1. Clean Your Closet
By cleaning your closet and removing excess items you don’t wear, you’ll actually expand your wardrobe! When your closet is jammed with too many clothes, it can provoke stress and limit your style choices.

Imagine having a closet where everything fits, every style looks great on you and makes you feel beautiful. That is the goal and the value of a good closet cleaning!

Action Step:
Schedule a full day of uninterrupted time dedicated to cleaning your closet. Prepare by having bags for four stacks of clothing, one each for donations, alterations, dry cleaners and trash.

The criteria for releasing clothing is:

  • Does not fit, too big, too tight or ill-fitting
  • Poor quality
  • Damaged beyond repair, stained or torn
  • Does not feel  or look like it’s your style
  • Out of date
  • Does not make you feel beautiful or proud to be seen in it

Place remaining garments back into your closet by categories and invest in matching hangers.

2. Turn Dresses into Tops
You may have beautiful dresses in your closet that you love but don’t have many occasions to wear them. If you cut your dresses into a tunic or top, you could get much more frequent wear from them and expand your wardrobe choices!

Action Step:
Take a look at all the dresses in your closet. Set aside each dress that you don’t wear very often. Try each dress on to determine if it can be worn as a top. If so, set it aside to take to the tailor for alterations.

3. Alterations
There are often several items in your closet that are not being worn simply due to a small alteration to make it more wearable. Take a look at all the items that can be worn if it were to benefit from a minor alteration.

Action Step:
If you don’t have a reliable tailor, you can ask a friend or check out Yelp for one that has been highly rated.