Cleaning Out Your Closet

It's just about time for spring cleaning and you have your closet looming in front of you. Ah! Whether you're a man or a woman, cleaning out the closet can definitely be an intimidating and frightening task. Some closets, granted, are worse than others with stacks of clothes, hangers holding multiple pieces of clothing, random socks, and perhaps that TV remote you've been looking for. While cleaning out your closet may be on the bottom of your "I Want to Do This" list, if you just tackle it now, you'll be so grateful for a clean and organized closet, and you'll actually be able to find that great shirt you bought last month that just seemed to disappear.

When you begin to tackle that closet, you need to go all out. Don't just organize what you see in the front, but rather take everything out and start from scratch. Once you have all your clothes, shoes, and other miscellany taken out of your closet, sit down, turn on some music, and start making piles. Make piles according to what you want: the Keep Pile, the Maybe Pile, the Give Away Pile, the Scrap Pile, and the Throw Away Pile. When you're deciding where your clothes should go, keep in mind how much you like the clothes, how often you wear them, and who else might like or wear them more; don't make your decisions based on sentimentality. Once you put them into piles, put the Give Away, Scrap, and Throw Away Piles into bags and put them aside.

When you have your entire closet cleaned out, take the opportunity to clean the shelves. Take a wet rag and some soapy water and just wipe down all the shelves and bars. You should also grab the vacuum and vacuum out the floor, making sure to get in all the corners of both the floor and shelves.

Now, take your Keep Pile and start organizing your closet. Organize however you feel comfortable; you can go by color, by season, by type of clothing, whatever you want—just make sure it's organized. Try not to shove clothes together; that way you can successfully see the clothes you have. You should also keep your shoes paired together, so you don't have a hard time finding shoes in a time crunch.

Now that your closet is successfully cleaned, you should take care to keep your closet tidy and organized. Don't let those clothes get out of control and you won't have to do such a giant closet cleaning job again!