Essential Tips For Organizing Your Closet

As a professional organizer, I find that closets are often the biggest problem area inside a home. They also tend to be quickest “fall-back-into-bad-habits” zone.

Tips For Organizing A Clothes Closet

• Use thin hangers, velvet lined, if possible. Standardized hangers make the closet look more organized and thin hangers are preferable over thick ones.
• Hang clothes on hangers facing the same way and hang hangers on pole facing the back of the closet.
• Donate or toss clothes that a) Do not fit, b) Do not make you feel fabulous, c) You do not like for one reason or another, d) Are just worn out.
• Hang clothes using the like-with-like method. Long-sleeved blouses/shirts together, short-sleeved blouses/shirts together, slacks with slacks, etc. and then hang them in a color palette formation (blues with blues, whites with whites).
• Try on clothes that you have not worn in a long time but are unsure of keeping or discarding. Often you will find that it does not hang right on you, or has an irritating tag, the pockets are odd, etc. There is usually a reason why you do not wear it, and often just trying it on again reminds you of that reason.
• Do not keep clothes that hold negative memories. If that dress reminds you of the night you got dumped or that suit reminds you of the day your presentation at work went horribly wrong, donate them.
• Keep shoes contained in clear plastic bins. Attach a digital photo of the shoes to the outside of the box. Stack like-with-like (ie. sandals stacked on sandals and heel stacked on heels).
• If there is an item of clothing that you are unsure about keeping or donating, turn that hanger facing the opposite way in your closet.  If after six months, the hanger is still facing backwards, it is highly unlikely you will ever wear it again so it goes in the donate pile.  Same goes for shoes.

Tips For Keeping A Closet Organized

• Commit to go through the exercise above at least twice per year.
• If space is a problem, it will even more important to keep clothes organized. Who wants to hang up clothes when you have to fight to fit them in the closet? Is it time to purge unworn items or can you move some of t-shirts and tank tops into a drawer to free up some valuable space?
• Follow the old adages, “Out with the old, in with the new” or “A place for everything and everything in its place.”