3 Approaches to Tackling Your Closet

The weekly "menu" plan that we provide to our paid Clutter Diet members is featuring Master Closets this week. It's a great New Year project, because it's one of the first and last places you see every day, with great potential for improvement and reduced stress. You can save so much time just having proper visibility to what you have and being able to choose from a selection of clothes that fit and flatter you today!

Here are 3 approaches to tackling your closet that may help you get started:

1. Call a closet installation company. This suggestion assumes that you already know the storage hardware in your closet is woefully inadequate and there is an inefficient use of space. Most closet companies will do a free in-home estimate, so why not schedule one to come out and see what they can do for you? Cost can be significant, but if this is something that will save you time and reduce stress, it really can be worth it and is a great home improvement. See my post on Lifehack.org on choosing a closet company for guidelines.

2. Clean out your closet all at once.  If your closet rods and shelving serve you well enough but you just have too much clothing, put on your iPod and sink into a few hours of going through your items and discarding what does not work. If you've not worn it in one year, chances are you never will... so stop kidding yourself about potential weight loss or gain and at least relocate those items elsewhere or donate them. The goal is that everything in your closet is something you can wear now and that is flattering and appropriate. You'll be surprised how much you can get done and how much better you'll feel! This approach could be great if you are a "batch processor." (See my previous post for more info on batch vs. continuous processing)

3. Use our month-by-month approach with the Clutter Diet to do a little bit all year long. Our weekly plans for members feature a small Master Closet project each month, so that one month tackles shoes, another month does workout gear and swimwear, and another does jewelry, etc. Along with getting this content in our member weekly plans, you can also get this monthly closet planning calendar as part of the instructions that come with our own Simple Division® Garment Organizers product, which is a great tool for organizing your clothing. If you must keep those "too big" or "too small" items, for example, you can use our dividers to separate those clothes so they are not part of your daily choices.

How will you make your mornings go more smoothly? Get your closet in shape with one of these approaches so you can dress, pack, and put away clothing more easily.