How to Re-Organise Your Wardrobe

So, with time on our hands during the lockdown, there’s never been a better time to tackle the job of sorting out your wardrobe! For many of us it is a long overdue task, and as the season edges into summer, changing over from your winter to your Spring /Summer wardrobe is a great opportunity to start afresh. Here are some tips to help you create a well-organised wardrobe.

Get Set Up

 The objective is to empty, sort and re-stock your wardrobe, ready for the coming season.  If you’re lucky enough to have enough wardrobe space, you can earmark some of it to store your Autumm / Winter kit.  Alternatively put it away in drawers or chests.

First, remove all last season’s clothes from your wardrobe and put away what you know you won’t wear at all during the coming season.  If you have cashmeres and delicate knits which might be tasty to moths or spiders, make sure you put them into sealed knitwear bags before you put them away.

Next, turn your attention to your current season clothes.  If you have a spare rail or can borrow one, put the items you definitely know you want to keep and will wear on it (a broom handle resting between two pieces of furniture will do if you don’t have a rail). You’ll also need three boxes - one for charity shop, one for trying to sell on ebay or second hand shop, one for the rag bin.

Having your hangers all the same adds to the sense of order, have a look online and choose some you like.  It will make your wardrobe look so much more organised and attractive.

The Sorting Process

First pull out all the things that you wear a lot, and will continue to wear, put on the rail.

Second pull out the things that you definitely will not wear again and can bear to part with and put them into the relevant boxes.  Be ruthless, if you haven’t worn it for a couple of seasons, you probably won’t wear it again.

Now look at what's left and analyse why you don't wear each item. Trying everything on is a good way to start, look for stains, pilling and minor repairs - can they be cleaned or repaired? Sometimes what didn’t work last year suddenly works.  If you’ve lost or gained weight for example, this can bring items back into play.  Fill up the boxes or add to the ‘keeps’ rail.

Re-Stocking Your Wardrobe

First clean the wardrobe.

Decide how you want to organise it.  Do you want to group outfits together or colour co-ordinate?  Or would you prefer to put clothing categories together, ie. all dresses together? Personally I group outfits, but then all the items which make an outfit work, like t-shirts, camisoles, little tops are colour co-ordinated and grouped together.  So if I need a white shirt to go with an outfit I can see all the white shirts in one place and it’s easy to  pick out the one that works best.  Think how organising your wardrobe will work best for you.

Change the hangers, and check each piece again - if it needs pressing or has a button missing do it now.

In theory all your knitwear should be kept folded to stop hangers marking the shoulders and growing, space permitting.

Tips

Some people like to put their scarves and necklaces over relevant items.  Or you might prefer to colour co-ordinate scarves on shelves or in a drawer, so you can readily pull out a scarf which will work with your outfit.  You can buy jewellery display hangers to hang your necklaces on, which is great if, like me, you forget what you have!

For de-bobbling knitwear lay on a flat surface and gently shave with a cheap razor, but be careful not to nick the yarn.  For expensive cashmeres, you might prefer to use a cashmere comb.

Put all your hangers facing away from you. When you wear something and put it back, turn the hanger towards you. In a few months time look at all the facing away from  you garments and analyse why you haven't worn them.

Keep shoes in shoe boxes, take a picture, print it and stick it on the box.

After Lock-down List

You will probably have a few items that still fit, that you like and are in good condition, but you haven't worn because they don't go with anything else.  It’s often good to hang onto these as you may find you buy something which suddenly brings them into play.  You can always bring them to Lavender Blue and we can help you co-ordinate them.

Last jobs, drop your rejects off at the charity shop, sell the good items on ebay or take them to a dress agency, and drop anything which is in too poor condition for either box off at the supermarket re-cycling.

Hey Presto!  Getting yourself together in the morning will be so much easier!