Do you find you are wearing the same things over and over again, yet you can’t close your wardrobe properly and never seem to have any space? Do you dread opening the wardrobe or trying to put anything away? If this sounds like you, you are overdue a de-clutter of your clothing. Have a go – I can’t tell you that the process will be fun, but I can tell you that you will feel so much better afterwards.

This goes for the whole family as well. If children are old enough, get them involved. If you’ve accepted that this will only happen if you do it yourself, then tackle one wardrobe a week and buy the end of the month things will start to feel much more organised.

Why de-cluttering is so important

If you work from home, clutter can be a major distraction. I literally cannot concentrate if I am surrounded by clutter. It’s distracting and makes me miserable. Tidy space, tidy mind is really a thing! I personally find it much easier to concentrate and I am much more productive when working in a clutter-free space.

Clutter steels our joy, more stuff, means more mess and therefore more time required to tidy up and clean that mess. When there is too much stuff it’s hard to keep track of what you have – before you know it, you’ve got 13 open bottles of Calpol all over the house.

Clutter affects the way we feel about our home and how we feel spending time in it. If you have the urge to get out, you know it’s time for some de-cluttering.

Taking the time to de-clutter can mean you can also help others. By donating unwanted items, you can support a range of charities with items that were crowding your life.

Where to start

So, you’ve decided you want to clear out your wardrobe. Perhaps you fancy a broader de-cluttering journey, but you’ve decided to start with your wardrobe – good call.

Depending on the volume of clothes, shoes and accessories involved, you have a few options around how to approach this.

You could, chuck it all onto your bed, have a good dust and clean inside your wardrobe and draws and only put back in what you really like, can’t part with, or wear a lot. The danger with this is that if you are called away or get distracted mid-process, (which is highly likely if you are a parent) you could end up with a bed full of stuff at bed time. De-cluttering your wardrobe in a rush at 1am because you need to sleep is NOT recommended.

If you have lots of stuff, you could tackle a section a day. So, for example, on Monday, do your shoes and boots, Tuesday underwear and socks, Wednesday dresses and skirts, and so on through the week until you’ve covered everything.

The main thing to remember is if you don’t love it, don’t keep it. This is of course with the exception of anything you need. So, for example, we are currently renovating our home, so I have a separate section where I keep some old clothes I wear just for gardening and decorating etc. Equally, the children all have a section of old clothes they play in the garden in or help out with messy jobs like clearing rubble etc.

If you are doing this process for the whole family and there are clothes you want to keep for another child to grow into, take them out of the wardrobe, pop them in a vac sac with a tumble dryer sheet to keep them fresh and store under a bed, in an attic or even an airing cupboard – wherever you have suitable space.

What next?

If you want to take the process a step further you could label sections of your wardrobe, label draws or even colour code outfits if that’s your thing. whatever works best for you on a daily basis. If you are setting up a system for another family member the most important thing is to communicate that system to the person – otherwise, don’t expect it to be followed for long!

Of course, the beauty of having a good clear-out means that you can now see exactly what you’ve got and identify any gaps. This means, that as you see new items to add to your wardrobe, you have a clear idea of where they will go and the purpose they will have, you might even have space for that acid wash hoodie or long cardigan you’ve had your eye on.

I feel like de-cluttering is an on-going process. It can be incredibly therapeutic and once you start you can’t stop! Enjoy!

This is a collaborative article.