6 Tips for a Successful Closet Clean-Out in Your Apartment
Living Pretty Ep21 | Studio Apartment Closet Cleanout: Decluttering, Donating, & Dominating
My studio apartment closet clean-out was sooo necessary that I was starting to feel like that junk lady from the movie Labyrinth… I had been meaning to get to decluttering and organizing my walk-in closet for so long, and I finally had myself a good old fashioned closet purge.
Join me for my closet makeover, in which I go through a shitload of clothes, organize my shelves, and basically do a full Marie Kondo declutter treatment. Okay, maybe it’s not the full Marie Kondo treatment… it’s more Marie Kondo light.
If you’re looking for closet organization tips, studio apartment inspiration, and how to make your apartment’s closet makeover renter friendly (no big projects involving power tools here!), look no further!
Watch the video now!
↓ Wanna read the episode? ↓
I’ve made some slight edits in the transcript below so that everything makes more sense in text form. But overall, this is almost a word-for-word dictation of what I say in the video. I’m a much better writer than this, I swear, haha.
A couple months ago, I teased you with something. In an Instagram story, I told you I was doing a closet clean-out video.
And I didn’t deliver.
And I realize you’ve probably been sitting there with Marie Kondo sized blue balls ever since. Sorry to keep you in agony… 🙃
In this post, I’m finally gonna put out. It’s time for my closet clean-out. I feel like this is the sluttiest sounding closet clean-out intro ever... Welcome to Moda Misfit.
So, I actually started my closet clean-out a couple months ago, back when I made that Instagram story. I spent hours going through my clothes. I even had my boyfriend do the filming for the YouTube video. It was going to be awesome!
Then two things happened. I finished going through my clothes, and then I looked around my closet and realized that I was far from done.
I realized that even though I had set aside a small thrift store’s worth of clothes, it didn’t really look any different in my closet.
It was going to be a very anticlimactic before and after video, let’s just say that.
I realized that I needed to go balls to the wall with this closet clean-out, and that meant not just going through my clothes that were hanging up, but also cleaning my shelves, going through my one overflowing drawer filled with graphic tees, everything.
Then I got overwhelmed and decided it would be better to continue living life like the trash lady in the movie Labyrinth than to exert the amount of energy and effort required to complete such a task.
Now here we are, a couple months into Covid-19, and I’m like, “how have I not finished cleaning out my closet yet? Isn’t this what everyone is doing right now?”
So now I’m going to complete what I started.
Please comment below and tell me, have you ever attempted a closet clean-out only to stop midway through because it became a completely impossible task? Comment below and tell me your experience. I know some people are going to relate to this, right? It’s not just me…
So let’s do this.
Tip #1: Sort through your closet in separate chunks, rather than all at once, to avoid getting overwhelmed AF.
I went into this closet clean-out with one simple approach in mind: to sort through my clothes one chunk at a time.
I personally suggest not bringing all of your clothes out at once because we’re trying to avoid getting overwhelmed, and seeing my entire wardrobe piled like the Mount Everest of clothing sounds like peak overwhelm to me.
Not that I completely dodged being overcome with feelings of crippling overwhelm, as you can plainly see if you watch the video.
Anyway, after a productive minor emotional meltdown, I got my shit together and started to plow through my sweaters.
One of the most common closet clean-out tips is to get rid of the things you haven’t worn in a long time, but man, it can be pretty hard to part with even the most basic of sweaters. As I so dramatically put it in the video, it’s soul destroying and soul replenishing at the same time.
Tip #2: If something doesn't "spark joy", consider keeping it if it’s unique and may be hard to find again in the future.
That’s one little challenge I have for the Marie Kondo “sparking joy” method, where you only keep the things that truly spark joy for you. I do agree with that approach, but I would also just add that some things are worth keeping simply because they’re unique and you’ll have a hard time finding something like them in the future.
Just because something doesn’t spark joy for you now doesn’t mean it won’t do so again someday. Keeping something unique is like making an investment in your future sparks of joy.
Tip #3: Go easy on yourself. Treat your closet clean-out like self-care rather than punishment.
There comes a time in a closet clean-out where you come face to face with a few potentially unsavory aspects of yourself: you’re materialistic, privileged, wasteful, a cog in the machine of commercialism… When you’re surrounded by an absurd amount of stuff, it’s easy to kind of feel shitty about yourself.
That’s probably the toughest part of a closet clean-out: the act of sorting your physical stuff kind of forces you to sort out your mental and emotional stuff too, which is where the real work is.
But go easy on yourself. Don’t treat your closet clean-out as a way to punish yourself. Treat it more like a therapy session - where maybe you find some behaviors you want to adjust, but ultimately it’s an act of self-care and self-reflection.
After this first wave of my closet clean-out, I ended up with a bunch of clothes to donate to a donation drive I was hosting at my work right before Covid-19 hit. I filled 5 grocery bags with those clothes, and they’re currently sitting at the empty office as we speak, ready to be donated to an awesome organization called Dress for Success when social distancing ends.
So this is what my closet looked like after I went through my hanging clothes (watch the video to get a better view):
Can you see why I felt like it was going to be a pretty lame before and after video? Overall, you can’t tell that I got rid of all those clothes, and there’s still so much that needs to be organized in here.
Two months later…
So, two months later, I’m going through the upper shelves and my two overflowing drawers. Those are the spots that still need work, and once they’re taken care of, my closet will feel noticeably better.
Tip #4: Start your closet clean-out with the task you’re dreading the most.
I’m starting with the most challenging task of the day - sorting through my graphic tees that I wear around the apartment. That’s another tip I have for when you’re doing a closet clean-out: tackle the toughest tasks before anything else, when your energy and enthusiasm are at their highest. Then everything will feel comparatively easy from there.
Tip #5: Sit down
Turns out, even though going through this drawer is daunting, it’s already so much more enjoyable than going through my hanging clothes. Probably because I’m sitting down. And not getting attacked by hangers. It’s just a much more enjoyable task for my lazy ass.
Also, most of these t-shirts I’m going through are band t-shirts that have a special place in my heart. Leave it to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles to spark joy for this girl.
I ended up only getting rid of a few of these t-shirts. I’m too emotionally attached to most of these, and it turns out that there’s room in the drawer for them anyway. They just needed to be properly folded.
Tip #6: Get ready - you learn shit about yourself when you clean your closet.
By the way, I learned something interesting about my graphic tee tendencies after going through this drawer - all my graphic tees fall into 1 of 4 categories: outer space, geek chic (as in video games and anime), floral, and my favorite bands. Until today, I had no idea just how consistent I was in my graphic tee categories.
See, you learn shit about yourself when you do a closet clean-out.
Then I go through my top drawer stuffed with socks, bras, and tights, which I won’t bore you with. But here’s the before and after.
Now that those drawers are sorted through and can finally close, it’s time for the last piece of this closet clean-out: the shelf up here, which is filled with the most random assortment of things.
Pieces of decor I’m not using, some lighting equipment I bought for taking photos of my apartment that I never use, a box of workout clothes I never wear and will probably get rid of… I’ve been meaning to go through this stuff for so long, and it’s always felt like too annoying of a task to undertake, but here I am, finally doing it.
I got all of that stuff out of my closet and laid it out on the rug so I could take a good look at it. Some of it I got rid of, and some of it I just moved to the higher shelf in my closet, which I have no idea why I haven’t been using all along.
And the result is a much tidier, more aesthetically pleasing shelf, which has a pretty wonderful effect on the look of the rest of my closet.
I have extra room for winter shoes that I won’t be wearing for the next few months, and the unused decor has a nice side effect of making the closet look decorated when really it’s all just being stored in here.
See, this is more along the lines of the before and after I wanted. Not only are my hanging clothes sorted through, but my shelves look tidier and I can actually close those two formerly overflowing drawers.
It’s a much more pleasant space to be in now, which is exactly how a closet should be. Getting dressed in the morning is one of the first opportunities we have for creative expression - the last thing our closets should do is cramp our style, you know?
These still photos don’t really do the before and after justice… watch the video for the full effect!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bask in the euphoria of my newly cleaned out closet. While my cat Helo sits here wondering what the fuck just happened.
So there you have it, that was my closet clean-out process! Please let me know in the comments below if you relate to the overwhelm that can come with cleaning out a closet.
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