If you live in a place with seasons, you likely have clothes that you only wear for part of the year. Here are my biggest tips when it comes to storing your out of season clothes. There are a few affiliate links in this blog post, meaning I could earn a small amount of commission at no cost to you.
Store them SEPARATELY from your current season clothes.
I have bins in my front closet that have all of the items that are out of season; 1-2 bins for clothes and another bin for out of season shoes. This makes it so what is in my closet is only what is RELEVANT to that season of my life. Your closet (and decisions) will be more streamlined with only the items you can actually wear at that time, without having to weed through the out of season clothes that are taking up space in your closet.
Always do a clean out as you’re taking the previous season’s items OUT of your closet!
This is a prime time to go through the items you’re taking OUT of your closet. If you haven’t worn the piece all season, you likely won’t be excited to wear it next year either. Might as well donate or sell it NOW, before you waste the storage space on it!
Always do a clean out before you put the new season’s pieces INTO your closet!
You are already touching each item as it comes out of the bin and goes into your closet – might as well take the extra 2 seconds to decide if you actually want the item! If you pull it out of the bin and you aren’t excited about it at the beginning of the new season, do you really think you’ll get more excited about it as the season goes on?!
HINT: since you’re getting rid of the item at the beginning of the season, you should be able to find a buyer on Poshmark, Mercari or eBay fairly quickly vs. selling it at the end of the season!
Use vacuum/compression bags to store the clothes in the bins (this saves MAJOR space).
When I moved into my condo, this was a game-changer to save space when storing clothes. Vacuum bags help you fit SO much more stuff in your bins – especially with things like winter sweaters that take up a lot of space! I have these Ziploc ones, that come in different sizes, but the Large size ones are my most-used for things like sweaters & pants. I use the Jumbo size ones for coats, and Medium ones for tops.
It’s TOTALLY OK if this is a multi-day or multi-weekend project.
I think part of what stresses people out about this is that they feel pressure to do the entire project in one day. There is no reason it has to happen that fast! Maybe 1 day you go through the stuff you’re taking out of your closet. Then the next day, you can go through the stuff you’re putting into your closet. And maybe the following day you work on the organization of the bins & closet.
Want a little bit of help with your seasonal swap-out or closet reorganization? Feel free to fill out a contact form here.
