Closet chaos, space that seems to disappear every season and quick fixes: the daily routine can become a challenge, but there’s a quick trick that changes everything. 10 minutes is enough and your wardrobe breathes again.
It happens to everyone: opening the wardrobe doors and feeling overwhelmed by the chaos. Sweaters folded in a hurry, T-shirts slipping off hangers and that pair of jeans you were looking for (gone, again). After all, time is short and tidying up seems like one of those things that always gets postponed, between one washing machine and another. Yet, there are those who swear that with a small gesture, a handful of minutes in reality, you can free up space immediately. No textbook promises, just a concrete strategy for those who don’t want to live with their doors closed in shame.
For those who work from home, the temptation to shove everything behind a door is strong. Those who go out in the morning and come back in the evening find themselves dealing with piles of clothes left “for later” (which then never comes). It’s not a question of disorder, often, but of space and habits. A detail: even those who have a large walk-in closet find themselves, season after season, having to make space. The solution? It arrives in ten minutes and requires only one choice. Indeed, a small series of repeated choices.
The 10 minute trick: key words and a few gestures
The secret, if you can call it that, lies in the speed dial. Start with a timer: 10 minutes. Grab a chair (it may seem trivial, but it helps) and place a bag or box near the closet. The goal is not to revolutionize everything, but to immediately identify those items you haven’t worn for months. Or which, as soon as you see them, make you think “maybe one day…”.
Why the 10 minute method works
Choose a category: only t-shirts, only trousers or only accessories. The more specific the selection, the less you risk wasting time looking at everything at once. Open every single drawer, but don’t go crazy. Just ask yourself, quickly: do I really wear it? Or does it stay there, year after year? In ten minutes, without too much thought, you will find at least five or six things to put aside. Sometimes even more.
A detail that makes the difference: the timer. Putting it on helps you not get lost in doubts and memories, because time passes (and makes you choose without too many second thoughts). Eventually, that bag fills up and the closet space really shows. Nothing else is needed.
The 5 items to eliminate immediately
- T-shirts that are faded or too large
- Pants you haven’t worn in over a year
- Sweatshirts or sweaters with small defects
- Accessories forgotten at the bottom of drawers
- “Maybe one day” clothes that always stay there
Common mistake: folding items you haven’t used for months just to feel tidy. Better to eliminate them immediately, the time saved is real.
Habits and small daily tricks
There’s no need to revolutionize your entire wardrobe every week. The idea works precisely because it is fast and does not require infinite energy. You can choose to do this “mini-decluttering” whenever you feel the weight of chaos. Maybe on Saturday morning, while it’s raining outside, or during those ten minutes before dinner. No obligation, just a habit that, little by little, changes your relationship with the objects around you.
The bag trick always ready
Another handy trick: always keep an empty bag handy in the cupboard. When you find an item that you know you don’t want to wear anymore, you put it right there. Thus, every change of season, the work will already be half done. A detail that many underestimate is the quantity of “undecided” clothes, those that remain there for months waiting for a choice. By immediately eliminating doubts, space creates itself. Without effort.
Those who work outside the home can take advantage of the ten minutes in the evening, perhaps with background music or after turning off the computer. Small gestures, after all. But they really work.
When change is seen (and felt)
It happens suddenly: the wardrobe opens effortlessly, the hangers are no longer packed in and finding that blue sweater becomes a matter of seconds. Sometimes all it takes is a small change to bring order to your day.
Some say that after this ten minute ritual, even the mind becomes lighter. It doesn’t seem like much, but seeing space between your clothes changes your perception of time and your environment. A tidy drawer, a free hanger, even just one less bag on the floor. They are tiny details, but they can change the start of a morning.
Ten minutes today, an hour saved during the next season change. And in the end, perhaps very little is enough to make the wardrobe (and those who open it every day) breathe.
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