The 1 Hour Task That Will Save You 5 Hours

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds secretly got married this past weekend. They pulled off this hat trick in an age of constant celebrity surveillance.

Way to go Blake and Ryan! They’ve just proved the impossible can be accomplished. Now it’s your turn. You need to confront the impossible in your own life. Yes, I’m talking about your closet. You know it’s bad. Your fella knows it bad. Heck, even your kids know it’s bad if it’s their favorite place to hide during games of “Hide & Seek”. Distasteful fact: They are choosing to hide here because it’s so out-of-control packed that their sibling will never find them.

This is no way to live. Tackle the closet. Here’s how:

1.     Choose one night this week.  Get Subway sandwiches for dinner for the family. This will save you at least an hour in prepping, eating and clean up.

2.    Use this hour to clean your closet.

3.    You know the drill from all those HGTV shows. Go in with 3 bags. They are labeled: donate, mend, not sure about.

4.    Be ruthless. If you haven’t worn a piece in the last year – be honest! – it goes in the “not sure about” bag. You’re going to stash this bag anywhere but your closet. The basement, under the bed, anywhere. It’s going to live here for at least 6 months. This simple act will free you up to really go-to-town because it’s not like you’re saying goodbye to the piece forever, just for 6 months. (Thanks to my friend Tara for this great tip!)

5.    Edit your now-sparse closet. Put clothes from the off-season in one area (or better yet, in an out-of-sight closet/storage if you have it). 

6.    Group shirts together. I get really compulsive about this and even like to cluster them by color. Group pants together, dresses etc. At the end, your closet is going to look like a rack at “The Gap”. Can I get an amen?   

7.    Only at this point can you even consider nipping out to Target to buy matching hangers, storage containers for shoes etc. This is the fun part of organizing. You have to make yourself earn this part by doing the drudgery part first.

8.    Actually schedule it. I know you’re reading this and thinking,” I should really do that. That would save me so much time in figuring out what to wear.” Quit thinking and start doing. Pick up your planner. Find a night, and just do it.

For my own motivation I’m going to include a picture of my own closet here.

 

I’m going to tackle this project myself and post a new and improved picture of it next week in an “update” post. Included will be the results of our “50 Shades” poll and other riveting updates.  

In other celebrity news, Kanye West helped Kim Kardashian clean her closet just last week. Closet cleaning is a drag, but at least you don’t have to do it listening to “Gold Digger” on continuous loop.