It’s been almost 10 years since I wrote about closet organization. Actually, I looked it up on my computer. And now that we’re all “coming out” – I mean in the house – these days and taking off our sweatpants and coming out of video conferences, I thought our closets could use a little pruning. So I’m here as your professional organizer to remind you that no matter what we organize, the methodology is the same. SSPOE is the name of the game.
Sortho – Take everything out (or do one wall at a time if the whole closet is too much in one organizing session) from the closet and ORDER your items into categories that make sense to you:
- dress pants
- I years
- Dresses
- skirts
- Long sleeve dress.
- casual long sleeve
- casual shorts
- elegant short sleeve
- layer pieces
- Folded dresses and skirts
- Scarves and Shawls
- casual jackets
- elegant jackets
- pocket books
Select – Now that the room you’re organizing in reads into piles of clothes/category, SELECT from each category what you love to wear and want to keep. This is the time to make decisions. This is the time to try on clothes and look in the mirror. Do you like what you see and feel? If not, it becomes a non-guardian. Hint Hint.
Purgent – Now that you’ve gone through each classified pile and decided what stays and what doesn’t, what would you like to do with the clothes you don’t want back in your closet? Will those items be considered a donation, a sale, a release, a gift to someone else you know in that size? The PURGE is all about letting go. Get those items out of the room right now and make a plan of action to get them out of the house. Don’t have a charity where you live? Go online and type “Charities Near Me.” Do the same for selling, “How do I sell my clothes online?”.
EITHERorganizee / Containerize / & Sometimes Labelize – This is where we actually ORGANIZE and store your garments. We look at the whole closet and think, “Where will the shorts go, the longs, the items in between, the categories I like to fold, the dry cleaners? We give every caregiver a home, whether it’s a hanger, a pole, a cubbyhole.” of shelves, a drawer in a built-in organizing product, over the door or over the post, tippy top shelf, etc. The “where” we give our clothing and accessories “homes” is critical to convenient retrieval and display. Sometimes it is very helpful to place certain categories in clear containers or labeled baskets.
myqualify /Remove/Enlist and Enjoy – This is the last step in our SSPOE methodology and it is very important. Many people forget they’re not done with their organizing journey after putting their closet back together. BUT, if we don’t implement a plan to keep closet items in place, guess what? Things will get out of place! So think about what you will do to equalize (maintain) the new clothing system where you work exceptionally hard following the SSPOE model.
Maybe follow the motto “Under Twos Please Do It” and every night put all the clothes in their “homes” or in the laundry hamper. maybe you will eliminate Season the clothes you didn’t wear all winter or summer. (I love keeping a donation bin handy in the laundry room or closet, placing items as they come back from the wash that don’t fit me or just don’t like me anymore.) maybe you will get your spouse who shares this closet with you to do their part to keep the closet in order. If we do all these E’s correctly; equalize, eliminate and enlist, we arrive at enjoy our cabinets!
