Spring clean your closet with tips from a Virginia Tech expert

As spring begins, it's the perfect time for a closet clean out, and this Virginia Tech instructor has some tips.

“Detoxing your closet by getting rid of excess stuff that no longer serves you is one of the best ways to take physical action to let the past go,” said Stephany Greene, a fashion designer, celebrity stylist, branding expert, and instructor in Virginia Tech’s fashion merchandising and design program. “It is a process that creates momentum for bigger changes.” 

About 70 percent of clothes in closets go unworn but are kept for sentimental reasons or in hopes they will fit again someday, she said. 

Greene, author of the book “Stephany’s Style Secrets: 7 Steps to Live and Dress Your Best,” has spent time analyzing closet clean outs for her clients and shares her insights. 

What is your advice for someone preparing to purge a closet? 

My top three pieces of advice to anyone who’s preparing to clean out their closet are: First, ask yourself why you want to do it. Second, create solutions that answer your why. And third, make a plan. 

Most people simply dive in without a strategy. Ask yourself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Think of ways you can reduce some of the stress that causes your why. Organizing one’s closet tends to dramatically reduce stress, because it feels so good and it’s quite satisfying, to be able to put clothes away quickly and easily. You should make a plan to set yourself up for success. Cleaning out your closet should be a relaxing process that relieves stress from your life instead of increasing it. Block out time when you won’t be interrupted. Rearrange your schedule to free yourself up, perhaps for three hours on a Saturday morning. Turn on music and have fun with it.

Why is it important to remove certain clothes from your closet? 

An organized closet relieves stress from searching for clothes and trying to figure out what to wear from day to day. Clothes are not only items that make you look a certain way, but they also make you feel something when you wear them. Most of all, it is important to detox your closet because it should be filled with clothes that make you feel good. By letting go of unhappy clothing, you detox unhappy bad memories and open your life to feeling happy again. We spend most of our lives in clothes, so everything we wear really should help us feel good in one way or another.

Why is spring the perfect time for assessing your closet? 

In November and December, we start to hibernate, we eat more, our bodies are covered in winter clothes, and gradually most of us gain weight. As spring approaches with sunnier and warmer days, we start exposing more skin. We are ready to blossom in a new way to feel better about ourselves. As human beings, we follow nature, so as flowers start to bloom, we also want to refresh, declutter, and shed everything that has been weighing us down during the cold, dark, winter months. We are naturally inspired to spring clean and detox all the negativity in our closet. 

How would you respond to the concern that cleaning out a closet is too expensive? 

Hopefully you’re keeping items that make you feel good and that you will continue to wear in the future. Think of it as letting go of the negative to benefit yourself with the positive. It is worth the monetary investment because you are reinvesting in yourself psychologically from the inside out. To make up for the money you spent on your clothes, pay it forward by giving them to someone who needs them more by donating, consigning, or selling to recycle them. 

What are common mistakes people make when determining what to remove from their closets? How do they overcome them? 

Sometimes, the order people choose to clean their closets can be more stressful than a different approach. Instead of randomly pulling items out, take a strategic approach. Reflect on how each item of clothing made you feel. Look back at pictures to see if you were truly happy when you wore it. Also, if the process feels overwhelming, break it into stages and start little by little. Try to turn it into a fun process that makes you happy. 

After the detox, how can people be more mindful about future purchases? 

Whatever you’re shopping for, sit down and walk around the dressing room to figure out if you feel good wearing it. It is important to focus on why you’re buying the item. While shopping, most people assume if it fits, or it looks good enough, they’ll go ahead and buy it without noticing if they feel good in it. The goal should always be buy it only if it makes you feel as good as you look. 

Interviews have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Written by Brooke Van Beuren, communications intern with the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences