One Way to Lift Your Spirits While Social Distancing

If you’re an optimist like me, you’re probably looking for the silver lining in this scary coronavirus emergency. Like everyone else, I’m practicing social distancing. That means trying to be more productive at home. How about a little closet clean up?

This time every year, I try to get all my spring and summer items ready to wear and to get the old stuff out. Here are some tips from New Jersey-based Gilat Tunit of The Neat Project that I plan to use this weekend. 

Tag me in your closet clean up on Instagram and use #LaDolceJersey

1. Evaluate items in your closet that no longer serve you. Create donate, gift and toss piles.
2. EMPTY the closet totally. Make a clean slate.
3. With leftover clothing, create zones: sweaters, t-shirts, tanks, jeans, pants, etc.
4. Go through everything one more time before you finalize what’s staying.
5. Decide what can be hung. The more you can hang the better.
6. Purchase matching slim hangers, and map out where each “zone” will be hung.  Hang with color in mind by category. Start with black, then gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, beige, white. REPEAT for every zone.
7. On to the shoes. Evaluate where your shoes can go—on designated shelves, on top of the closet, or stacked on the floor.
   • For shoe shelves, color coordinate, and place one shoe forward-facing, one shoe back. This will create more space.
   • For top or bottom shelf space, purchase clear shoe bins and stack away. By color and style of course!

9.   For drawer space, the same idea of zoning applies. Try to keep each zone in its own drawer, if possible. Use a drawer organizer to create separation within those drawers. Think of colors, types of clothing, and so on. For example, if your space is limited and you need to combine socks and underwear, you’ll want a divider to keep the zones separate.

10. Accessories & Bags are the last steps. If you have room, it’s fun to display them, if you don’t have space, it’s best to buy matching baskets and bins to store accessories by zone.

Finally, do one last run-through, and make sure you have achieved maximum efficiency.