Written by Tyler Hirn on February 20, 2019

How to clean your clothes closet (And deciding what to keep)

Here at the Hirn Homestead, I, Tyler, am the resident organizer. I love organizing, cleaning out a space, packing, and organizing a place. Often, people hire me to come clean and organize a space or to pack and move their belonging when relocating. It makes me feel good helping others get organized. Rachel suggested I help our readers with some organizing tips.

I thought I would start small.

Here are my tips on cleaning out your clothes closet.

Closets the perfect place to shove everything right?

We have a tendency to keep more clothes than we need and to hide things in the closet. Both these bad habits combined make cleaning out a clothes closet a daunting task. Here are the steps I use when cleaning out a clothes closet. Plus tips on how to decide what to keep.

The first thing you need to do is remove everything from the closet.

I usually put clothes on the bed, shoes in a pile, and everything else in a pile. Throw away obvious trash as you find it.

Once the closet is empty take this time to clean it.

I usually wash the walls with hot water and a small amount of dish soap. If the closet smells put a bowl of vinegar in there to soak up the smell. Be careful not to spill it.

Once the closet is clean you can start sorting the stuff that was in it.

Personally, I like to sort the non-clothing items first. I would pick out anything that clearly belonged somewhere else and put it away where it should be. Toys, books, random hair things, anything that got shoved in the closet that didn’t belong. *(I use a runner to put things away so I can keep sorting. That’s what kids are for right?)* Once the misplaced items are put away I go through the shoes. If I want to keep the shoes, I put them neatly on the shoe rack or the floor of the closet. If you don’t have enough room for all your shoes in the closet, put the tall ones in there and the short ones under the edge of the bed. *(tips for deciding what to keep or get rid of at the end of this post.)* Do you keep any other non-clothing items in your closet? If so go ahead and put those things away.

How to decide what to keep

Now it’s time to sort the clothes.

I get the obvious keeps put away first. Then I take the things I know I don’t want anymore and put them in a bag. I use a white trash bag for trash items and a black trash bag for the donate items. Now that the obvious keeps and discards are out of the way, you need to decide about what’s left.