If you constantly feel like your closet is overflowing, and yet you feel like you have nothing to wear, you're definitely not alone. The full closet, no outfit struggle is real and we're here to help you out. While you can always get new outfits (or get them custom made with Binks), organising your closet can help you put together outfits with the clothes hiding inside. Here is a comprehensive guide to help you organise your closet, the Binks way!
Prep for it
Before you even begin tackling the closet, clear out your room to make space for all the clutter that's about to come out. Make sure there is plenty of space to pile and organise clothes. It's also much easier to do it in one go, so depending on how much of a fashionista you are, block a day or two to get this done.
Start at the start
There's only one way to really get yourself to organise your closet- empty it all onto the (hopefully clean) floor. While it seems counterproductive to make a mess to clean one, this will help you properly segregate your clothes.
Categorise everything
Once everything is out of your closet and in plain sight, start categorising your clothes and accessories based on your general routine. To begin with, you can start with the categories mentioned below and build from there.
- Loungewear/ Gym clothes
- Office wear
- Casuals
- Partywear
- Ethnic casual
- Ethnic occasion
Sort them out
Categorising before sorting your clothes will help you estimate how many clothes you have in each category and sort them better. Once you're done categorising out all (yes, we really mean all) your clothes, you can start sorting each category into four piles.
- Keeps
These are all the clothes that fit you, you already wear on the regular or want to. You know, the part of the wardrobe that brings you joy.
2. Tweaks
These are the clothes that usually keep you from organising your closet. They might not bring you joy right now, but they could with a few tweaks. All the clothes that need to be altered to fit you or upcycled can fall into this pile. Tackling this pile right is the key to action slow and sustainable fashion.
3. Donations
All the clothes that definitely don't bring you joy and cannot be upcycled into ones that do can go into the donation pile. Just keep in mind that these need to be 'lightly used' clothes that are still in a good condition to wear.
4. Discards
Anything that you don't wear, can't be upcycled and is not in a condition to be donated has to go. This can be the first pile that can leave the room, hopefully never to be seen again.
Let's get organising
Now that you have all your clothes ready to go, let's get organising. Start out by getting all the delicate clothing like blouses, lingerie and anything that is structured such as blazers with shoulder pads and coats on hangers. Some of your silk sarees and heavy ethnic dresses need some extra love while storing, the process for which you can refer to here. Once that's all done, get all of your sturdy clothes such as jeans and sweaters folded and neatly stacked. These don't crumple easily or lose structure, therefore can be stacked on your shelves. If you really want to go the extra mile, consider sorting your clothes by season and stack away the ones you won’t need this season.
Prioritise your storage space
Make sure all your most-used pieces are stored at your eye level. Relegate your least worn pieces of clothes to your top shelves that are hard to reach. Use your bottom drawers or shelves to store your underwear as well as gym or lounge clothes. When hanging clothes, go in the descending order of the height of your clothes to get some extra storage place in the corner.
Create more storage
If you don't have too much built-in storage, create extra storage by hanging over the door rack on your closet door and storage bins for under your bed.
Now that you have your closet all organised, keep things tidy by reorganizing at regular intervals. If your purge has left you wanting some more clothes, consider creating a capsule wardrobe with some essentials that can be mixed and matched with your current favourites. You can also always get a back-to-work wardrobe refresh on Binks! In fact, we highly recommend that you do.
