how to: spring clean your wardrobe

I'm not going to lie, the real benefits of cleaning out your wardrobe is being able to fit more clothes in there...

Here are a few basic steps to go through every 6 months, the best time to do it is when you are putting away your winter things and unpacking the short shorts and bikinis for summer.

1/ Sort through everything. And I mean everything. You don't necessarily need to be looking for things to throw out, simply tidying up can make a huge difference and your clothes will be much easier to find (i.e. when you need to change your outfit again at the last minute, all your outfits are ready to go for a last minute adjustment).

2/ Mend the things that have been sitting at the back, unworn and waiting to have a button sewn on. There is no point taking up valuable wardrobe space with something you can’t even wear.

3/ Pile up all the things you never wear (and know you will never wear again). There are two options with these items, practise your sewing skills and re-work them into a new piece or donate them to a charity or child’s dress up box. Be brutal, if you haven’t worn it in the past year seriously consider whether or not you should keep it. That being said, it is a good idea to keep better quality items in case they come back into fashion again later or you have a fancy dress party to go to.

4/ If you make any discoveries (along the lines of OMG I used to love this dress! or I was looking for this necklace! make sure you wear it that same week. There is no point having a wardrobe full of clothes you don't wear. Figure out ways to wear older items with newer purchases to make the most of your wardrobe. The only way to do this is to simply try them on, look in the mirror, get the opinion of whoever is nearby (significant other, house mate, parents, siblings, unsuspecting people walking past your house) and see if it works.

5/ Organise! You don’t have to be too anal about it, there’s no need to colour coordinate your sock drawer, but by storing things properly they remain in the best condition, are easier to find and give you more wardrobe space to work with. Places like Ikea have hundreds of clever storage options to optimise a smaller space. I have a great shoe rack that I got for $6 from Kmart. The best part of it is you can buy more and stack them up, every time I fill up another row I just go to Kmart and buy another layer for my ever growing shoe rack, genius!