Closet Clutter ~ Clothes Uncovered

I’m read­ing Emi­ly Schuman’s “Cup­cakes and Cash­mere” a com­pi­la­tion of her fash­ion blogs. In the one titled “Clos­et Clut­ter ~ Clothes Uncov­ered”, she has some real­ly great ideas. Her list inspired me to cre­ate my own twist on orga­niz­ing a closet:

Edit

• Keep only the clothes that are flat­ter­ing, com­fort­able and your style.
• Sen­ti­men­tal trea­sures and gifts that don’t work, need to be stored else­where or re-gifted.
• If you don’t reach for it on a reg­u­lar basis, find out why. Does it not fit, or is it an orphan and in need of some miss­ing pieces to real­ly work well?

Take inven­to­ry

• If you have mul­ti­ples, choose the best and donate the rest.
• Uti­lize space. Invest in good hang­ers. Buy enough for your whole clos­et. It gives a uni­form look.
• Have a short rack for tops and jack­ets, a long rack for pants and dresses.
• Have shelf dividers to line-up fold­ed clothes and use pret­ty box­es for scarves.

Make it pretty

• Hang a pic­ture of your fash­ion icon at eye lev­el and enjoy “your” style choices.
• Leave room between clothes so they have space to breathe.
• Less is real­ly more, so always choose wise­ly and bring only the best into your closet.

Focus on what you wear most

• Put them in the most acces­si­ble spot for the grab and go dressing.
• Put sel­dom worn items on the fringes or get real and get them out of your work­ing closet.
• Keep your favorite col­ors and your most flat­ter­ing styles in the front of the closet.
• Have a fast track laun­dry pile. Favorites get washed first, or buy mul­ti­ples and have a sec­ond one to wear when the first is in the laundry.

Know what you need

• Find your style and stick with it.
• If it is does not fit your “Style Words”, your fash­ion icon, your col­ors, or your goals, it needs to go.
• Keep track of what you’re look­ing for. When you are wish­ing you had a sweater to go with the “orphan” (the item you just can’t throw out and would love to wear), put it on a list for shopping.
• Shop ear­ly and on a semi-reg­u­lar basis with the next 6 months in mind. Sum­mer cloth­ing comes out in Feb­ru­ary and Fall cloth­ing starts com­ing out in August. Put a bud­get togeth­er and buy clothes in groups and make mix and match deci­sions in the store with all the pieces avail­able. Orphans are usu­al­ly found on a sale rack, are bought indi­vid­u­al­ly, and are dif­fi­cult to match up with any­thing else.

Do what you can in your clos­et Alone. But when it comes to the final cut, Do Not Go It Alone. Get a trust­ed friend or expert who knows you, your col­ors and your style.  They can be your mir­ror and help you towards your goals. If you do not have a friend who can put her own col­or and style bias aside,  go with a pro­fes­sion­al.  If all else fails get some­one who looks like you and you want to look like them, and go for it!

The oth­er option is… Edu­cate your­self, the more you know the better!

 Make the most of your clothing budget with ColorInsight’s Color, Classes and Closets!

Begin the jour­ney to hav­ing a Clos­et full of clothes you love to wear.

Have your col­ors done!

•  Your per­son­al cus­tom col­or fan will have all your best col­ors, plus a detailed guide on how to use them.
• Know the col­ors that sup­port  your col­or­ing, your per­son­al­i­ty and your goals.
• Nev­er guess at col­ors again!

Continue learning more about your colors, style and design in “Mastering the Art of Illusion Dressing:The A, B, C, D, & E of Style” classes.
New class starting on May 11, 2013

Then take all you have learned and build your wardrobe
skills with a

• Clos­et Makeover
• Suit­case Makeover.

Cre­ate new out­fits from what you have with super­vi­sion and great new ideas from Mary Lou.