If you haven't already had a spring clean, it's the time of year to refresh and embrace the new season, so why not include the clothes in your wardrobe?  Which, when well organised is as equally important as the clothes within.  It just makes life a whole lot easier, more fun and morning dressing becomes a dream!

Do you open your wardrobe full of clothes but complain that you have nothing to wear?  I am a great believer that ‘less is more’ so if you cannot see all your wardrobe contents, dressing successfully will prove to be a challenge!  How good would you feel to have a wardrobe of clothes that you actually loved but also mixed and matched together?

It does of course help to know the colours and styles that work for best for your individual colouring characteristics, body shape, personality and lifestyle.  I can help you with this.

Firstly however you may need to remind yourself what you hold in your wardrobes before beginning to edit them down into a useable and workable wardrobe.

Here are some top tips to get you started and find out what is not working in your wardrobe:

  1. Set some clear time to begin – if you can, allocate a minimum of 2 hours. Think about the outcome, your time investment will be worth it.
  1. Empty all of the clothes from your wardrobe and your chest of drawers item by item and use your bed for this purpose.
  1. As you remove each item consider when you last wore it, is it still in good condition and how good does it make you feel. Don’t dwell for too long before allocating each item into one of three piles.  

The Stay Pile

The items that still look good on and give you joy.

The Charity Shop Pile   

The items that remain in good condition but perhaps no longer work for you/fit you or you have                not worn for 12 months (although you may still wish to make exceptions such as special one-off or            emotional pieces you may need to carefully store).  You may also consider taking some of these to              your local Dress Agency, who will be interested in the most recent of your cast-offs.

The Throw-Out Pile      

The items that are damaged beyond repair or stained.

  1. Take this opportunity to give your wardrobe and drawers a good clean and a spruce up.
  1. Once you have decided upon how to organise your ‘new’ wardrobe, give each of your remaining items a home and invest in good hangers here. I like a combination of wood and the thin flock type variety which take up so little space!  I give all my spares to the current Mr C!
  1. The items you wear on a regular day to day basis should hang at the front or centre of your wardrobe for easy access remembering to return the item (once worn or laundered) back to same place. If you are able to and have the space, it is a good idea to keep last season’s clothes in another wardrobe.
  1. The secret to a successful wardrobe is to colour code each type of clothing. For example I group my tops so that the same colours hang together side by side.  It means you can easily see what you hold in your top department and choosing one in the morning rush is far simpler.
  1. The discarding of items will undoubtedly lead to some gaps which become evident once you have completed your wardrobe edit. Don’t panic! You don’t need to replace the items immediately but it does help you to focus when you make a ‘list of gaps’ that you can refer to whenever you are out shopping.  The great thing here is that you know exactly what you need.

Now that you have edited your wardrobe and the stress about dressing has been reduced we can then look to carefully replace some items and develop a capsule wardrobe.  Yes, I will cover this in greater detail in a future blog article.

I do hope that this has inspired you to get started but if you need any further guidance or some hand-holding for the task of taking a fresh look at the clothes in your wardrobe, or would like to book an appointment in my comfortable home-studio in York do give me a call on 07494 644788.

Jackie Crawford

Image Consultant

Colours . Clothes . Confidence