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Messy Closet

Clean Out Your Closet Week is in March. As a professional organizer, I see closets like the one pictured here quite often. Behind the items that can be seen are things that have piled up, many of which cannot be found or were forgotten. So new items are purchased. Without periodically weeding out unwanted things, the cycle continues…and continues. Over time, shoes, child toys, pet toys, luggage, keepsakes, sports gear and other things simply get lost in the mess. More new items are purchased. The costs add up. Usually hundreds or thousands of dollars are wasted. Also wasted is the time spent searching for things to wear every day (while muttering to yourself, “I know it’s in there…somewhere”).

Here are 9 how-to tips to declutter a closet.

1.  Gather Hefty bags, boxes and/or plastic bins, sticky notes, and marker or pen
2.  Label the containers Donate, Elsewhere (for stuff that does not belong in the closet), Recycle and Trash
3.  Decide where to start
4.  Go through every item, leave the keepers and put the rest into the appropriate containers
5.  Arrange the remaining items by type: shirts, pants, suits, etc.
6.  Use good quality hangers, not those from dry cleaners (which can be recycled back to them)
7.  Distribute the things that belong elsewhere
8.  Put away the recycle and trash containers until pickup day
9.  Drop off the donations or make arrangements for pickup

These tips mostly apply to any type of closet. Your results may motivate you to declutter another closet!

 

Quote of the Month

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.  ~Fredrich Engles, philosopher

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