Closet Organizing Tips

Give your wardrobe the love it deserves with these simple tips!

  • Start with a clean slate and take everything out of your closet, yes everything! Use a portable garment rack to hang clothes as you take them out so you see what you have as you’re organizing.
  • Divide and conquer! Use large bins as separators to sort clothes, shoes, and accessories. Designate the bins as “keep,” “donate,” and “toss.” (See tips for sorting below).
  • Categorize clothes by office, party and casual wear; then further divide into seasons. Store out of season clothes in under the bed containers or in airtight containers to keep them safe until next year.
  • For seasonal clothes, use garment bags to keep them protected from dust and bugs. Choose a bug preventative that is best for you and add it to the basement closet. Keep in mind, cedar repels moths only, but there are other options to eliminate them too.
  • Now that you've followed the above tips, it’s time to add a storage system to maximize your space. freedomRail storage systems offer the most versatility. They’re strong, easy to install and adjust without any tools.
  • Use every bit of space wisely. Utilize backs of doors with over the door storage solutions for storing shoes, accessories and handbags.
  • Always use matching hangers. They'll keep garments hanging at the same height and are a great for transforming a messy closet into a tidy one. Read this article – Choosing the Right Hanger for help.
  • Our favorite tip - hang items in your closet with the hanger facing the opposite direction all at once. As you wear them, hang them with the hanger facing the right way. If after three months you have hangers facing the opposite way, you’ll identify the clothes you don’t wear and should donate.
  • If you have too many shelves but not enough hanging space then add fun accessories to your closet such as tie and belt racks or hanging sweater organizers that will attach to the clothes rod.
  • Keep track of what’s inside your closet by using transparent storage boxes, garment bags or shoe boxes so you can have quick access to what you're looking for. Solid storage boxes are fine too as long as they are labeled so you know what’s inside.
  • Always keep a donate basket nearby so you're not tempted to keep items you should toss out.

Sorting Tips

Sorting is an essential part of getting your closet under control and organized, especially when you’re changing your closet for the season. Often, we have way more clothing than necessary. And if we neglect the sorting process, we’re only cheating ourselves out of valuable space.

Keep
Before an item earns a place in your keep pile, ask yourself a few key questions:

  • Does it fit? Be honest with yourself, if it hasn’t fit for awhile, let it go. It only eats up valuable space in your closet and doesn’t give you enough storage for items you actually wear.
  • Is it in good condition? If the item is stained, ripped or extremely worn, it should go.
  • How many of the item do I have? If you have 15 white shirts that you have acquired over the years, you need to be realistic and figure out how many you truly need. If you can reduce the amount, even by five, you’ll increase your storage space and have fewer items to manage when it comes to organizing.

Donate
Your “extras” or “don’t fits” may be hard for you to part with, but when you think about how those items could be used by others, it can make parting with them easier. Not only are you helping others, but donations are often tax-deductible — just one more reason to donate.

Additional Tips

  • Set a timer for 10 minutes and go through each article of clothing on a certain shelf before the timer goes off. This “race against the clock” method can help you make quick decisions about items and move on. Go with your gut and remember, when in doubt throw it out!
  • Group like items together, which makes locating things quick and easy. That means sweaters in one section and skirts in another.
  • Make room for out of season clothes in the garage, basement or attic. Use moisture resistant storage containers to keep garments safe until next season.