Seasonal cleaning of the wardrobe

The weather is warming up quickly, which makes it a great time to organize your closet and clothes before summer arrives. You should start reaching for warm-weather clothes, and all those bulky winter coats, sweaters, and boots can make it difficult to get dressed with joyful ease.

Plan a day to clean out your closet and move it. Depending on how long it’s been since you last cleaned out your closet and how large your closet is, the task could take anywhere from three to 12 hours if you go about it carefully. And so to really get to the bottom of it, you have to take it all out.

You may have the luxury of having a few clothes hangers to make taking things out and hanging them up within your reach rather than having to pile everything on the bed. Of course, handbags, shoes and folded items will simply need to be taken out and stacked outside the closet while you work.

Once the closet is empty, you can dust, dust, and if necessary, even paint if you have time to wait an extra day or two before you need to put everything back in place.

Are there any other things in your closet apart from clothes, bags and shoes? Reassess whether an item really belongs there: dress like it; maybe an old prom dress, a broken toaster, definitely not.

Shelves on wheels make it easier to sort hanging clothes during seasonal changes and wardrobe reorganization. You can throw the whole shebang into a room with good 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 worn out and need to be donated or thrown away? What items have you not worn for a year or more that you can send or donate?

Once you decide which style will remain in your wardrobe, sort it by season. Heavy winter items can be separated and placed in a less accessible part of the closet, allowing summer items to come to the fore. They can also be stored in containers, on a covered rack on wheels, or in another closet if you have the storage space. I prefer to keep all my clothes in one closet and not keep anything out of sight, but many people have so many clothes that some need to be moved to another room. Coats are particularly bulky, and since they are usually put on just before going out, they can be easily separated from the main wardrobe and stored together in another wardrobe.

Once you’ve figured out what you still love and use, and you’ve moved your summer pieces forward, decide if you need your wardrobe infrastructure to work a little better.

Need more shoe shelves? I like the wire mesh shelves from the Container Store that can be stacked as high as necessary, but there are many styles and you probably don’t need to do a major cabinet redesign. In summer, it is a good idea to keep all your flip-flops and light sandals in a large basket or you can stack them on top of each other on a shelf. I placed the sole on its side in the box – a bit like sardines in a can – so I could see them all at once, but they took up much less space.

Storing swimsuits is tricky – no matter what you do, they get tangled, so just throwing them into bins labeled by style (bikini, one-piece, protectors) usually works well enough. I use 16-quart clear Sterlite containers from Home Depot or Target. I like the lids, they are stackable and the contents stay dust free.

Finally, re-hang the clothes in the closet by type: shirts together, skirts together, pants, etc. If you can, group the clothes by color. When I want a black top, it’s much easier to look at the black part of the tops than through all the tops. Swimsuit cover-ups are another summer item that is difficult to hang because they tend to slip off hangers. Velor-covered wire hangers help with this, or use hooks near the front of the closet or at the back of the door to store your favorite items.

How about adding a few hooks to hang your clothes on while you pack or choose your outfit for the day? Butler hooks are also great for hanging incoming dry cleaning clothes. Search online for “Butler hooks” to see examples of available products.

A good closet clean-out and seasonal changes will make it much easier to put together cool outfits this summer. You will be able to check if there are any holes in your wardrobe that you can happily fill with small purchases. Keep a rolling rack handy when packing for your holiday – using an outdoor, movable rack is a great way to fold your clothes before packing them into your suitcase.