This is the last week of our Spring Cleaning Guide, so, rejoice! This last week can be either painful, or fun, or both, depending on how much of a hoarder you have been this year. The key to this week? Start small! We're talking a hall closet, or a few shelves of your linen closet, first. So, have a closet you have in mind that is the least terrible, and get ready to go!
CLEAR OUT YOUR CLOSETS FOR SPRING!
What You'll Need:
A Can-Do Attitude (You can do this. You can!)
A few rags and your fave natural cleanser
Garbage bags/boxes
Let's grab a box or go, stand in front of the chosen closet, and GO:
Let's observe first. What is happening in there? Why are your kid's crafts stuff piled in the linen closet? Is it lack of creative space, or lack of creativity in your storage options? Be honest, here. Where can you put the stuff stashed in this closet that simply does not belong?
We will use for this example your hall closet:
Start pulling out what does NOT belong. You know what those things are! Just pull it all out for now. (Your heart may start racing. Do not worry. We will get to that stuff!)
Now look at that! Not perfect, but nice, right? Just maybe coats and boots in the coat closet.
Now, what bothers you, bumps out at you, makes the emotional viewing experience, well, unpleasant? Is it that horrendous and dreadful pile of gloves/hats/mittens on the very top shelve? Grab them. Go and get your prettiest, saved shopping bag from the one time you went to that fancy store and splurged. Put that mittens, hats, gloves in there. Push it back on top, or hang it on the inside of the door. The pretty bag will make you happy, remind you to treat yourself, and the winter stuff and accessories will still be very accessible, even more so now. (#Yay)
Go through what is left in there again. Look at all of those coats and jackets in your hall closet, for example. Consider this: If not used daily, could they perhaps go in the owner's own closet? Perhaps, right? Duh. Get all of those coats and blazers and things out of there that don't get used often.
And as your are repositioning those items, check them out? Do they still fit you/your partner/your kid? No? Put it in a convenient garbage bag to give to your friend or your fave charity.
Get more creative with what is left, and be a little bit ruthless. If you live in a city apartment, you may have a vacuum cleaner in there. That's okay. But can that damn ladder be stored in your super's closet, to be borrowed back when needed? (He/she might love to be able to use it, and, let's face it, it's a pain in the *ss to have a ladder in your coat closet!)
Put everything back. If you're too exhausted by some of the bigger things, and truly have no storage that you can think of to reposition them, do not despair. You did better than you think!
Go watch some Netflix and relax for a bit.
Ready again? Okay. Take a deep breath. It's time to...
Hit your bedroom closet! (I know)
Grab some fresh garbage bags.
Find another pretty shopping bag. This one stays in your closet, to use to put clothes you may want to sell, may want to keep-you are not sure.
I keep all seasons of clothing in my closet, mostly, but again, I live in LA. It's easier. (If you switch/store your seasonal clothing, you will be doing that after you clear.)
Here is where our dear friend Marie Kondo comes in very handy: Look at everything. What "bumps," makes you anxious, reminds of the worst date of your life? Like, truly, gives you some teensy (or major?) anxiety? IT GOES.
Do the above again. And again. And again! It doesn't matter the order. Do it with t-shirts. Pants. Jeans. Dresses. Skirts! What fits? Are you really going to alter that? I'm a fan of knowing that some pieces of clothing you love but never wear are actually waiting for the right time to blossom into your life. If you love it but don't wear it too much, for God's sake, just keep it, please.
Look at your shoes. Full disclosure: I am not shoe-obsessed. I know tat may be an anomaly. But seriously, it is my belief that most women have WAYYYY too many shoes. Go through these. Most are uglier than you think, trust me. GET. RID. OF. THEM. Separate them by season, if you have them lumped all together. Be ruthless. And guess what? I will allow you some guilt free shopping afterwards. Start your list of what you need with the shoes.
See how easy it was to dump those atrocious, old shoes when you knew you had permission to get some new ones/ Excited to finish this damn closet now? I thought so. Guess what? You can't buy any new clothes yet, okay? Just go through what you have decided NOT to give away now...
Spritz the walls of your closet with your rag and cleanser, give it a good rub-down.
Look at what's left. Really look. hang it all back up, refold your sweaters. Put it back in.
Look at what is remaining AGAIN.
What makes you feel less than? Fat? Anxious? If the amount of money you paid for an item you frankly hate is weighing on you, put it in the shopping bag to sell. (More on Poshmark later!)
But House & Mind, you may be asking: What if I am left with two pairs of jeans, three tops, and five sweaters? That's okay. You won't be, if you are reading this. Keep sifting.
Now, take a deep breath, and observe your handiwork.
Do you like what you see and feel? If not, keep going.
As you can see, this is not a matter of folding your sweatshirts correctly. Its' about what you have in your wardrobe, and what your wardrobe represents to YOU, that really matters here...
Take out your bags, purses, belts, scarves & whatever other accessories you have multiples of.
Do these same thing as with your shoes. Be more ruthless. Especially with those damm scarves! Go through. Go through. And go through again. Gift a nice bag you never wear to your mom/niece/best pal/fave barista. Put everything back. If you can be more creative this time, try it. Stack your least used purses in a basket, say, or the scarves now in a drawer.
Put back your seasonal clothing/switch it out now, and do the same thing with your summer stuff, above.
Look at your bedroom closet again.
Do you see now that what really matters is what is inside? xo Yay!
Repeat later on in the week with any kids' or guest room closets, etc.
YAY! You are done! (And you RULE!)
Repeat with any other closets you may have left. xo
Try to use what you have to organize. If you're done, and still need a little polishing, try ANY the goodies from our friends at Target:
Dude! We are almost there! And this one is fun, because this weekend, we are going to focus upon..
Spring Cleaning the Kitchen!