How to Organize Your Closet for Your Lifestyle (Step-by-Step Guide)

I have attempted time and again to get my closet in order but nothing ever really stuck. I would inevitably end up with clothes strewn everywhere, and drawers that were stuffed to the brim. A few weeks ago I organized my makeup closet for the way that I actually use makeup in my real life and it made me understand that I’ve been approaching my clothes closet all wrong.

Organizing clothes around the way you live

I recognized that my system wasn’t working because my closet was full of items that I loved but weren’t currently practical. Like many women I have clothes of different sizes, and the ones that are too small at the moment just don’t need to be accessed right now. Another example of clothes that don’t fit my lifestyle are the collection of concert tees and hoodies. Look, I want to keep these, maybe even wear them sometimes but they aren’t everyday items. They get in the way of me reaching for my regular clothes and I inevitably end up in piles everywhere.

What is your minimum viable look?

It’s so hard to keep standards for one’s appearance when the jeans and t-shirts are so readily accessible and sometimes simpler than the fancier things. In the recent past, during my rebuilding phase, I accepted that appearance was going to take a backseat. But now that I’m having a reset this is a great time to think about how I want to dress. Easy on the jeans, more thoughtful about what I wear at work, and having dinner and lunch clothes readily available for when I want to meet friends. This is one of the major steps of putting my new look together.

A step-by-step guide to getting your closet together

Step 1: Empty your entire closet and finish doing your laundry

You can’t address the problem unless you see the state of play. There’s a reason that I take two days to do this effort. A leisurely weekend is the perfect time to do this. It’s a lot more exhausting than you think to pull everything out of the closet and deal with the pounds of fabric that you’ve likely got stuffed in your closet.

On top of that, there’s a good chance that you’ve got at least one load of laundry to still get to. Have that going while you complete this next step.

Step 2: Gather like items

Much like in my make up cleanup, the first step is to group things together to see how many of everything you really have. Underwear, socks, jeans, casual tees, hoodies, work skirts, work slacks, work blouses, little black dresses, gym clothes, etc. I took up my entire living room to do this task, while I caught up on some reality TV.

Step 3: Figure out what activities make up your life

Before you start to make decisions about your clothing, take a second to look at the bigger picture. What do you need to dress for? During the week I go to the gym, go to work, lounge at home, and run errands. Less frequently I’ll travel on a plane somewhere, go to dinner with friends, go to the beach, have a casual lunch out.

Take out a piece of paper or note on your phone all of the scenarios that you want to dress for.

Step 4: Figure out what areas of your closet you want to put your items

Now that you have an idea of the different types of clothing you’ll need for your life, consider where they will physically reside in your wardrobe. My most accessible areas of the closet are three different pull-out drawers and a single area for hanging things.

My basic philosophy was that the things I wear the most often should be within easiest reach. Work clothes do better hanging in the closest whereas my jeans and workout wear are just fine in drawers.

Step 5: Group together the easy outfits first

I have four athleisure sets so that was a straightforward group to put away. Also, I have two regular sets of loungewear, so that went in dedicated drawer as well. I already had a spot for underwear, swimwear and socks so that was just a matter of culling the stretched elastic items and placing them back in their drawer in an organised manner. Getting those easy wins is an important part of the task ahead and to clear space for what comes next.

Step 6: Create various capsule wardrobes for different parts of your life

This is where you get to start imagining the different looks you want to put together. My strategy here was to think about my work life, my home life, my social life in terms of mini capsule wardrobes.

I browse my phone and Pinterest board for ideas of small wardrobes for work and daily errands. I took who different capsules for inspiration and put them together based on items I had. For example, my work capsule wardrobe inspo was a combo of 2 pants, 2 skirts, 4 tops, a blazer, and a dress. Whereas my minimalist French girl inspired everyday wardrobe included denim, a button down white long sleeve shirt, a couple of tees, a trench, leather jacket, and skirt.

I pulled the items that fit the bill and allowed them to be returned to my closet after making the cut.

Step 7: Sorting out the special occasion wear

If you’re like me, you maybe don’t often get the chance to go out, but you still like to be prepared for when the opportunity comes. This is when regular clothes or work clothes doesn’t cut it for me.

I consider dinner and lunch a special occasion in my current lifestyle. So, I have 4 plausible outfits for those, and two different little black dresses. These go in the back end of my closet since I don’t need to reach for them all the time.

Step 8: Other specialty outfits

For me it’s travel, but you might have some other specialised clothing that is unique to your lifestyle. I have a very specific hoodie, zip jacket, black pants, winter puffer, and a few more things that only get used when I go on a trip elsewhere. These I decided to keep in a suitcase since I naturally associate these items with travel.

Step 9: What to do with the rest

By the time you’ve reached this step you’ve got most of your wardrobe put away. Don’t be surprised by the amount of clothes that are still left. It was at this point that I had to rest a bit because I felt like I had almost half the clothes still left out that I started with.

These are your main options for how to treat the extra items. I list which categories of clothing these applied to for me:

Donate them

-          Duplicate jeans and bottoms

-          Easily replaceable tops

-          Tops I don’t wear much

Store them

-          Concert and souvenir gear

-          3 dresses I want to keep for my daughter

-          A few special occasion pieces that are too small right now

Worry about accessories and shoes later

You’ll notice I never mentioned a thing about handbags, shoes, and jewelry. I think getting the base of your outfits first with this weekend of clothes organizing is an important first step. Besides, you will be completely exhausted and the last thing you want is stuff strewn everywhere because you aren’t able to get to everything. I’ve learned this the hard way many, many times.

Give yourself a chance to ease into perfecting your wardrobe by taking one thing at a time and maybe the next weekend you can tackle these other fun items. I’ll write a blog post about that someday soon when I finally get around to those other items.

Conclusion

Hopefully, after you finish your clean up, you’ll find that your mornings are a bit easier, that you know exactly where to put things back after they’ve been laundered, and you get a real sense of the most useful items in your closet and those that you might be okay get rid of in your next clean out.