Cheney Masson, Witbank: #lockdownlife declutter and rediscover

Throughout this lockdown — among many emotions that have taken their course through my mind — I find that the one quite present in each day, is that of feeling muddled, upside down and often completely out of sorts.

As a person who is in “normal cases” (then again, what is normal these days?) organised and with it, I’ve found that the life of lockdown — being lazy, having a “no clue” attitude and quite frankly, eating whatever and whenever — has really reeled me in, making me a slave to the life it promotes. Not cool!

Small and simple task to regain control

As of recently, which actually means yesterday, I think I’ve slowly snuck back into my right mind and in so doing, decided to declutter and rediscover what makes me, me — which indeed is having my ducks in a row. If you’re anything like me, doing this simple task will help you feel more in control too.

I’ve taken much-needed time out of my day to do what I really enjoy, which is…drum roll please: Sorting out my wardrobe. A small and simple task like this has really driven me or rather shoved me back into having structure again, especially now that the season is changing and I’m wanting things more accessible and tidy.

How to tackle that messy wardrobe

So, I’m going to take you through the steps I used when decluttering and rearranging my messy wardrobe;

Step 1

Take out your clothes shelf by shelf and place them in orderly piles. (If you mix up all your clothing it will make it much more difficult and time consuming to rearrange.)

Step 2

“Colour co-ordinating”. I know, I know, it may seem a bit over the top but hey, if it works it works. This step is for those who, just like me, are a bit of a perfectionist.

What I’ve done is basically organise my piles from darkest colours to lighter colours, bottom to top. It is super helpful and as a plus, looks pretty.

It is important to decide on this step before the next.

Step 3

Do each shelf at a time. (Whether you have a significant amount of clothing or not, doing it shelf by shelf will help keep you focused and not overwhelmed by doing it all in one go.)

Decide in what order you would like your clothing, in other words what you would like on each specific shelf. That will already help you to decide and pick out what you would like to arrange first. After you’ve decided more or less the structure of your wardrobe, create different piles for different seasonal wear e.g. having long sleeved shirts in one pile and short sleeved shirts in another.

It’s important now that we’re slowly coming into winter to have your warmer items easily accessible and more navigable. Trust me, it’s so convenient and you save yourself so much time when picking an outfit to wear.

Step 4

Once shelf items have been folded neatly, organized and put back in their respective places, let us commence with shoes.

Shoes are slightly easier to arrange because believe it or not, there is no folding to be done. Thankfully. Yes, you may now take a sigh of relief.

Okay, so this step is pretty simple. All you’re going to need to do is place your winter shoes (boots, sneakers, slippers) more in the front of your wardrobe and your summer shoes (sandals, slops, and any open flats) more to the back.

Keeping your shoes organised and not strewn on top of each other not only helps keep them in mint condition, but also takes away from the growing avalanche you may have.

Step 5

We’ve finally come to the end, the very last step which entails your hanging space.

What I did was take out all my clothes that where hanging and arrange them as I did with the shelf clothing – colour code and having winter wear more accessible.

You’re going to want to hang all your jackets, jerseys, coats etc. at the start of where your rail runs and have any of your summer wear fade out more towards the end.

I personally also hang up certain types of clothing material that crease quite easily from being folded, however do of course hang them in the correct category they find themselves in.

Let’s get sorting. You’re only a couple of steps away from lighting your fire once again.