Does your clothes closet feel messy and unorganized? Feel like you don’t have enough space to fit everything in it? It may be time to organize the closet! But where to start and what to do? Following are some tips to help you organize your clothes closet.
Start By Decluttering
If you’re like most people, you have items in your closet that haven’t been worn in months or even years. Now is the time to get rid of things you are not going to wear again (and be realistic about that) to create space and make organizing easier. Start by pulling everything out of the closet and going through them one by one to determine whether you will keep them, donate them, or throw them away. Once you have pulled everything out and put them in the appropriate pile, throw out the ones you determined are no longer usable, by you or someone else, and take the items you want to be donated to the charity of your choice. With the keep pile remaining, you now have a clear picture of what you own and for which you need to find space.
Clean and Evaluate the Space
Before you start putting clothes back in the closet, give it a good cleaning. If you’ve wanted to add some color or touch-up old, fading paint, do that now as well. Don’t like the lighting? Now is the time to swap that out as well. Most importantly, with everything out, this is the time to evaluate your space and determine if it really fits your needs. If the shelving, hang bars, and overall layout don’t work for you, it may be time to replace it with a system that does fit your specific needs. Your local home improvement store has several options that are easy to do yourself or, if budget permits, you can have an expert come in and create the closet of your dreams. Experts say to consider a combination of hang bars, drawers and shelving for the most efficient overall layout.
Create Zones
Once you have a clean closet that has the layout you need, it’s time to start organizing your items and putting them in place. One great way to organize is to create zones for different types of clothing, shoes, accessories, and so forth. Not only does it look great and help keep you organized because everything has its place, it also makes getting ready in the morning easier because you don’t have to hunt for items. While creating zones, be sure to factor in shoes. When things are scattered on the floor, it makes a closet feel cluttered and disorganized. Shoes are often the culprit in those cases, so be sure to have space for them to be organized, whether it’s specific shelves for shoes, shoe boxes that are organized, or a shoe rack.
Determine What Really Needs to be Hung Up
A natural tendency is to hang everything up to prevent wrinkles and have everything at your fingerprints. However, this can lead to an overstuffed closet that makes it hard to find what you need each day. Do all your T-shirts need to be on hangers, or can you fold them and put them in drawers? Are you hanging up sweaters? Most organization experts say it’s better to fold sweaters. What other items can be folded and placed in drawers, bins, or on shelves?
Overlooked Storage Spaces
There is some prime real estate in a closet that is often overlooked but can be very valuable for organizing your space: Walls and the back of your door. An over-the-door shoe rack is a great option if you have limited space and don’t want to sacrifice valuable areas to place shoes. Or you can add hooks to the back of the door and hang purses, hats, and other items. There is often a fair amount of unused wall space that is perfect for smaller items. Add a small towel rack to hold jewelry. Coat hooks can be used to store belts. Bins hung on the wall could be used for smaller clothing items, scarves, and other accessories. Finally, don’t forget to use the vertical space for lesser-used items, whether that is an upper shelf or hooks/bins on higher areas of the wall.
Reorganize Seasonally
If you have the space for everything you own, great, but many don’t, so you may want to rotate wardrobe based on season. During summer, put sweaters, sweatshirts, and other cold-weather items in bins and store them elsewhere in your home. When it’s time to pull the cold-weather clothes out, put your summer dresses, tank tops, shorts, and other such items that can’t be worn during winter in the bins and store them.
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