Feeling Stuffed? These Tips Can Help Free Up Space in Your Clothes Closet

Without even looking at your closet, Mark-Alan Harmon can tell you what’s wrong with it: You have too much stuff.

“People hold on to things, even if they have no intention of wearing them again. If you don’t love it, get rid of it,” said Harmon, who is big on donating clothes to charity.

He admits that weeding out can be a painful process. People keep sweaters their late mother made and pieces they paid a lot for that don’t quite work with anything else they have.

“If it’s not something they are going to wear again, then it just might be time to let it go, no matter how sentimental it is. It could be on someone else’s back right now, supporting their future,” he said.

Here are some other tips from the professional closet organizer:

* Create a summer-versus-winter wardrobe. Declare some sweaters and autumnal-colored clothes your winter wardrobe and pack them up and put them away. When you unpack them again you’ll feel like you’ve just gone shopping.

* Put everything on matching hangers. He recommends wooden hangers but if you find them too expensive, use plastic.

* Add pictures inside the closet door or on the wall that make the closet your personal space. It could be clothing styles you love, physiques you envy or “things that light you up” in the morning.

* Hang a clipboard with pen attached in the closet for those times when you think, “If I just had a little gray T-shirt with no sleeves.” Write it down and soon you’ll have a shopping list that will make all your outfits work.