How to Pull Off the Perfect Closet Clean Out in 7 Easy Steps

It's more of an art form than you think.

At the end of every season, I set aside an afternoon to go through the entirety of my closet and purge. Sometimes the piles are miniature mountains; sometimes, my discards are barely enough to fill a Trader Joe’s reusable bag. But regardless of how many pieces don’t make that season’s cut, I clean out my closet to the best of my abilities because paring down has become of the utmost importance to me over the years. For a long while, I was a victim to and guilty of the over-consumption of fast, terrible fashion. The amount of money I spent on cheap pieces I wore once or maybe twice is something I try not to think about. And while I’ll probably never have just a capsule wardrobe, I make moves with every seasonal closet purge to get a few stitches closer to that aspirational concept.

So today, I want to share my closet clean out method with you because, as you’ve probably already picked up on, I don’t take these clean outs lightly. There’s a method to the madness and a “right” way to do it, and this—in my most humble opinion—is that way.