7 Reasons You Should Color Coordinate Your Closet

March 9, 2015
It’s tip time!
Recently, I color coordinated the shirts in my closet.  I have always had my shirts divided into seasons according to winter and summer or long-sleeved and short-sleeved.  I began to feel this winter as if I was either wearing the same pieces over and over, or I just needed a new wardrobe!  Since a whole new wardrobe is not in the budget, I got a wild hair and color coordinated instead.  The process took about an hour.  Not only was it a little bit fun (I know, nerd alert!), but I gained lots of positives from the experience.  I even convinced Carl to let us do his together the very next weekend with the encouragement that he didn’t have to keep it that way, but so far he has. 
7 REASONS YOU SHOULD COLOR COORDINATE YOUR CLOSET
  • CREATES A SHOP LIKE FEEL
    • When I go to get dressed in the morning, I feel I have stepped into a store to shop for what I will wear.  It is not as cool as Charming Charlie’s, but I will settle for Awesome Andrea’s.
  • REDISCOVER PIECES IN YOUR WARDROBE YOU HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT
    • I was amazed at how many pieces I found, once they were with like colors, I had forgotten about.  The first two weeks after I did this, I felt like I had gotten a whole new wardrobe.
  • PURGE SHIRTS YOU DON’T EVER WEAR
    • I was able to get rid of about 30 shirts I never wear or were out of style.  Carl had about the same amount too.  This can also clear out some space to go shopping, if you so desire.
  • SEE WHERE YOUR WARDROBE IS LACKING
    • Do you look good in red but you don’t have one red short-sleeved shirt?  Do you tend to purchase the same one or two colors?  Color coordinating will help you to see those patterns.  We realized Carl had not one white T-shirt.  You might be surprised at what you discover in your closet.
  • ENCOURAGES YOU TO CHANGE SHOPPING PATTERNS
    • It was not a huge shock to me, but I like to buy the following colors: black, white, and pink.  I also tend to like stripes.  It has challenged me as spring approaches to not buy a striped item or to buy a color I wouldn’t normally buy which looks flattering on me to fill my wardrobe with more variety.
  • HELPS TO PICK OUT OUTFITS QUICKLY
    • If I am wearing a pair of black slacks and I want to wear a white shirt with it, I can go directly to my white shirts or another color which might look good or match with a scarf I want to wear.  It saves me time.
  • IT JUST PLAIN LOOKS PRETTY
    • Let’s face it.  I just like walking into my closet every morning and seeing a rainbow in there.  It makes me happy and it looks pretty!
HOW YOU CAN DO THE SAME THING
    • Take all of your shirts out of your closet.  If this is too overwhelming of a task, start with just your long-sleeved shirts first and then your short-sleeved shirts second. 
    • Pick out any shirts which are in the laundry basket every one to two weeks or ones you know you wear all of the time and hang them back on your rack.
    • Pick out your favorites and put them on the rack.
    • Pick out any shirts you wear once a month during the season and hang those up.
    • Pick out shirts you might only wear once a season, but you don’t want to get rid of such as a St. Patrick’s Day shirt or Fourth of July shirt.
    • You will find you have a pile left of shirts you are really not that crazy about.  It might be that they are out of style and if so, get rid of them.  If you haven’t worn it in two seasons, get rid of it.  If it doesn’t fit right and is uncomfortable to wear, get rid of it.  There is a reason you keep passing it up in your closet.  Donate unwanted items to a charity.
  • As you hang items up, color code them.  You can do this two ways.  One way is to put like colors together.  Another way is to put colors the way they would be displayed in the rainbow.  I put dark colors like blacks and brown on the side next to the blues.  I put whites on the other side by the reds, because I figured that pink would come between white and red. 
It may seem like a lot of work to you, but it really is not.  Just try it!  I never thought I would do it myself, but I am not sure I will ever go back.  As they say in the Skittles world, taste the rainbow!