There is no point in having great clothes if you can’t find them or they wind up on the floor, blending into the laundry pile.  If your closet is stuffed to overflowing or so disorganized that your family refers to it as the Bermuda Triangle, it is time to purge your wardrobe.

Start by grabbing two hefty garbage bags – one for trash, one for donation.  Then start at one end of your closet and grab a single item.  Ask yourself the following questions, and repeat until you’ve worked your way through all of your clothes.

1.  Have I worn it at least once in the last 365 days?
2.  Does it fit AND flatter me and is still in style?
3.  Does it have any special significance?
4.  Is it ripped, torn or stained?

If you haven’t worn an item at least once in a year it is just wasting valuable storage space.  Donate it to charity.

Point two is very important.  Not all things that fit your body flatter your figure and not all things that fit and flatter remain in style.  I am not talking about last years beautiful white blouse that you splurged on.  I am talking about bell-bottoms, mandarin collars, and other fad based items.  Donate or trash those things.  It’s time to move on.

It is important to consider items of special significance, even if they no longer fit.  If you applied the rules strictly to every item in your closet, you would have to discard your wedding dress, your lucky sweater (that you only wear around the house, right?!), or your prom gown.  Therefore, use rule number three with discretion.  Some things are worth hanging on to for the memories.  The jeans you wore when you were at that party that some random reality TV star-of-the-moment stopped by to ask directions - not significant.

Is it ripped torn or stained? If so, throw it in the garbage.  Damaged goods are not fit for donation. Unless you plan to mend it or have it fixed within two weeks of the closet purge, just throw it away.

Once you have sorted your clothes into piles of keep, donate, or discard, it is time to make sense of your closet space.  This is very simple.  Group like items together.  Have a shirt section and then further separate it into blouses, sweaters, t-shirts, etc.  The same goes for the bottoms.  Keep jeans with jeans, dress pants properly hung up with other dress pants, and so on.

A clean closet tends to stay organized. The trick is just to tackle the job and get it done.  The benefits are many.  Time saved, a feeling of organization when getting ready for your day, and of course, the most obvious and perhaps best benefit for the fashion diva…the excuse to shop to replace items you had to purge away!