The winter months are upon us and with a bit of extra time around the house there is no better time to declutter your wardrobe and update your winter style! It's an Iso wardrobe challenge, it's way easier than all the fitness challenges you’ve seen and just as satisfying! As a mum, businesswoman and friend to many self-diagnosed shopaholics, I’m going to share with you my tips and tricks to achieving an Instagram-worthy, clutter free wardrobe and a simplified winter style.

Step 1

Dream it to achieve it, create your wardrobe vision

To create that Instagram worthy wardrobe, you need a clear vision of what you want to achieve in your space. This vision allows you to focus your energy on achieving your goal and helps keep you on track when it comes to making the hard decisions.

Dream up a vision or find images of an organised wardrobe that you aspire to achieve. The trick is to choose something that will work in your space, considering size, layout and how the space will function as part of your daily life. During this dreaming phase take note of the functional hacks used to create this space. It might be baskets, tubs, hooks or easy shoe storage, this will assist you later when trying to find storage items for yourself. For some people decluttering their wardrobe is enjoyable and almost therapeutic, for others it's a challenging but rewarding experience. I love to get my clients to take some before photos so they can see how far they’ve come. Snap a few now before we move to step 2!

Step 2

Discover your personal style

Defining your personal style is all about discovering what pieces make you feel like you; comfortable, happy and full of life in your own skin!
Identify the pieces in your wardrobe that make you feel great! These are often the items you wear the most, they fit well, flatter your shape and empower you to challenge the day. Through my experience organising wardrobes, I have found that these are usually people’s basic items such as jeans, t-shirts and transeasonal pieces.

These pieces make up the foundation of your personal style.
A great personal style is built on a strong foundation of key winter pieces.
If your strong foundation is lacking this is a great place to invest with seasonal updates that complete your newly discovered style.
It's important to note that you don't need to invest in pieces for every trend, only shop trends that align with you. This way you will get great value out of your purchases without blowing the budget.

Now that you have a clear vision of your functional space and rediscovered your personal style, you will be motivated to work through the rough patches and keep moving forward to your new clutter free life.

Step 3

Remove the clutter

This step is similar to the case of the chicken or the egg, what came first?

Decluttering always comes before organising, an abundance of clothes cannot be organised into a functional wardrobe space that supports your busy lifestyle.

To declutter, take everything out of your wardrobe, yes everything!
This step can be overwhelming as it may seem like you're making more mess than you're organising, but trust me... this is where the magic happens.

Once you have every item out of your wardrobe give it a good clean, organise your hangers and take stock of the space you have on hand and what you can do with it to create an efficient process.
This is where your ideas from your dream state in step 1 come in handy with inspiration for baskets, tubs and storage solutions.

Step 4

The 4 keys to organisation

Now that you have all of your clothes, shoes and accessories out of your wardrobe it's time to sort them.
Using the 4 box method that I use with all my clients, sort each item into one of four boxes:

Keep: Place Items in this box that align with your newly discovered personal style. Only place items in this box that make you feel great, fit well and are easy to wear. If you place something in this box that you have not worn in 6 months or you're hoping to squeeze back into, you're cheating!

Sell: Place Items in this box that once brought you joy and excitement, but it's now time for them to ignite someone else's personal style.

List them online to make yourself some extra pocket money to go towards some new winter fashion updates.

Donate: Place items in this box that you wish to donate to charity. These items should be in good condition with no missing buttons, holes or stains.

Throw: Place items in this box that are beyond repair, before tossing them, consider if you can reduce your environmental impact by turning them into cleaning rags or something similar.

Ask yourself these 4 key questions for every item you place into the Keep box
1. Do I wear/use this item?
2. Do I love this item, does it make me feel great?
3. Does this item align with my new personal style?

If anything is a no or maybe, assign it to one of the other 3 boxes, no excuses.
Once you have all of your items sorted into boxes you can now have fun planning some key winter looks from your keep box. Build your strong foundation of staple pieces that go back with your trend items and identify any gaps that you might like to fill with something from the new season.
I'm personally loving the houndstooth trend that is popping up at the moment and can already tell it will go back with my foundation pieces, so I will be investing here to update my winter style.

Step 5

Organise your wardrobe

Now that you have cleaned and sorted your items it's time to start organising them back into your space.
This is the exciting part where your clutter free wardrobe really starts to take shape.
The key to an organised wardrobe is to be able to find what you need at a glance, this takes the stress out of getting ready in a hurry and avoids that “nothing to wear” moment.
Plan the layout of your wardrobe so everything has a home, with high rotation items stored at eye level for easy access, less frequent items below and the least frequently used items up high out of the way.
When working with my clients I like to focus on:

1. Grouping like items together
2. Colour coding your items within their groups, not only is it visually appealing but it’s really helpful when trying to find your favourite grey t-shirt
3. For wardrobes with minimal hanging space utilise the vertical fold method, it reduces space and makes items easy to identify.
This method is something I have carried through the wardrobes of my whole family and you can do the same.

Step 6

Seasonal wardrobes on high rotation

Unfortunately most of us don't have our dream walk in a robe like The Real Housewives! This doesn't mean we can't use the space to our advantage, ramp up the functionality and showcase our clothes the way we’d like.

The key to a successful seasonal wardrobe is showcasing the pieces that align with the season and storing the other pieces for seasons to come. Invest in plastic tubs and vacuum seal bags and store your pieces between seasons out of sight to free up prime real estate in your wardrobe.

There are many upsides to a seasonal wardrobe, not only does it ensure you get enough wear out of your pieces, but it also allows you to stay ahead of your decluttering and organisation. I recommend going back to the 4 box method at the end of a season if you find there are pieces that are making you feel underwhelmed and uninspired.
Use this time to get back in touch with your personal style and evaluate what new season picks you may want to invest in to fill a gap or highlight a new trend that you love.
At the end of each season, put your seasonal pieces away and get ready for the next, it's a simple and effective way to free up space and level up the functionality of your wardrobe.

Step 7

Maintenance mode

Well done girl, the hard work is over!
Now it's time to get into maintenance mode to ensure your hard work doesn't go to waste.

Here are a few tips and tricks I love to share with my clients and community for wardrobe and personal style maintenance and how to not fall off the bandwagon!

1. Invest in coordinated hangers, they simplify the look of your space

2. When you wear something, spin your hanger to face backwards, that way you can easily find its place when you return the item to your wardrobe.

3. Label, label, label! It's no secret I am obsessed with my labelling machine. By labeling where everything goes you have no excuse but to put it away in its place. This is a great tip to implement with kids as it helps them remember the order in which things belong. I’ve labeled our kids wardrobes and play areas to help keep things from getting out of control.

4. Own your personal style and invest in much loved new additions, that’s right only purchase items that you love and shy away from impulse buys that don't align with your personal style.

5. Always invest in good quality foundation items to keep your foundation strong. Great winter fashion staples include good quality basic tees, jeans that hug your shape, Aline skirts for layering, leather jackets and a good quality, warm coat.

6. Compliment your strong foundation with pops of colour, prints and styles from the seasons popular trends. This will help your wardrobe feel current and ever evolving, without going overboard! Decjuba executes trends in a way that makes it easy to pair with your foundation pieces, this year I am loving the rich emerald green tones coming through and the monochromatic checks and houndstooth patterns.