How to Clean Your Closet? A Wardrobe Decluttering Guide

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Last Updated on January 31, 2022 by Sagarika Kapoor

Are you looking to clean your closet? If yes, then you have come to the right place. With too much time on our hands during the lockdown, and hopefulness about the roaring 20s post lockdown, it seems like a lot of us have shopped quite a bit. Not that this is a bad thing. We all need the support of new things in our life during tough times. But now that the world is open again, it looks like the shiny new things are becoming more stressful than joyful. If you connect to what we are saying here, then it is probably time to start cleaning your closet. However, even if you don’t relate but are still reading this, you most likely want to declutter your closet either way.

There can be multiple reasons you can have to get a head start on your closet declutter. It does not necessarily have to do with leading a more minimalist lifestyle or building a capsule wardrobe. It might be as simple as the fact that you don’t like how your wardrobe looks too full right now. Whatever the cause, the consequence is the same. You want to clean your closet!

Of course, there is just one problem. You have no idea how to go about it! Don’t agonize over the apparently tremendous task. It is quite easy to clean your closet. But if you are truly getting overwhelmed by it, we have got your back. In this article, we have curated an all-inclusive wardrobe cleaning guide to decluttering your closet and your life. All you have to do is keep on reading!

How to Clean Your Closet?

Before we get on to how you can go about cleaning your closet, there are a few things that need to be addressed. We know that this is not the first time you are trying to declutter your wardrobe. We also know that this won’t be the last time you attempt this task. Just know that we have been where you are. We know how difficult it can be. After all, cleaning your closet is about more than just getting rid of some clothes. It is about letting go of some aspirations or parts of yourself that you would like to hide behind. It can be quite intense and a huge undertaking. So, we suggest that you take this at your pace.

Now that we have covered that, let us move on to how you can clean your closet. There are two ways you can go about it. One involves Marie Kondo’s method and the other is known as the Style Standard Method.

Clean Your Closet the Marie Kondo Way

If you have read her books or seen her Netflix series Tidying Up, you know how the Marie Kondo method works. It involves taking everything out of your closet and going through each item one by one. You keep everything that is useful and spark joy. However, you let go of anything that has not been used in a while and does not make you feel happy. This process is extremely popular. But there is a chance that it will not work for you. If you are a recovering shopaholic, or simply bad at making decisions about clothes, or letting go of things, you will most likely fail.

Style Standard Method

This method is for all the people who did not succeed with the Marie Kondo way of tidying up. The Style Standard Method is more mindful, but at the same time more practical in its approach. In this article, this approach is our primary focus. It is based on Pareto’s 80/20 rule. The principal says that at any given time people wear only 20% of what is in their closet. Everything else is just clutter.

Keeping this rule in mind, you have to move on to cleaning your closet. Firstly, you take out all the things you wear most often. These are clothes that you reach for to feel your best in, or in a hurry because you know they will look good on you.

Next, you lay them all out and note down the similarities amongst them. These similarities can be in terms of style, colour, fit, fabric, details, etc. This will form a basic guide of what things you wear regularly and will help you shop mindfully later.

After this, you repeat the first two steps with the rest of your clothes that you don’t wear often. This will help you understand what to avoid buying in the future so that you don’t end up filling your closet with clutter again.

Of course, while you clean your closet, you are bound to run into things that you are confused about. Additionally, you will also find items that you do not wear but also do not wish to part with. To help you decide whether to keep to ditch, you need to ask yourself some tough questions.

Styl Tip: If you are confused about giving something away, then put it in a box and keep it away from your eyesight. If you miss it, then keep it and if you don’t, then give it away.

Questions You Need to Ask Yourself to Clean Your Closet

Would You Buy the Item Again?

If the answer to this question is no, then you have to let go of that garment. No matter how tough it is, or how beautiful you think you will look in it, you have to throw it away.

Did I Wear it the Last Year?

If you haven’t worn something in your closet in the last year, then you are probably never going to wear it again. So just remove it from your closet and move on.

Do You Have it in You to Take Care of it?

Some clothes are annoyingly high maintenance. They are not bad to have if you are ready to take care of them. But if you are not, then you should not waste your time with them. It is more likely that you will wear it once and then forget about it.

How Does it Make You Feel Emotionally and Physically?

If you have something in your closet that makes you feel negatively emotionally or physically, then throw it out of your life. The discomfort is not worth how beautiful it is or how expensive it was.

Styl Tip: You can keep a separate box of sentimental items.

The “Does it Fit You?” Question to Clean Your Closet

Often, we keep things in our closets that don’t fit us for various reasons. This is because these items represent our ideals or past selves that wish for. The reality, however, is that these garments in our closets are making us feel bad about who we are right now. The mental cost associated with these things is just not justifiable.

When Can You Wear It?

If you have a floor-length gown in your wardrobe but you have no event to wear it to, it is clutter. The best strategy to clean your closet is to keep clothes that match your actual lifestyle rather than a fantasy.

What To Do with The Clothes You Do Not Want to Keep?

Once you have identified what you want to keep, the next question is, what to do with what you do not want? The answer to this is easy. You make four piles, one of donation/giving to friends, one for selling, one for throwing and one for use as dust rags. Distribute everything amongst these four categories and you will know where to give each item.

And we are done! This was your guide on how to clean your closet. We hope this helps you. If you want help with wardrobe management, contact us at Styl Inc and our expert stylists will get in touch with you.

For more tips and tricks on personal style, stay tuned to Styl Inc blogs.

Keepin’ it Styl’ish.

Signing off,

Shravani Priya.