How to Organize and Clean Out Your Closet for Fall

With the changing seasons, it’s time to cycle out your warm-weather clothes for your cold-weather wears. Here’s some tips on cleaning out and organizing your closet for Fall:

Start With A Clean Slate

First things first, take everything out of the closet. This means your shoes, clothing, and hangers, plus all those dust bunnies lurking in the corner. Vacuum the floor, clean the baseboards, do whatever it takes to create a clean environment.

Sort It Out

With all your clothes out, you’ll be able to better gauge what you have. Now is the time to organize your clothes collection into categories: Keep, Store, Donate/Sell, Discard.

• “Keep” simply refers to the clothes you want to keep accessible. Think intimates, tees for layering under chunky sweaters, or skirts you can wear with tights and boots.
• “Store” is everything you want to tuck away until the weather warms up. Such as your favorite summer dresses, strappy sandals, bathing suits, and shorts.
• “Donate/Sell” is what you want to get rid of. In the spirit of cleansing and organizing your closet, let go of what you haven’t been wearing and likely won’t wear again.
• “Discard” is the pile for anything stained, worn out, or in otherwise bad shape. There’s no point in donating clothes in crummy condition, so go ahead and toss them.

Storage Systems

If your closet isn’t large enough to fit all your seasonal clothing, sonsider where you have the most available space elsewhere. Empty top shelves in the closet? Under the bed? In the basement or attic? There are numerous styles of storage boxes & bins, specifically for clothes, designed to fit all these places. The Container Store has some of our favorites.

Wash all the clothes you plan to store. Fold them carefully and organize your clothing into the designated containers. Make sure to label each container before tucking it away.

Organizing Your Closet

As you begin filling your clean closet in with your Fall and Winter clothes, think about placement. Often worn clothing should be at eye-level in the front. Accessories and special occasion items should take the sidelines. Consider investing in quality hangers which will protect your clothing from creases and strain as well as create a streamlined look.

Organizing your closet is one of those seemingly small tasks that can create a huge impact. These tips will help you get started. Take advantage of a Potomac Concierge professional organizer to help set up a system that works for you, especially if you’re tight on space and time.