The weather is heating up fast, making it a great time to organize your closets and clothing to transition into summer. You should be starting to reach for warm weather clothes and all those bulky winter coats, sweaters and boots might be getting in the way of being able to get dressed with joyful ease.
Plan a day to tackle your closet clean-out and transition. Depending on how long it has been since you last cleaned out your closet and how large your closet is, the task can take anywhere from three to 12 hours if you are thorough about it. And yes, to really get to the bottom of it, you do have to take everything out.
You might have the luxury of owning a couple of rolling clothing racks, which make it possible to take things out and hang them, rather than pile everything on the bed. Of course, purses, shoes and folded items will just have to come out and be piled and stacked outside the closet as you work, but some large plastic containers to take things out in bunches is helpful.
When the closet is empty you can dust, vacuum and even paint if you have the time to wait an extra day or two before you have to get everything back in place. If you paint, I recommend a simple, bright white, which makes it easier to see everything. Although I think it’s fun to have some decorative elements in a closet, when it comes to paint, plain and bright is better.
Are there things besides clothes, bags and shoes in your closet? Reassess if an item really belongs there: a dress that fits and that you like, yes; an old prom dress, maybe, a broken toaster, definitely no.
Rolling racks make it so easy to sort through hanging clothing when doing a closet seasonal transition and reorganization. You can roll the whole shebang into a room with great lighting to make it easier to assess each garment. Does anything have moth holes, stains, snags or otherwise need cleaning or repair? What items are tired and need to be donated or tossed? What items have you not worn in a year or more that you might consign or donate?
Once you’ve decided what makes the cut, sort by season. Heavy winter items can get separated out to go into a less accessible part of your closet so that summer items can come to the fore. Or they can get stored in bins, on a covered rolling rack or in another closet if you have the storage space. I prefer to keep all my clothes in one closet and not have anything stored out of sight, but many people have so much clothing that some needs to be rotated out into another area. Coats are especially bulky and since they are usually put on right before you head out the door can easily be separated from the main wardrobe and stored together in another closet.
Once you have determined what you still love and use and have pulled the summer stuff forward, decide if you need any closet infrastructure to make it work a little better.
Do you need more shoe shelves? I like the wire mesh shelves from the Container Store that can be stacked as high as needed, but there are a lot of styles out there and you probably don’t have to do a major closet redesign. For summer, keeping all your flip flops and lightweight sandals in a big basket is often a good solution, or you can stack pairs on top of each other on a shelf. I put mine sole to sole on their sides in a box—kind of like sardines in a can—so I can see them all at once but they take up a lot less room.
Swim suits are challenging to store—they become a jumbled tangle no matter what you do, so just popping them in labeled containers by style (bikinis, one-pieces, rash guards) tends to work well enough. I use the 16 quart clear Sterlite containers from Home Depot or Target. Lids make the containers stackable and keep the contents dust free.
Finally, rehang garments in the closet by type: shirts together, skirts together, pants together, etc. If you can, group by color. When I want a black top, it is much easier to look at the black section of the tops rather than through all the tops. Swimsuit cover-ups are another summer item difficult to hang since they tend to slide off hangers. The velour covered wire hangers help with this, or use hooks near the front of the closet or on the back of the door to stash your favorites.
How about adding a couple of butler hooks to hang clothes on when you are packing or choosing your outfit for the day? Butler hooks are also great for hanging the dry cleaning when it comes in. Search “butler hooks” on the internet to see examples of what’s available.
A good closet clean-out and seasonal transition will make it much easier to put together cool outfits this summer. You will be able to see if there are any holes in your wardrobe that you might have fun filling with a little light shopping. Keep the rolling rack handy for vacation packing—using an exterior, moveable rack is such a great way to put together outfits before packing them in a suitcase.