We’ve all been there: you buy the perfect dress for an event, but you only wear once.

So it goes to the back of the closet along with a lightly worn sweater, those heels you rarely wear, and the purse you bought on vacation.

You don’t plan for it, but soon your closet is overrun with a bunch of stuff you don’t wear all that often. Now when you do need to find something, it’s buried underneath a pile of random clothes and accessories.

No worries! A new year means a new closet. There are a few easy steps to transform your closet and make sure you are ready for 2017.

Clear the Stage

Take a quiet afternoon and set aside some time to go through everything in your closet. Clear an area like on your bed to act like a “staging area” to separate clothes. Feel free to turn on some tunes while you work.

Decide on What to Keep

With a clean area, separate items in “Keep” or “Donate” sections. As a side note, if a piece of clothing is too damaged to keep or give away, ask your city’s sanitation department on the best way to get rid of it properly.

While taking inventory of your closet, a good rule of thumb is to donate something if you haven’t worn it in over a year. Also, if it’s a couple sizes too big or too small, get rid of it and opt to go clothes shopping for items with a better fit.

Start Organizing

After you’ve gone through everything, now is a perfect time to look at your closet and make a plan on how to keep things organized. For maximum storage, you should store items in the most efficient way possible:

Jeans – Hang them by the hem and organize them by color from light wash to darker

Skirts, shorts, and other bottoms – Use skirt hangers with moveable clips to give you more flexibility in what you hang up

Dresses – You can hang your dresses by color or sleeve length. In either case, it’s easier to group them together in terms of season

Shoes – Keep shoes in an easy to see place while organizing them by color and style

Once you have a system in place for storage, take stock of items that don’t belong in your closet. It’s easy to place bathroom products or miscellaneous items in your closet for lack of a better place to put them. Now is the perfect opportunity to return out of place items to their designated areas. Also don’t forget about the small details in your closet. Group smaller items like gloves, necklaces, or anything that can easily go missing together in boxes, jars, or storage bins.

Don’t Forget to Donate

Instead of throwing away clothes you don’t wear anymore, consider donating them to the Goodwill. In 2015, Goodwill helped a record number of people, all because of your donations. Your local Goodwill doesn’t just take clothes. Look for old toys, accessories, and household items; these are all gladly accepted. Now with your new closet, you are now ready to tackle the new year!