Tips for Organizing Your Closet
Whether we are dressing for work or play, most of us start our day in the closet. Digging through a cluttered closet to find the pieces of clothing we want only to find it has to be ironed can be frustrating and set the tone for the rest of the day. Once the clothing is found, it is time to find the missing shoe, scarf, belt, and other accessories that complete the outfit. An organized closet will save time and make getting dressed in the morning much simpler. If your closet is out of control and your are ready to get rid of the clutter, follow the easy step-by-step tips below to get get your closet organized.
Start by doing an evaluation of the items in your closet. Ask yourself questions about your wardrobe and answer them honestly. Here are some suggestions to get you started:
- When is the last time this item was worn?
- If it was more than a year ago, when will it be worn again?
- Does it fit?
- Is it out of style?
- What can it be worn with?
- Does it need mending, altering, or cleaning?
- Does it have sentimental value?
The goal is to only have items in your closet that are currently wearable. If it is out of style, does not fit, needs to be mended, altered, or cleaned, or simply is not being worn, it should not be in the closet. Move clothing that needs to be mended or altered to a mending basket and anything that needs to be cleaned to a laundry basket. If it is not being worn for any reason, donate it so someone else can use it. If an item has sentimental value, store it elsewhere with other memorabilia. Now it is time to start organizing what is left. The best way to do this is to have a plan for categorizing every item.
- Start by separating your wardrobe by season. If possible, only keep the current season clothing in your main closet and store off-season clothing in a separate closet. If your closet is large enough to store the off-season clothing, create a separate area for it.
- Next separate clothing according to the way it is used. Group them according to work/business, casual, and formal wear.
- Now for each of these groups, separate the types of clothing – dresses, skirts, pants, jackets, blouses/shirts.
- Continue to break down the items according to style – long-sleeve, short-sleeve, cuffed pants, capris, suit jackets, casual jackets…..
- Designate the areas in your closet where you will hang each group. One way to do this is to use labeled rod divider discs, or if there is room in the closet, assign a separate part of the closet for each category.
- For each category of clothing, hang according to color starting from the lightest and ending with the darkest.
- Hang complete outfits together for even qicker and easier dressing.
- If a particular tie, cuff-links, scarf, or piece of jewelry is always worn with an outfit, store it in a pocket or hang it from the same hanger as the outfit.
Additional Organizing and Storage Tips
- If you are still using wire hangers or leaving your pants on cardboard covered hangers from the dry-cleaners, it is time to invest in new rods. Wire hangers tend to leave marks on the shoulders of shirts and dresses, and the cardboard used for pants can leave a sticky residue. Wood, plastic tubular, or padded hangers will keep your clothes looking their best. To take advantage of vertical space and create more hanging, use pant hangers with multiple hanging and double hangers for shorter items. If you have wire hangers, take them to your local dry-cleaners for recycling.
- To protect your clothing from insects, hang bags of cedar chips in the closet.
- Hang belts, hats, and purses from hooks on the wall or the back of the closet door.
- Hang scarves from a scarf rod or store folded in a drawer.
- Store small loose items in baskets, bins, clear tubs, or drawers (underwear, socks, lingerie, rolled pantyhose…).
- Store larger items folded on shelves or in cubbies (t-shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, jeans…).
- Remove shoes from their boxes and store on shelves or shoe racks to keep them organized and easy to find.
Now that the closet is organized, it will be easy to find what you want quickly. With very little effort every day, it will also be easy to keep it organized. When you change over your wardrobe from season to season, do a quick evaluation of what you are moving to off-season storage. Ask yourself the same questions above about each item. Now is the time to further rid you closet of unused or out of style items, do any mending or alterations, and make sure everything is clean. When it is time to switch again, your wardrobe will be up to date and ready to wear.
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