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Have you ever looked at your closet and wished you had some more space?
Have you ever been jealous of the closets you see on Home Improvement shows?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Everytime I open my closet, I go thru the same emotions. Its all disorganized and cramped up. I think to myself what it would be like to have a closet that looks like this ..
I know you have too.
And the best part is, that this is totally achievable. With a little bit of inspiration, time and a small budget we all can have a closet that we’ll fall in love with every time we open it.
An organized closet doesn’t just looks awesome, it can also save you a lot of time and frustration when looking for things. A cluttered closet also collects dusts, mold, bugs, roaches and even mites and my guess is that you don’t want any of these anywhere around your closet. So let’s go ahead and dig a little bit deeper into how we can get our closets organized once and for all.
Declutter the Closet – Separate the good, the bad, and the ugly!
Step 1 – Take everything out and clean
When you’re starting to organize something, its always best to start with a clean slate. Let’s start by first removing everything from the closet and giving all the existing shelves a good clean and vaccum if possible. Put everything in neat piles, preferably separated by item type. For example, all the shirts together in one pile, jeans in another, shorts in another and so forth.
You get the idea! 🙂
Keeping similar items of clothing together makes it easy to stack them and looks neat and clean once everything is hung up.
Step 2 – Pick and choose
I always say that we all are hoarders at some level. If you’re like the most of us, you probably have several items in your closet that you haven’t worn in years and aren’t even planning to. Let’s declutter while we are at it. Sort all the clothes you’ve taken out of your closet into 4 different categories: Keep, Store, Donate and Toss. If you really want to understand how to organize your closet easily, follow this simple tips.
Keep
Clothes and shoes that are in this category are the ones you wear often. That beautiful shirt your friends can’t stop talking about or that lovely pair of sneakers that makes you stand out any where you go. These are the clothes and shoes you would really miss if they weren’t in your closet. You really want to have them nearby just so you can wear them anytime. Put them in the Keep bucket.
Fold or hang all the clothes you intend to keep in an area of your closet where you can pick them up easily and anytime.
Store
Chances are some of your clothes are seasonal clothes. You wouldn’t need your winter sweater and scarves in the middle of summer and you certainly won’t need your tank tops and all other summer dresses in the middle of winter. Select and keep only the clothes you’ll need for the current season and store all others for the next season.
You can also store clothes that are souvenirs and clothes you’re emotionally tied to like the sport jersey you wore for your school baseball team when you were 7. After making up your mind on all the clothes you intend to store, fold them and keep them in a plastic bin. You can keep the bin under your bed, at the back of your closet, in a storage unit or in any other space in your home where you can keep them until you’ll need them.
Donate
You can put a brighter smile on someone’s face by donating clothes you no longer need. But making up your mind on shoes and clothes to donate often seem tricky. My rule is that if I haven’t worn a shoe or cloth for two seasons or more and its not a souvenir, then i guess its time to donate it.
You sure have some clothes that are way too small for you to wear, those clothes won’t grow to fit you, give them out. But where exactly can you donate these clothes and shoes? You can give out your vintage clothing and costumes to drama departments in schools and local drama group. Other places are local churches, community outreach centers, homeless shelters and mission.
If you’re looking to donate to other communities and outreach centers, take a cue from our 25 Days of Moving and Giving. Other places are Salvation Army, Care Cycle, Dress for Success, Big Brother, Big Sister, Foundation and Good Will.
Toss
If you’re still left with items that are too old or too shabby to donate or keep then the last resort is to toss them out. How to organize your closet to make it better often involved throwing out things you no longer need. If any of your clothes and shoes are not good enough for any one to wear, they should go into the toss bin. Some clothes may be recycled though. You should visit Planet Aid to see what can be recycled or not.
Get the right organization supplies
There’s really no shortage of organization supplies and ideas today. You can get as creative as you like and still get the most amount of functionality from your closet, whatever the size may be.
Buy tubs or simple plastic drawers. You can place the tubs or drawers on the floor of your closet and use them to keep clothes like bedding, out of season clothes like winter jacket, clothes that are no longer trendy or whatever else you wish. With that, you can easily keep unused items out of the way and have them handy whenever you wish.
Another useful tool is hanger and hooks. You can place the hook on the back of your closet door or an open space on your wall.
Hooks allow you to hang towels, bathrobes etc. You should also consider space-saving hangers that you can hang your clothes on neatly close to the wall.
Shoe storage is another useful tool you should consider. You can organize your shoe properly by using door-hanging shoe organizers, shoe racks, and any other relevant shoe tool that can help you store your shoes appropriately. Check out this really cool and compact shoe storage idea from Brit.co.
The good news is that you can build a really efficient and good looking closet with just some creativity and a little bit of handy work. Here’s a really good example from Brit.co to give you some inspiration. You can do this even if you aren’t an expert at doing handy stuff. For more inspiration and ideas, check out this blogpost by Brit.co.
Everything you see in the above pictures can be purchased at stores like Ikea, Target or Walmart at very very resonable prices. All it takes is the imagination to visualize and the will to execute.
If you aren’t the creative type and don’t want to spend time browsing around to get ideas and inspiration, you might want to look for a premade closet-organization system. It often includes shelves, drawers, and space to hang clothes. Premade closet-organization system often comes with tools to put them together.
Only attempt to do this is you’re a handy person and have experience doing some handy work, as you will need to do some tricky stuff if you want a closet like the one below.
While closets are often the smallest space in a house, if you use the right supplies you can get the most use out of them.
How to organize your closet – keeping your clothes the right way
After sorting and purging the clothes and shoes in your closet, its time to organize all the clothes you intend to keep. One very useful tool you can use is a hanger. You should consider hanging as many clothes as you can. You should separate your casual clothes from the ones you wear to work. You can also organize your clothes by types and how often you out them on.
Your hanger may not be enough for all your clothes, so consider folding the rest of your clothes neatly and arranging them in a very clean part of your closet. You can use plastic bins or a dresser or a closet organizer to create more space for your clothes.
How to organize your closet – where should you keep your shoes?
The more shoes you have, the more space you’ll need to keep them. Your shoes should go through the same sort and purge process as your clothes. Make up your mind on which ones to keep, store, donate or toss. Once you’ve picked the ones you intend to keep, the next thing is how to organize your closet and keep your shoes in the right places.
But where exactly should you keep your shoes? Just one shoe rack could be enough to house most of your shoes. If your closet door is one that opens and not slide, you can create more space with an over-the-door shoe rack, the rest can go into your overhead space.
One easy method of organizing your shoes is to organize them by how often you wear them. Shoes you wear more often should be kept in places where you can reach them easily. You can also separate your boots, sneakers, sandals, flip-flops and dress shoes.
How to organize your closet – Where to keep purses, bags and other smaller items?
Right inside your closet, you can attach a hook where you can hang your purses and bags easily. You can take advantage of hooked organizers that can fit right into the back of your closet doors or can fit into the same rod you hang your clothes on. But if you have a bigger closet, you can arrange your bags and purses neatly on glass shelves where you can pick them up easily any time you want.
Now that you’ve learned how to organize your closet, if you still have too many items you no longer need, consider a yard sale. Here’s how to plan a yard sale that sells in any neighborhood. Overall, how to organize your closet may not be as hard as you thought. Once you have all the right closet organizing tools you’ll need for your shoes, bags, clothes and other smaller items that goes in a closet, how to organize your closet automatically becomes easier.
If you need a bigger closet in a bigger home, you should consider moving. You can plan your moving with us, its 100% free. Request free moving quotes of professional moving companies and we’ll provide up to six.
