Turn your closet into a boutique

March is almost over, spring is in the air and Pessach(passover) is around the corner. Yes it is time to open or enter your closet, clean it out and straighten it up.

How?
Where do you start?
What to keep?
What to give away?

These are some of the questions that daunt many women (and men) and therefore push off the task.
But this year is different!
This year most of us will be shopping in our closets for new looks and will try to stay away from the stores.
So here are several tips to help you organize your own boutique in your closet:

1. Empty all the contents and try on every item. (this takes time but it is worth it)

2. All your clothes should fit you now (not when you lose "the weight"). If it can fit with alterations then fix it. If not, pass it along (maybe you can even make some cash on eBay).

3. Divide and sort : winter/summer

4. Store all winter items away, make sure they are all clean (the longer a stain sits on your clothes the harder it is for it to come out). If you need to store winter items out of your closet, buy clear plastic bins, (they can be purchased at most hardware stores), list the contents on the outside for easy reference next fall. Oh ! make sure you add moth balls to your sweaters.

Back to spring and summer:

5. Look at your closet and decide what you would like to hang and what you would like to fold.

6. Fold and hang all like items together from white to black. To Help fold your tops buy the flipper, it will make sure that all your tops are folded to perfection. it can be found at http://www.flipper.co.il/

7. Basic hangers are fine they do not take up a lot of room and they do the job, for special care items buy the sponge tops for the hangers, this will help keep the shape of your knits and will prevent spaghetti straps from slipping. Do not use wire hangers, they ruin all types of clothes. I have not found a hanger supplier here in Israel, but when I do I will let you know. In the mean time check out: http://www.hangers.com/ plastic top and bottom hangers.

8. Keep the clothing you use the most easily accessible. (If you work in an office, make sure those clothes are easy to see, reach and use.)

9. Shoes and hats: Ideally, remove all your shoes from the boxes and place then heel to toe on the shelves. If you can't, and you need to store your shoes in boxes, take pictures and place them on the outside of the box. Here too make sure the shoes you will wear most often are easy to access.
Hats: Hats worn everyday should be on a hat rack or low shelves. For those hats reserved for special occasions put them in a box marked with a picture and place them at the top of the closet.
10. Here in Israel the dust goes everywhere. Especially around Pessach, after we clean our homes the sand storms come. It does not seem to matter if our windows are Marvin or Belgium, the dust makes it through to every nook and cranny of our house. The shoulders of every jacket,dress and top seem to be the final destination of the holy dust that travels through the air. Therefore I recommend plastic shoulder covers for those special items that you do not wear often. They are like garment bags but only cover the top part of the garment. http://www.hangers.com/ If you can not get your hands on any, here is a tip I got from a friend: Ask your dry cleaner to cut you a few plastic covers and use them instead.

Now once you have emptied, tried on, gotten rid of, altered, separated, sorted, folded, hanged. You will see what you have and be able to begin to mix and match and create many new styles from what you didn't even know was there.
Okay, okay you probably will still want to buy a few new things this season, but at least you will not come back from the store with another pair of black pants, jean skirt or top that was hidden under a pile, in the corner all the way in the back of your closet.