The 5-step closet clean out guide I send every client
the prep work that makes getting dressed easier every day
Hi friends,
Styling has kept me busy since January. I’m working with multiple clients on wardrobe resets right now, so I thought I’d share the actual closet clean out guide I send them to prep for our styling sessions.
Think of a wardrobe edit as early spring cleaning. Getting rid of baggage — physically and metaphorically — that no longer serve you to make space for better things in 2026. And if you celebrate Lunar New Year, we’re leaving the Year of the Snake, which was all about shedding old skin, old habits and identities that don’t fit anymore. What better way to close it out than cleaning out your closet as we step into the Year of the Horse on the 17th?
Paid subscribers got first dibs on this guide last week, and I wanted to give y’all a peek behind the curtain too.
There’s a section in the guide called Common Traps to Avoid and not gonna lie, I wrote it because I hear the same excuses from every single person (including myself). The expensive, investment piece you never reach for. The pants you’re keeping for “when I lose weight.” The gift from someone you love that you wear out of guilt exactly once a year.
Keeping a $300 top that just hangs there won’t give you your money back. It just takes up space and makes you feel bad every time you see it. The sentimental pieces are the hardest, though. I get it. But the memory that came with that gift doesn’t disappear when the sweater goes to Goodwill. Take a photo of it, hold onto the memory, and let someone else get some wear out of it.
If any of that sounds familiar, the full guide walks you through exactly how to work through it. Piece by piece, no spiraling.
The guide walks you through five steps, and the order matters. You start by identifying your MVPs, the pieces you actually reach for day after day. Not your favorites, not your aspirational pieces. The ones you come back to again and again. These tell you everything about what works in your actual life.
From there, you sort the rest into categories I borrowed from Allison Bornstein because it’s brilliant and it works!! (NO, NOT NOW, HOW)
The guide goes deeper from here: how to evaluate your maybe’s, the exact questions to ask yourself when you try things on, how to do a ruthless second pass, and how to reorganize everything so getting dressed becomes exponentially easier.
If you’ve been meaning to deal with your current closet situation, this is your sign. Grab a Saturday afternoon, a few boxes or bins, an open mind, and the guide. You’ll thank yourself every morning when getting dressed stops being a puzzle.
Note: I’m donating 50% of paid subscription upgrades to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund, which directly supports immigrant families in Minnesota. ICE presence continues to terrorize the citizens of MN despite the current lack of news coverage.