Have a friend who has good fashion taste over. First start with the summer clothes. Since you’ll probably add a few new items when spring comes, there’s no need to keep all your summer clothes. Throw out the stained, beyond repair, no-long-fit, outdated t-shirts, dresses out and leave them in the piles on the floor. Then go through your fall wardrobe and do the same. Keep in mind that most of us wear 80% of our clothes 20% of the time, so it’s safe to let go 50% of our clothes.

I understand that it’s difficult to let go some items. They might not fit, or look terrible on you, but you paid a price for it. These are the items that you should donate. We buy a lot of our clothes with impulse and the result is a nonfunctional wardrobe.  The bottom line for throwing out is anything that you haven’t worn in the last two years. It’s pretty safe that you’re never going to wear them. You can start weeding out 20% of your items and then do it again in a few weeks if you can’t let it go the first time around.

Once the first step is done, you can put the keep item back to the closet. Categorize your outfits by color and function so it’s easy to find anything in the morning.

Summer is over. Let’s face it, the whole family’s summer dresses, shorts, t-shirts all have to be put away to leave room for the fall sweaters. It seems we never have enough space. From my experience, getting rid of stuff is the key. Why? Because we accumulate things. Most people buy a few new items for each season, so our space shrinks. The rule is, if you didn’t wear certain items in this summer, you probably won’t wear it next summer. So now it’s a perfect time to donate!

Clean the shoe rack and the floor underneath regularly to keep the dusts off. You don’t want to have a muddy floor. Train your husbands and children to place their shoes on the rack when they come home. You can also place a mat or rug in front of the rack. Lowe’s carry several kinds of stackable shoes racks with matching entryway cabinets. If you invest one of those, it’ll make a huge difference to your house. Those cabinets are basically entry organizers that keep your purse, phones, backpacks, keys, shoes, coats, hats, and other things in order. Once you close the doors, they look like cabinets. But if that’s too big of an investment, then stick to a shoerack. It’ll be just as organized as a cabinet.

Even professional journals, how many of you read them over and over? Once you’re done with the papers, go through your pantry for expired cans and jars. Then closets, of course, the closets are the biggest challenge. Because most of them hold more than just clothes. Clear the non-clothing items first. Organizing clothing last as it takes the longest time and energy.

If you have clothes that you bought in the 80s at yard sales, it’s definitely time to start making donations. Most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time, so there’s simply no need to keep them all just in case. That in case probably will never happen. First find the clothes that you wear often put them aside. Then go through the closet and throw out anything that you haven’t wore in recent 2 years or anything that doesn’t fit you. If you’re sentimental about certain piece, then save one or two and put them in the attic or cellar. Then take the thrown out pile and donate them.

The most important lesson that we can learn is that how much we take in and how much we leave out. Boxes and more boxes. Boxes, containers, and shelves are the our best friends when it comes to organizing. When you come home from outside, whether school, work, grocery shopping, or any shopping trip. Put the stuff away immediately. Put them away even if you’re tired. Putting it off will cause trouble later on.

For kids’ closet, if your kids are young, then you’re in luck. Donate and outgrown ones and if you want to keep some cute outfits for sentimental reason, put them in a space saver bag or a plastic container. You can put them in the basement of attic for storage.

Once you figure out what to keep, get nice hangers and arrange them by colors and seasons. You don’t really need to invest a lot to get a custom closets for children’s rooms. But simple shelves in the closets do magic in space savings.

Put off season clothes in plastic containers and store them underneath the bed. It’s easy to get them and it saves closet space.

Start with your own closet and work to your husband’s if he has a separate one and the kids’. Keep in mind, anything you haven’t worn in 2 years need to be donated or tossed out if they’re not in good condition. Many people say donate cloths that you haven’t worn in 1 year. But I think it’s a little harder to toss out the pretty dress that you bought and never worn once. So try the 2 year rule. Put donations in one large garbage bag and thrown out ones in another. Throw out dry cleaner hangers and old plastic hangers. If you haven’t done so, buy some nice wooden or plastic hangers.

Remember, it’s a lot easier to declutter the closet on your own. If you show the clothes to your husband and ask for his opinion. Most likely he’ll like all of them and you end up keeping them all. It’s hard to donate the dress you worn on the first date with your husband. But if you didn’t wear for 15 years and it no longer fits, let it go. Someone can enjoy them as well as you did. The hardest part is to donate the nice piece that you bought on sale and never wore once because it probably isn’t your size. You can always try to sell it on ebay or consignment store. Just put such items in a separate bag.

Next step, go though your drawers in the kitchen, home office, and bedrooms. Toss out and keep. This will take you the rest of the day. Organize items by bins and mark them using the marker.

The most important part of the day is to clean and declutter. Remember the main reason the house is messy is because you saved too much stuff. So please don’t feel obligated to save. Don’t touch the paperwork such as bank statements, bills yet, just put them in a large plastic bin. You will sort them out later on.

Sometimes it’s harder to get started when there seems to be so much stuff to do. But you can do it! You don’t need to hire a professional organizer. That’s true, you can do it all yourself. Just make sure the children are not around and husband is at work. Give yourself 5 uninterrupted hours to clean, sort, dump, and organize. Then do the same the next day, and the next day…

Day one: this is not your cleaning day, but a day of preparation.

• Get yourself half dozen contractor sized garbage bags
• Markers
• 4-6 Plastic bins (large)
• Cleaning supplies
• Shoe organizers if you don’t already have them (plastic or metal)
• Nice hangers
• Storage bags