How To Declutter Your Wardrobe Quickly!

Short on time? This quick and simple step-by-step process to declutter your wardrobe will leave you and your closet feeling much lighter!

Decluttering your wardrobe doesn’t have to be a daunting task! Come along with me as I share my best tips, tricks and tactics for cleaning out your closet along with a complete list of questions to ask yourself to make decluttering your clothing much easier and enjoyable!

Check out the How-To Video Here:

This morning when you walked to your closet, how did you feel about that space?

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess you didn’t feel quite as fabulous as Cher must have in her virtual Clueless closet back in the 90’s. Did anyone else think they’d surely have a closet like that by now?!- hello, it’s 2022! “As if!” (sorry, couldn’t resist)

I’m guessing your closet has become an eye sore… an overwhelming mess… or it’s a code red situation:

“I have nothing to wear!!!”

Oh that classic phrase that creeps in every time we get overwhelmed by our wardrobe! I’ve been there too… so many times… you can ask my mother! Ha!

Well today we’re going to fix that mess! Let’s declutter our wardrobes with some simple tips to save you time and get you back to feeling fabulous when you step into your closet in the morning!

What You’ll Need:

Large box or bag for donations
Basket for misplaced items – items that belong somewhere else in your home
Trash bags
Container for items you want to sell (a large storage tote works here or a rolling rack)

Step 1: Shop Your Closet

I love this tactic because it can be done in short bursts of time. If you have a few hours to devote solely to your closet clean out then that is fantastic – BUT I’ve found this approach works well too and saves me the decision fatigue of an all-day declutter!

When cleaning out your closet think about your wardrobe as a styling space and not a storage unit! We want to rid our closets of anything that clutters our ability to style ourselves on a day-to-day basis.

I choose one small area of my closet to purge and I go through each item and ask myself some of these questions:

Questions to Ask When Decluttering Your Wardrobe:

Would I buy this again?
Have I worn this in the last 6-12 months? Why not?
Will I realistically wear it in the next 6-12 months?
Does this item fit my current lifestyle?
Is it damaged or stained? Will I repair it?
Does this fit? (Does it fit me today?)
How do I feel when I wear this?
Does this item reflect my style or how I want to express my style?
Do I have too many of these? (Duplicate items: i.e. gray t-shirts, leggings, basics)
Could someone else enjoy this item more?

Overcoming the emotional blocks around decluttering our clothing:

You may have a lot of blocks when it comes to purging your clothes but I have to say that last question listed above gets me every time! And, it makes letting go so much easier because I can imagine how much someone else will enjoy this item in their wardrobe.

I always have more than enough and at the end of the day I’d like to bless someone else with this abundance of clothing than hoard it all to myself in a dark, over-flowing and cluttered closet. Instead of feeling bad about your cluttered closet, try this approach of abundance and giving back – makes everyone feel better!

Step 2: Sorting As You Go

We’re going to sort into categories as we move through the sections of our closet whether you choose to do this all at once or a few spare minutes each day.

Sort Into These Categories:

Donations: I find this to be the easiest, quickest and most fulfilling way to clear out a wardrobe!
Consign or Resell: Have a designated place you can return to to take photos and post your items easily. I find it most efficient to batch this work. If I take pics as I go, I get too distracted!
Trash: We all have some well-worn garments that have reached the end of the road. I’m a huge believer in recycling but some items are past the point of no return.
Pack away: Quarantine and/or Seasonal (*see step 5 about “quarantine” items)

“Where’s the KEEP pile?“, you ask…

Well, I learned long ago to leave it in the closet! For me, it’s too overwhelming and an all day chore to completely clean everything out of my closet top to bottom. I just don’t want to spend the precious hours I have each day on this project. There may come a rainy day that I want to clean top to bottom but today is simply about decluttering!

Step 3: Review What You’re Keeping and the Backward Hanger Hack

This step will set you up for future success when decluttering you wardrobe. This step makes every future purge go so much quicker!

Take a look at what items are still hanging in your closet. Then, turn the hangers backward on the hanging rod. This only takes a minute or two and makes a huge difference in seeing what you’ll actually wear over the next six months or so!

TIP: I love to do this to my husband’s clothing too! It makes it so much easier for him to see what he hasn’t touched in ages and he’s much more agreeable at letting things go when it comes time to declutter.

Step 4: Pack Away Seasonal Items

If you’re like me and you live in a climate with all the seasonal you will most likely have a larger wardrobe to fit those needs. What I’ve come to realize though, it that by stashing away those off-season items, we create a much better closet experience for ourselves each and every day because we’re not longer overwhelmed!

In all honesty, I don’t “pack away” my winter wardrobe. For heaven’s sake, we live in Missouri and the weather here keeps ya guessing every other hour! However, I do devote a special area of my closet to seasonal items and swap them out as the weather is finally a bit more predictable!

Step 5: Decluttering Hack for the Hard Decisions

So I learned this hack from the Minimal Mom and it’s a game changer throughout your home if you struggle to part with things. Create a “quarantine bin”!

If you’re debating whether or not to purge some particular items, simply put them into a storage tub and mark with a future date to come back to.

If that date comes and you can’t even remember what’s in the box, you most likely do not need those articles of clothing and could part with them! (The Minimal Mom even suggests a cardboard box so you can easily donate the items without even having to open the box again).

I like this idea but only use it when I’m really torn on the decisions. And I should add, set a parameter for your quarantine box! You shouldn’t have multiple boxes because then we’re just creating a mess elsewhere in your home and that’s obviously not the goal here!

In conclusion, decluttering your wardrobe shouldn’t need to take hours upon hours of your time! This step-by-step process can be done in small bits of time throughout your week and leave you and your closet feeling much lighter!

If you have additional ideas or tips for decluttering your wardrobe I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! Let’s chat!

Thank you so much for stopping by today,

Lauren