Don’t know where to start? Me either.
If you are anything like me, those big organizational jobs (like cleaning out your closet!) are ones that you desperately want to tackle. But you get overwhelmed just thinking about where to start. Therefore, you put it off, and put it off, and put it off again because it just seems too big to start. That happens to me ALL the time. Most people that know me, think of me as a very tidy and organized person. They probably don’t know that sometimes I, too, don’t know where to start!
Not efficient? Me either.
So it had been probably a good 2 years since I had really cleaned out my closet, and at the beginning of the horrendous Covid quarantine, I figured it was probably time to tackle it. Now, if you are a super quick and efficient cleaner-outer, and you can pick up a shirt and decide within 1.5 seconds if you should keep it or not, kudos to you! How do you do it? Efficient is not exactly my middle name, and decision making is certainly not my game. So when it comes to cleaning out my closet, it takes me for-ev-er. [Read in the voice of Squints, please.]
A LITTLE bit at a time
In the past, I have always felt like I needed a whole day – weekend, really – to devote solely to this job, and that is probably why I put it off for so long. After having kids, you just don’t get entire weekends to clean out your closet anymore. Therefore, I came up with a strategy that worked brilliantly for me. 1) I was still able to take my time making decisions and trying things on. 2) I did not have to block off an entire day or weekend for the job. And 3) It was not overwhelming!
There are 2 secret strategies for this:
- Categories!
- Devoting 1-2 hours a day, for about a week
Categories
The first thing I did was categorize my closet into a list. Yours might be different from mine… it all depends on what’s in your closet! My categories were the following:
- Sweatshirts/ jackets
- Dress pants
- Long sleeve shirts/ sweaters
- Jeans
- Dresses
- Short sleeve shirts/ tank tops
- Shorts
- T-shirts
- Pajamas
- Swimsuits
1-2 hours/day
After you have your categories, you just need to pick one (or two, depending on how much inventory you have) to start with. For about a week, I worked for 1-2 hours a day (during my kids’ nap time) and tackled my whole closet one small section at a time. I definitely believe you need to get everything out (from one category) and put it on your bed, or where ever you can see it all. It helps to see, for example, ALL the T-shirts you own at one time. Then you can be like, “Ok girl, this is completely unnecessary. Let’s make some cuts.” Initially, I like to make 3 piles – keep, give away, need to try on. And I think you know the rest!
I can’t tell you how much less overwhelming this process was knowing I only needed to focus on one category at a time. Mentally, it just seemed easier to manage and easier to tackle. If you are super busy, with or without kids, and can’t seem to find the time to take on this project all at once, I truly hope this strategy helps you! Here’s to closets that can breathe, organized dresser drawers, and calm minds.
~ Happy organizing! 😊
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