The Quick and Easy Closet Cleanout

Cleaning out your closet is one of the best ways to harness the new-year energy of right now. That said, it’s all too easy to lose steam midprocess. (And this usually happens at the most inopportune time—i.e., when there’s a scary number of hangers strewn around the room, you’re starting to get hangry, and the motivating playlist you cued up at the start has run out.) One way around this? “Don’t try to overhaul everything at once,” says our market editor Sandra Slusarczyk. “Focus on the season at hand—you’ll be shocked at how much more manageable the task feels.”

After you’ve figured out what to part with, do some research on where to donate. Clean, gently worn clothing can often be dropped off at your local charity shop or women’s shelter. For more well-loved items, look into textile recycling programs in your area (we like Suay in LA and Green Tree Textiles in New York)—sending clothes to a landfill is the absolute last resort.

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Use your brainpower where it counts.

Separating the clear yeses from the hard nos is the easy part. What trips people up are the maybes: those pieces that, for a multitude of reasons (it was expensive, I wore it to the Eras Tour, it gets complimented often), you’re reluctant to part with. Go through that pile piece by piece and ask yourself: Is this a no in disguise? Is there something I can do (get it tailored, style it differently) to turn this into a yes? If you’re really stuck, try the piece on, snap a picture, and fire it off to a more discerning friend for a second opinion.