Last Updated on December 15, 2024

Taking the time to declutter your wardrobe is a great way to remove clothes from your life that don’t fit, don’t make you feel good, or that you never wear.

Something that I really need to work on is finding clothes that I feel good in, and stop buying items that I don’t need. If you also feel the same way, want to change things up when it comes to your style, or want to have a more streamlined, decluttered, and organised wardrobe, then a wardrobe declutter may just be the thing that you desperately need.

If you’d like to declutter your wardrobe and only have clothes in it that fit you, and make you feel good, there here are some steps you can take to declutter your wardrobe, and finally feel great about your clothing options.

GET YOUR SUPPLIES READY

The first thing you need to do before you start is get some bags or boxes to store clothing that you won’t be keeping, and some cleaning products so you can clean your wardrobe and drawers before putting the clothes you’re keeping back in.

TAKE ALL OF YOUR CLOTHES OUT OF WHERE THEY’RE KEPT

The best way to declutter your wardrobe is to take all of your clothing out of wherever they’re kept and put them on your bed.

This includes clothing in your wardrobe, drawers, under your bed, in storage, out of season clothing, coats, underwear, and accessories – everything.

Doing this allows you to see what goes with what, what you have duplicates of, and it forces you to finish decluttering, as you won’t have anywhere to sleep until you do.

MAKE KEEP, DONATE, SELL, AND THROW OUT PILES

This is the critical step to declutter your wardrobe, and once done, the hardest part is complete.

Here you’ll need to go through every piece of clothing and decide whether to keep, donate, sell, or throw it out.

Here’s some guidance on how you can decide which pile to put each item of clothing in once you’re up to this step.

Put an item of clothing in the keep pile if:

• You love it
• It fits
• It makes you feel good when you wear it

Put an item of clothing in the donate pile if:

• You’re not 100% sure you want to keep it
• You haven’t worn it for 6 months or longer
• It doesn’t make you feel good when you wear it
• You’re keeping it because it might fit one day
• You’re keeping it because it was a gift, but you don’t love it

Deciding to donate something can be hard, as some pieces of clothing have sentimental value, and some may have been expensive, but the feeling of relief, and happiness you’ll feel after you make some hard donation decisions and as a result have a decluttered and organised wardrobe full of clothing that makes you feel good will be worth it.

A big tip for donating clothes is to put your to donate clothing into your car or out of your house as soon as the donation bag is full, and take it to a donation centre or donation bin as soon as you can.

Doing this removes the temptation to go back through the clothes and put items back into your wardrobe, undoing all of your hard work, and once again cluttering up your wardrobe with clothes you already decided you didn’t want.

Put an item of clothing in the sell pile if:

• You don’t want it and can get a good amount of money for it

If you can’t list an item for sale on the day you put it in the sell pile, then donate it, otherwise you’ll be tempted to keep it.

Put an item of clothing in the throw out pile if:

• The clothing is damaged, stained, worn out, or stretched

PUT YOUR KEEP PILE CLOTHES AWAY

Before you put your keep pile clothes away, dust and wipe down the area where they’ll go.

Once done, it’s time to put your clothes away. I recommend putting everything away where you can see it, as you never know when you’ll need a jumper in summer if you live somewhere where four seasons can happen in one day.

How to organise your wardrobe will be covered in next week’s post, as I believe organising your wardrobe is a task on its own, and after all the hard work you’ve done decluttering you may not have the energy to keep going and organise properly.

So until you have the energy and time for organising your wardrobe, for now put your clothing away in a way that makes sense to you.

For example, my clothes are put away by category i.e. jumpers are together, trousers together, t-shirts together etc.

DECLUTTER ACCESSORIES

If you’re feeling motivated to declutter more, you could declutter your accessories such as scarves, jewellery, and shoes.

You can ask yourself the same questions as you did when decluttering your wardrobe to decide whether to keep, donate, sell, or throw out each accessory you have.

I hope you’re feeling motivated to declutter your wardrobe so you only have clothes in it that make you feel great when you wear them, and so you have a wardrobe that makes you feel happy every time you open it, which has the added benefit of making choosing clothes quick and easy, especially on busy days.

What’s your favourite thing about decluttering your wardrobe?
I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.