Christine Cameron is a personal stylist, wardrobe consultant, and blogger.  She can be seen most recently in Glamour Magazine‘s September Issue.  Follow her fashion forays on My Style Pill.  Below, she exclusively shares her 5 Tips for Cleaning Out Your Closet:

1. Start by trying on everything in your closet.  However, before you begin, I recommend calling in a good friend who will be honest with you about what looks good and what doesn’t.  It will also help you spend less time on the items you wear every day (which should already fit well), and allow the focus to remain on the pieces that are tucked away in the back of your closet.

2. After you’ve tried everything on, you should be left with three piles.  One with the pieces you are going to keep, another with the items you are going to toss, and one with the pieces that need to be altered.  There are definitely articles of clothing that can be saved by just hemming a skirt or having a dress taken in or out.  It can really make all the difference in salvaging quality pieces, so don’t neglect that pile.

3. Once you have tackled your clothes, move on to your shoe collection.  As tough as this might be, throw away (or donate) any extremely painful shoes you own, or shoes you never wear, since the chance of you actually wearing them again is slim to none.  I know from experience that by hanging on to almost-never-worn-shoes for far too long, it only results in clutter. 

4. Donate.  Once you have completed the overall sorting process of your closet and have separated everything, I suggest donating items that are in good condition to The Salvation Army or the Goodwill.  Also, you can check your city’s listings to see if they have any other donation centers, and to see drop-off and pick-up times.

5. Put it all back.  Lastly, a large part of the overhaul process is how you put it all back in in your closet.  For me, organizing my closet by color makes the most sense to me.  But for others, it makes sense to divide closets by type of item, i.e. skirts, blazers, dress pants.  Do what works for you, but make sure you devise a system so that getting dressed becomes that much easier — and that much more fun!