into FLEURISH during our Buy Back Promotion!)

Getting rid of these items not only makes physical space in your closet for something new but it eliminates the clutter for your brain when you need to decide what to wear each day. Having clothes that are two sizes too small because that's the size you want to be starts every day in defeat. You deserve better than that! If and when you lose weight you don't want something that's been hanging out in your closet for months or years anyway, you'll want something NEW!

MAYBE: This is where you put the things that aren't an easy yes or no. Let's be honest, some of these items have sentimental value and you can't bear to part with them but you really don't want to or can't wear them anymore. For these pieces, take them out of your closet! You don't need to see them every day and have them taking up room in your daily wardrobe space. Put these in a spare closet or in a box to store away as "memorabilia".

For the other items you're on the fence about, I recommend trying them on to help you decide what to do with them. Do they need alterations or repairs? Either get them to a seamstress or fix them yourself or they need to go. Everything else you aren't sure about--what is it that has you on the fence? If you like it but you may not have the right thing to go with it to make it an outfit then put it in a bag to take with you when you go shopping to find what you need. If you can't quite put your finger on the hesitation, put it in your closet but hang it up backwards. Any hangers that are still hanging backwards at the end of the season tells you those items need to go. 

If you have a standard or smaller size closet, try to only have only the current seasons' (so for now that means spring/summer) clothes in your closet. If you have a spare closet where you can keep your off-season items; do it. If you don't have a spare closet, pack up the off-season items in some storage totes. You can get great big stacking totes for around $10 at the home improvement or membership club stores.

If your closet is a little bigger and you don't want to or don't need to find someplace else to put your off-season items, be sure to separate your seasons somehow. I like to put the off-season to the left side of the rail(s) and current season to the right side.

When my mom does her closet flip, she turns all of her hangers backwards for the items that are in the current seasons' offerings. It further separates the seasons and sometimes that thing you love turns out to be more about the idea of that item or the memories attached to it and you don't end up wearing it even once all season. If that's the case, you know what to do with it before you flip for next season so you'll be once step ahead!

Now your closet should look like this: Things you love with hangers that look like question marks, things you aren't sure about with hangers facing backwards--all sorted by item type. Within each item type, sort by color. I like to do rainbow color order. White, Black, Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple. For items that are multi-color, stand back and look at it to determine the primary color and place it with that color. If it doesn't look quite right, move it and see where it fits in best. Doing this will help with finding additional combinations you can wear to stretch your wardrobe. Want more ideas about mixing and matching to extend your wardrobe? Tune in LIVE on our YouTube Channel on April 28th at 6pm. 

In the meantime, bring in those items that aren't working for you that someone else can wear and we'll pay you for them! Use those funds toward something that you'll wear and feel great in. Be sure to bring in those items that need a piece to go with it too so that we can help you complete your look. It's YOUR time to FLEURISH! Make Spring/Summer 2024 your most beautiful yet!