I'm very adamant with all of my clients that if you want to have an organized home, you must first learn how to organize your closet and manage your clothes.
The first principle in knowing how to organize your closet, will be the same principle we applied in last week's article How to Organize Closets and Cupboards: Everything must come OUT!
There are certain procedures which make this particular project much nicer to contemplate, too, so let’s go to work!
How to Organize Your Closet: Where To Begin
First, we will tackle your personal closet. It is the easiest place to make major improvements and will make considerable difference in your daily life. Plus, it is the one closet YOU have control over. From there, the same principles can be applied to each and every closet in your home, including your kid'd bedrooms.
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How to Organize Your Closet: The Plan
Collect two boxes, large bags or other convenient containers to be used in sorting items. Pick a time when you will have an hour or so free to focus and make decisions. Try to have your children otherwise occupied while you are working. Try not to be distracted by the phone, doorbell, or TV during your cleaning-out session.
Tackle your closet in three sections: floor, clothes on hangers, and upper shelves. Let’s start with your hanging clothes. The same routine will apply to your closet floor and upper shelving.
Take all the items off the hanging rod and place them on your bed (which you may want to make first so as to have a large, flat surface to work upon). Sort the items four ways, putting them back in your closet or into your containers as you go: keeps, maybes, discards, and to be stored elsewhere.
How to Organize Your Closet with Keeps, Discards, and Maybes
Keeps are those clothes which you love, wear often, and would not do without. Put them back in your closet. Discards are those clothes which no longer fit, are out of style, are the wrong color, or you simply don’t like. Put them in the first container for sharing with charity. Maybes are more of a problem. These are the questionable clothing which might fit again, for which you might find another matching piece, or which you sometimes like to wear. These go in a tote box. Anything that you continue to think about for days, can go back in. Most likely you will have forgotten about most of the clothes in the bin. This is a sign they should leave your life.
Remember that to have fewer clothes is to be less burdened by life. Generously rid yourself of any and all clothes that you really, really don’t like. You will never miss them. Your closet will seem much larger. Dressing will become much easier and you will feel much better about yourself.
Two exceptions need to be noted. Seasonal clothing is to be sorted through the same way when these items are out and convenient. In addition, sort through maternity clothes when they are retrieved for use.
Using this same method, go through the items on your closet floor and your upper shelves. Keeps – return to the closet. Maybes – but in a bin or large garbage bag. Discards – out they go. To be stored elsewhere – put in a container for later decisions. Strive to have more than enough room in your closet. It is not likely you will have more closet room anytime soon. So, eliminate and simplify. It feels great!
The best part about learning how to organize your closet is that you might now have twice as much space, which means you can store your out-of-season clothes in your actual closet and not lightyears away in the dungeons of the basement. Which is really nice, because there are so many times that a warm day comes early spring, or a cold day sneaks up during the summer, or your just really need something from your out-of-season clothes!
How to Organize the Clothes that You Keep
For the clothes that go back into your closet, it is a good idea to sort them: long sleeve, short-sleeve, dressy, sweaters, etc. so that when you are looking for a particular item, you know right where it is!
Don't Ball Up Your Socks
Don't fold your socks into balls, this will wear out the elasticity and stretch them out. Instead, fold them in half, and then in half again. Using sock drawer organizers will also help. We like the honeycomb drawer organizers for our socks.
Neatly folded clothes with accessories in chest of drawers
Drawer Organizers
Use drawer organizers to keep things orderly, especially accessories like belts. Bras should also be in their own compartment, and not stacked on top of each other, but “nested” next to each other. Don't hang your bras by their straps or they will stretch and lose elasticity.
Vertical Storage of Clothing
Always store your clothing vertically, and never stacked on top of each other. This will make things easier to find, will allow more space for storing clothing, and they are likely to stay organized because the rest of your shirts don't topple over when you go to remove the one you want. This method also makes your clothes last longer because they are not sitting under the pressure of all the other clothing.
Vertical storage of clothing.
What tips do YOU have for how to organize your closet?
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