Do you struggle to find things in your closet? Have you wasted time looking for particular items? Also, do you waste money buying something again only to find it later in your closet? Avoid these challenges and organize your closet.
Clean Out Your Closet
The first step to an organized closet is cleaning out your closet. The closet space should be completely emptied out, wiped down, and gone through. Get rid of items that you are never going to wear again. This could include items that are stained, ripped, do not fit, or are out of style. For more on how to clean out your closet click here.
Create and Follow a Closet Organizing System
Once your closet is clean, create a closet organizing system that works for you. The whole point to organizing your closet is so you can always find what you are looking for quickly and easily. Create an organizing system that makes sense to you. Also, if you organize it one way and it ends up not working, no problem! You can always switch to a new system.
Ideas on How to Organize Your Clothes
There are different ways to organize your clothes when you put them back into your closet. Here are some examples of ways to organize your closet:
- Season (winter, spring, summer, fall)
- Color
- Activity (work clothes, workout clothes, going out clothes, home clothes)
- Clothes type (short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, tank tops, blouses, dresses, sweaters, pullovers, pants, skirts, shorts, etc)
You can also mix and match and organize your clothes with a combination of these examples. In the end, do what makes sense to you and will work for you.
Ways to Organize Your Shoes
Organizing your shoes is a little easier since there are not as many. However, when you need a specific pair you want to be able to easily find them. The best way to organize your shoes is by type of shoe. So group together flip flops, sandals, athletic shoes, slip ons, heels, boots, etc. The key to always being able to quickly find a pair of shoes is to put your shoes away in their spot at the end of the day.
Organize Your Accessories
One more thing to organize is your accessories. You may keep some accessories in the closet and others outside of the closet on a dresser, in a bin, or in the bathroom. Accessories are smaller and easier to lose (and easier for small children to grab and swallow or misplace) so make sure to keep them in a safe place and always put them away when you are done with them.
Keep like accessories together, but do not keep too many small items together so every time you have to search through a hundred of them to find what you are looking for. For example, if you have 50 pairs of earrings, do not keep them all together or each day you will spend a minute searching through them. Instead keep them in about 5-6 separate containers organized by color, style, or size so you can find what you are looking for faster.
Have a Place for Every Item in your Closet
I mentioned this above, but if you have a space for every item they are less likely to get lost, left on the floor, or clutter up your closet. In addition, you will always know where everything is when you need it. So make sure to put clothes, shoes, and accessories back in their correct spots. This way you do not have to spend time looking for something later.
Easy Accessibility in Your Closet
Find a place for items that you use the most in the front, on top, or at eye level when you organize your closet. If you wear the same pair of shoes almost everyday it does not make sense to keep them on the bottom in the corner behind something else. Make it easy on yourself to access the items you use most.
In addition, make things easily accessible when organizing your closet. Use bins, baskets, trays, and totes to keep smaller items together. Bins are also good to keep up high as they are easy to pull down. Put light weight things that you do not use often in these bins. This way when you grab them off the shelf they will not be so heavy they fall on you. Some examples of items I keep in my bins up high in the closet are swim suits and hats.
Track Potential New Clothes
When I purchase new clothes, sometimes I am unsure if I want to keep the item. I always ask myself the “do you love it question” before I buy something. Although even when I love it, I might not end up wearing it. So to avoid wasting money on items I won’t wear and time looking for receipts I follow this system below.
When organizing my closet, I keep a small place that I hang new clothes to avoid wrinkles – keeping the tags on of course. Next, I tape the receipt either onto the hanger or the tags so the correct receipt is with the item. Then if I end up changing my mind and returning it, the receipt is attached.
If I have a long receipt with multiple items I keep all those items together with that receipt in the closet. If there are items on the same receipt but in different closets (like if I got my kids and myself items on the receipt) I keep the receipt where the most items are located. Then I put a post-it note on the hanger or tags with the other items noting exactly where the receipt is located. If I keep and take the tags off the clothes with the receipt, I transfer the receipt to another closet if needed. This saves lots of time from looking for a receipt if I want to return something.
If I purchase new shoes or accessories I keep the receipt in the bag with the item(s) or shoe box. This keeps items together with the correct receipt especially if I have multiple receipt bags.
Tracking Kids’ New Clothes
Furthermore, I follow this process with my kids clothes regularly as I enjoy shopping in advance to get good deals. Although, kids grow so fast so something ends up not fitting or they get a duplicate as a gift (which has happened multiple times), so then I can easily return the item with the attached receipt.
It is easy to go overboard with filling a closet, especially kids clothes. So I keep in mind how many times I think they will wear the article of clothing and if it is worth the money. If they already have 15 outfits in that size, I most likely will not purchase any more. Click here to see more on money saving clothes tips.
Final Thoughts on How to Organize Your Closet
Keeping an organized closet will save you loads of time, money and energy. No more wasting time searching for things, wasting money on things you already have, and energy picking things up and decluttering. Spend a little time now to get your closet organized to save BIG time later. If you follow these tips to clean out your closet, create and follow a system, have a place for everything, make items easily accessible, and track new items your closet will be organized for years to come.
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