How many times have you arranged your room or closet, walked out of it and then returned to check the view as if it’s a new space altogether? Can you recollect that look of beaming joy and pride on your face when you successfully decluttered your wardrobe and arranged everything beautifully? The pleasure of having an organized wardrobe is like that of having all your favourite pretty stationery.
But, do you also get frustrated when the wardrobe is unorganized again in a matter of days and you can’t find anything at all? Well, we are here to help you go from this frustration to the beaming joy you felt by looking at your clean and pretty room!
Here are five steps to organize your wardrobe under 60 minutes:
Step 1: Take it All Out
Whenever building something, the bottom-up approach is always better than the top-down approach. Similarly, in order to arrange things in the best manner, you need to take it all out of the wardrobe, and arrange it again! You need to find out what needs to be kept and what needs to go. Also, wardrobes tend to get messy because we use them daily. A lot of things are loosely organized and cleaning the wardrobe without arranging them is of no use.
Take out all your stuff and pile it up on your bed, on the floor, or in any clean space for that matter. To avoid creating a mess outside, you can even use bins or organizers. The point here is to empty the wardrobe and quickly revisit each object inside it. Sometimes, we aren’t aware of the things we’ve stored and forgotten about. Believe us, reuniting with a lost dress is sweeter than anything else!
Step 2: Wipe, Wipe, Wipe!
Now that you’ve given yourself an empty wardrobe, you can just stare at it and wonder how it is huge enough to fit you. Are you done? Because now is the time to clean it! Wipe the rods and walls, clear the floor and baseboards of all the debris, and throw out any trash you find in there. Wardrobes usually do not get very dirty but it is always good to clean the space and make it free from any kind of dust. You can even spray some sanitiser and room freshener.
These steps ensure the protection of your valuable items from dust, microbes and contribute to their longevity. We often tend to ignore this step because of the misconception that a wardrobe cannot be as dirty as the rest of the house. However, it is a closed space with a variety of fabrics, leather, shoes, etc. inside. We clean our house every day but rarely do we clean our wardrobes. And because it is practically impossible for sunlight to reach the insides of your wardrobe, it is all the more reason to pay attention to its cleaning process.
Step 3: Look, Measure, Decide
Look at the wardrobe, measure its walls and compartments with your eyes and check the entire area and volume of it like your life depends on it. Honestly, this is the most important step of the process. If you skip this step, you’ll probably be looking at yet another Marie Kondo video by the next week itself. Take a good 10 minutes to just understand what arrangements have and haven’t worked for you before. Remind yourself of arrangements that lead to your wardrobe getting messy every other week, and scratch them off your list right away. Tweak your ways and find out a system that works the best for you. Keep the most used products accessible and let the least used ones sit in a distant corner of the wardrobe. Sure, your wardrobe needs to look pretty, but you cannot hang all your sparkly clothes on the hangers!
Step 4: The Final Slow-Down
After you’re done deciding individual spaces for each group of items, you need to pick each piece of clothing and decide whether you want to keep it or not. Do the same with each and everything you hoard in your wardrobe. Each and everything from the pile needs to go through this test and you have to be very practical through this.
Not that you have to throw away everything, but make sure you ask yourself these questions:
- Am I really going to wear this?
- Does this fit me?
- Can I repair/alter this piece of clothing? If yes, am I going to take that effort?
- Do you feel like wearing it again?
If the majority of the answers are negative, you should let go of that item. Start putting the rest of the items in the wardrobe according to their designated spot. You don’t need to arrange them right away. Instead, pay attention to the sorting process and get rid of the useless items you’ve been hoarding all this time. You can make good use of these items by donating them to someone.
Step 5: Make it Pretty
Now is the time to put everything in place, and arrange it like it belongs there. Take some time to organize each compartment of the wardrobe and keep checking if the arrangement choices you’ve made this time are better than the last time. You can still make some changes here and there to ensure the accessibility of essential items in the wardrobe. If you want to go the extra mile, you can simply arrange the clothing items according to their colours. And we’ve successfully arranged your wardrobe in less than an hour!
A Few Trends to Look Out for in 2020
- If you have a walk-in wardrobe, make sure you showcase your prized items in them
- Include a desk, bean bag or at least an armchair in the wardrobe to give it a comfortable vibe
- Showcase family photos or paintings on the walls of your closet
- Renew the colours and style of your wardrobe at a very affordable rate by changing the laminate sheets
- Make it look spacious by adding mirrors to the walls, and arranging bright-coloured items against the mirrors
- Adding a few lights inside the wardrobe to enhance the whole look of it
To wrap it up, take out the bins and bags you’ve used earlier, and pack the items to be donated in a separate bag or box. That’s it! Clean the room to clear out any dust left from the wardrobe cleaning if you have enough energy, or just have a look at your wardrobe and be proud of yourself for pulling this off!