6 Closet Cleaning Tips For Mere Mortals, Plus A Fun Before-And-After Makeover

I've done 2 big purge/organize jobs the past few months: first a teacher's guest room completely filled with boxes of supplies and paperwork, and then my friend Christie's bedroom closet.

I'm the type who likes to organize OTHER people's stuff, so while my house is... fine...? I was literally calling my friend Karen (the teacher) and asking if I could come over and organize her guest room a few hours each night to de-stress. :D 

I don't have any fun before and after photos for Karen's room, but I *do* have some from Christie's big closet project. Not a big closet by any means, but definitely a big project:

This is from a video Christie sent me about a week before we began. I was so excited to get in there that I didn't think to take any "before" pics until the last day, oops.

That video doesn't quite show all of the top shelf, but it looked like this:

Actually, this is after I'd started pulling down clothes on Day 3; it was tight-packed against the ceiling the whole way across.

The clean-out took 3 afternoons, with Christie and I working about 15 hours total, all just on her side of the closet. In the end we donated 10 stuffed contractor-sized garbage bags to thrift stores, took another 2-3 to the trash, and filled 1 more with things to sell.

Now her top shelf looks like this:

And here's the full view:

Ahhhh. So much better.

Christie's husband's side was already neatly organized, so I didn't touch anything on the right: 

 

 Sharing a closet with Christie has been hard on her hubby's anxiety - and it was mostly out of concern and love for him that Christie finally asked for help. I'm really proud of her; she went into this ready to work, and I think literally gave away half her closet.

And now their two sides match!

This was one of the first times I've worked side-by-side with someone for a clothes closet purge, which can be a lot more personal than other areas of the house. I learned quite a bit, so I thought I'd share a few tips that might help with your own closet, or when you help a friend or loved one.

Huge caveat right off the bat: I'm no Marie Kondo, but I'm convinced her "technique" of piling all the clothes up to the ceiling before you begin is the worst thing you could ever do, especially to someone already feeling overwhelmed or who has anxiety. So please, don't do that.

Instead, my first tip?

1) Start with what you can reach/what's on top, and work your way down.

 The top of Christie's floor pile was purses and bags, so that's where we began.

Once she was done purging those, I found an organizer that would hold what was left:

 This purse organizer is only $8 Prime, and it displays your bags like art! I'm a big fan. We hung this on her bedroom door, so Christie can grab one on her way out.

2) Clear a staging area (like the bed) and ONLY pile on one category at a time to sort.

My first hour with Christie I made the mistake of putting 2 categories on the bed at the same time: purses and fun socks. Christie immediately lost focus and ping-ponged between the two, to the point that I had to remove everything but the bags so she could finish one thing at a time.

 

 The pile of "Only Sweaters"

If you're helping a friend organize, remember to be patient. Deciding what to purge requires enormous mental energy, so do the pre-work for them by presenting them with, say, only flip-flops. Then only sneakers. Then only dress shoes. (I had 5-6 categories just for shoes, but trust me, it goes faster this way.)

While you're waiting for your friend to sort/purge each category, you can be pre-sorting and filling bags with the next few categories.

3) Have 3 labeled trash bags on hand at all times: "Thrift", "Trash", & "To-Sell"

As you fill each bag, tie it off and take it out of the room. Don't leave it there as clutter or a temptation to re-visit the things inside. John and I also took the bags with us after each visit, putting them in our car to drop off at a thrift store.

4) Try photographing personal mementos instead of keeping them

Christie had a few sentimental things that she knew she'd never wear or use again, but that held great memories. After watching her battle internally over a pair of hand-painted sneakers for a few minutes, I suggested she photograph them for her FB album. After that I noticed she photographed a few more things before placing them in the Thrift bag, and I was so dang proud. Obviously some mementos you should keep, but if you or your loved one is waffling, sometimes taking a picture is enough to help ease that pain of giving or throwing it away.

5) Use "First Order Retrievabilty" to dictate where things go

First Order Retrievability is a fancy term that means the stuff you use the most should be the easiest to get to. (I learned about it from Adam Savage, and I've been mildly obsessed with the concept every since.) I know that sounds like common sense, but often we're so usded to our own "system" and "giant mess" that we don't realize how much easier it could be. So think about what categories you use every day, and make those front and center. Then put the once-a-year items way up high or at the back of the rack.

6) Don't buy ANY new containers, furniture, or "organizers" until AFTER you've purged.

This is a tough one, because we all love to shop before starting a new project, right? And c'mon, have you SEEN The Container Store? But the fact is, you probably don't need more bins or cute cubbies or hangers; you probably just have too much stuff. So purge first, then assess what you have, THEN go shopping for the tools you need to organize what's left. That's how I knew which purse organizer to get for Christie, and later which sorts - and how many - of specialty hangers to buy.

So where do you put the newly organized stuff if you don't have new containers yet? Large shopping bags. I brought over a huge pile of bags, and we used those to store sorted categories until we knew where we wanted to put them.

In the end we did buy a few helpful things for Christie's closet, though, so let me show you those:

First, these 17 qt storage bins from Walmart are fantastic: small enough to take down and access, clear so you can see inside, & large enough to hold a decent chunk of clothing. John and I cut chalkboard vinyl into cute labels with our Cricut, so the bins could also have erasable labels.

Once you have your space organized the way you want it, I recommend putting labels on EVERYTHING, including your drawers.

 

 These drawers aren't quite done; Christie's still figuring out where some things go. So we left the labels blank for now.

 There are lots of specialty hangers out there, but the classic skirt-clip tier is almost always useful:

 I bought this 3-pack on Amazon, but we only used one for skirts; the other two are for Christie's wide-necked shirts.

 Christie has lots of long dressy tank tops, so I went looking for hanging solutions. I found some really cool specialty hangers, like this:

Bra & Tank Hanger, 2-pk

But most were around $7-8 each, we needed at least 3, and - I think we've established this before - I am SUPER cheap.

So when John and I made a quick stop at Burlington and I spotted this 3-pack of pants hangers for only $4, I started brain-storming:

Here's what I came up with:

These are 1-inch binder clips.

 I hung 4 of Christie's tanks on each side, for a total of 8 shirts per hanger - but I just realized I could have added 4 more clips on the top bar, to hang 10 shirts. D'OH!

Her tanks are so light I'm sure we could have hung more on each clip, but that would get messy/hard to access.

We added binder clips to all 3 hangers, so now 24 of her dressy tanks only take up this much room:

 

I placed them on the end of the rack with a little extra space, so she has room to get to everything.

We didn't use this idea that's all over Pinterest, but I still wanted to share it:

Shower curtain rings!

This is great for stretchy tops that won't show wrinkles, but since Christie's are more dressy & loose I wanted hers hanging flat.

  Down on the floor we have a large "memory bin" of mementos and a few other non-clothing items:

That's also a completely empty bin with some spare hangers on top, so she has room for more.
Woohoo! 

And I'll end with the silly thing that makes me smile:

Kigurumis are those adult onesies so popular with the anime crowd. That's a raven and a snake, since Christie's a Ravenclaw & her hubby is a Slytherin. :D If you have a kigurumi with a hood, please try this. I want to see all the fun pillows!

And there you have it: a few closet-cleaning tips for us mere mortals. Now it's your turn: what's your best tip for cleaning out an over-stuffed closet? Do you have any favorite organizing tricks?

Which reminds me, throwing it back to something REEEEALLY old school Epbot: remember my flip-flop hangers? 

 Aww, baby's first viral DIY post. Happy sigh.

Believe it or not those hangers are still going strong nearly 10 years later, though these days they're holding less flip-flops and more of my scruffy old sneakers:

 

Spot The Cat.

I wouldn't advise doing this with NICE sneakers, but these are old ones not worth displaying with my rainbow of Chucks up above, and it keeps them off the floor for vacuuming. (The orange pool noodles in the back are in 3 pairs of boots.)

What's that? You want to SEE my rainbow of Chucks, this time in traditional rainbow order?



Well, I mean, if you insist. ;)

John bought me the blue & purple pairs for my birthday in May, so I finally have my full rainbow. Seeing this every day as I get dressed - and then choosing which color to wear - is one of those little joys we all need more of this year.

K, sorry for the sidetrack. Now, hit me with your closet organizing tips!