There are a few ways to declutter a closet and reduce your wardrobe, though some are far more complicated than others. With fall approaching, why not try a simple one? The hanger method takes a little time but not a lot of effort, and by the end of the season you’ll have enough hard data about what you’re actually wearing to make choices about what to keep.

This is an old tip that sticks around because it works: take all the hangers in your closet and turn them all so that they’re facing the same direction. Basically, make sure the hook on each hanger is facing the back wall of the closet. That’s basically it, as far as the first steps go. Then set a time period, like a month or three months, and during that time, every time you wear something and hang it up again, turn the hanger. When you wear it again, don’t turn the hanger back to the starting point direction; keep it facing the second direction. At the end of your preset time, take out everything that’s still hanging on a hanger that’s still facing the original direction and vow to donate or throw away a significant portion of those items.

While it takes a few months to mature, this is a relatively simple and data-driven way to sort through your clothes because it helps you see exactly what you are and aren’t wearing. If you can actually see which hangers have been untouched in that time, you can figure out which clothes you don’t actually need, or at least which ones you need to rotate to the front of your closet so you get to wear them.

Keep in mind that how well this works depends on a few factors. For example, you need to give yourself a long enough time to do this that you actually have a fair chance of wearing the clothes. That’s why I recommend doing it over a full season, like fall: over the course of three months, you’ll have enough time to wear work clothes, casual clothes, and probably special occasion clothes, so you’ll actually get some hard data, rather than giving yourself a month and only seeing a handful of worn items.