You Asked, Ali Answered: Closet Organizing Hacks and Styling How-Tos

You can take the girl out of the fashion closet, but you can’t take the fashion closet out of the girl. goop fashion director Ali Pew reports from her post at home—giving us all the inspiration and styling advice, as well as a peek inside her exceptionally well-maintained wardrobe.

It’s funny, the more time I spend in sweats, the more I start gravitating toward all the other sitting-pretty pieces in my closet that haven’t gotten action in weeks. Frankly, I’ve been using my downtime as a chance to take inventory. And what better time than now to get organized?

When sifting through my hangers, I think to myself: Am I excited to wear this? Does this make me feel like me? It’s a great way to nix the items you don’t need or love. For instance, I don’t really wear jeans. I usually go for trousers or a jumpsuit instead. So I run through these questions: When was the last time I actually wore these? Would I even notice if these were gone? I ended up getting rid of a stack of jeans and reserving that precious real estate for pants I know I’ll wear more often. Same goes for sweaters. In the process of hanging more-substantial knits and Kondo’ing the rest in drawers, I realized I don’t own a basic black turtleneck—huh!? Uncovering the holes makes it easier to prioritize what’s worth investing in, like this little black Nili Lotan sweater that I’m currently eyeing.

For me, streamlining my closet is cathartic. But figuring out what goes and what stays can still be a bit of a headscratcher. So we turned it over to you: What’s holding you back from building a lean, clean, cohesive closet? Turns out you guys had some great questions—and a few WTF-do-I-wear-this-with follow-ups to go with.