Closet Decluttering Results - Closet Before & After

Decluttering my closet was a year-long project. When I started decluttering my home a year and a half ago, I never thought it would take more than a year. Today I am sharing my closet decluttering results – closet before & after.

Here are my Closet Decluttering Results!

My whole life I have always wanted a super organized closet, but something was holding me back. It turns out that “something” was the amount of stuff in the closet.

I never thought that getting rid of some stuff would make my closet look so much better. As I decluttered I learned some tricks that really helped me with the decluttering process.

You can pull everything out and see if it brings you joy, but if you are trying to become more minimal I found a few things that help move the process along. Here are my closet decluttering results.

Before the Closet decluttering:

If you are in the decluttering process make sure you snap a few photos before you start decluttering. It feels great to look back and see how much progress you are making.

I have found as I become more minimalist I tend to think I still have a lot of stuff. This is when I find the photos from when I began my decluttering journey to really see how far I have come.

Switching Hangers or Reverse Hanger Trick

Go into your closet and turn everything that is hanging so that the hanger is facing out. After you wear each item, switch hangers returning it to the closet with the hanger going in.

In about 6 months you can clearly see what you have worn and what you didn’t wear.

This visual really helped me declutter a lot of clothes that I was hanging onto “just in case”. The items that have not been worn can be analyzed. Are they in season? Do they fit? Is it your style?

One thing I changed early in my closet organization was my actual hangers. I decided that my closet looked so much better with all-black hangers. I like the combination of black plastic hangers and velvet hangers.

This simple change made a huge difference in the look of my closet.

Get Serious About the Minimalist Closet

I finally got serious with myself. I took out everything that was bothering me. Why was I storing my ironing board in my closet?

Did I need that almost empty shoe holder? Everything that was in the way and didn’t belong was out.

After I took all of the nonclothing items out, my closet looked so much better.

I like to use the capsule wardrobe system. There are so many different ways to organize your clothes, but I like to hang my current capsule wardrobe.

Everything else, the clothes I wear in the other 3 seasons I keep folded in my drawers. This way when I look in my closet I don’t have to sift through the stuff that isn’t seasonally appropriate.

Some Items you might be able to Declutter:

Anything that doesn’t fit – The odds are when this item does eventually fit you probably won’t want it anymore

Wedding dresses or bridesmaid dresses – I was holding onto both until recently. I tried them on and realized they don’t fit anyways

Items that are not your style anymore – I am not talking about what is IN style, I am talking about your style. I had dresses and jackets that I never wore because they were in style, but they were never my style.

Honestly, if I don’t feel comfortable wearing something I know I won’t choose it.

It really surprised me how much I like having less. My whole life I always thought the goal was to have more, but it turns out it feels great to have just enough.

Here are Some Declutter Questions to ask yourself:

WHAT IS THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN IF I LET THIS ITEM GO? CAN I DECLUTTER THIS ITEM?

Honestly ask yourself what could happen if you didn’t have this item. For me, the worst-case scenario is I would have to buy the item again.

In my history of decluttering, I haven’t ever regretted anything I donated.

IS IT MORE IMPORTANT TO KEEP THIS ITEM OR HAVE THE SPACE THAT IT OCCUPIES?

Space is very important to me. Before becoming minimal I didn’t really understand how much nicer a home looks when there is some extra space. Why do we think big homes are nicer?

There is more room so it looks less crowded. You don’t need a huge home (unless you want one) to make your place look spacious, you just need less stuff.

IF I WERE MOVING WOULD THIS ITEM BE WORTH PACKING UP AND MOVING TO THE NEW LOCATION?

Imagine you are packing up your entire home! You are wrapping every glass bottle in bubble wrap. You are now carefully transporting all of these items, now you are unwrapping each item.

Then you realize you never even use that glass bottle! All that work for no reason! When we first started to go through our things I questioned if I would take this item to a new home and a lot of the time the answer was no. This was especially true if we had more than one of the same item.

HOW MANY TIMES DO I BUY SOMETHING ON IMPULSE JUST TO FIND OUT I NEVER NEEDED THIS ITEM IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Decluttering changed how I spent money. This is coming from someone who barely ever shopped. I started to question every purchase. I also stopped shopping for fun and I actively avoided stores.

The last thing I wanted to do was spend a year decluttering and end up having to do it all over again.

WHAT CAN I GAIN BY HAVING A CLEANER HOME WITH MORE SPACE IN IT?

The one thing I gained by having a home with less junk is time and peace of mind. Before we started this minimalist journey I felt like I was constantly putting things away.

The most annoying thing was that even if everything was “put away” my house never really looked clean.

I think it was having too much stuff! Now that we have clear kitchen counters our home looks so much cleaner all the time.

Read more decluttering questions in this post.

Closet Declutter Conclusion

I am so happy I documented this before and after decluttering the closet process. This way I can really see the progress I am making.

After switching to a capsule wardrobe and only keeping what I actually wear I was finally able to transform my closet into a minimalist closet.

Here is a really great article about a minimalist wardrobe.

Closet Decluttering Results – Closet Before & After