The early warm weather has everyone already pulling out their spring clothing, and it’s the perfect time to do a bit of spring cleaning to make room for new fashions in your closet. The clothes you’ve had in storage all winter will need freshening up with professional dry cleaning or a run through the wash and then it’s time to decide what should stay in your wardrobe and what can go to those who need it. There are some standard spring cleaning tips out there for decluttering a closet, but if the same old approach keeps your closet full of items you just can’t part with, it’s time to try some new techniques.
Ribbon marker
If you’re not sure how often you wear certain items, use a ribbon marker to help show you. Tie a ribbon all the way to the left or right of your clothing on the closet rod and as you wear items, hang them back up after cleaning on the other side of the ribbon marker. Within a couple of months, you can see what you don’t wear because it hasn’t moved to the other side of the ribbon and then give away those items. To make the system even tidier, organize clothes by type, such as grouping shirts, skirt and dresses together for easy access.
Back of closet
When there are particular garments that you’re certain you never wear but can’t bring yourself to give them away, place them in a bag or box and tuck them in the back of the closet. If several months pass and you don’t go fishing for anything in that container, donate them to make room for new fashions.
Limited hangers
It’s easy to get up caught up in the all the new spring fashions and start overflowing the closet with garments that you may never wear. Avoid this by limiting how many hangers you use, so when you run out of hangers, you know you need to re-evaluate how much you want something new and remove older items as necessary. This is a slightly aggressive approach, but if your closet is tight on space, it can help remove clutter.
Keep tags on
Removing tags after a shopping spree is a normal thing to do, but you might try leaving the tags on until you wear the garments. That way, if tags remain on items several months after purchasing them, you’ll know that you haven’t worn them and that it’s time to donate them or take them to a consignment shop. Some items of clothing are worth more resale if they still have the original tags than if the tags are missing.
Bring something in, take something out
As you bring a new item into your closet, take a single item out to avoid having an over-full closet. If you can’t figure out which items to remove, use the ribbon method to discover what garments you no longer wear.
Taking spring items out of storage and having them professionally dry cleaned by Embassy Cleaners breathes new life into your wardrobe and we’re more than happy to service all of your new dry clean garments in the coming warmer months and year round.
