I love to organize, in fact when ever I am home, my mom likes to assign me little organizing projects throughout the home and I oblige happily. Recently I tackled her closet and thought I would share the results and some tips.
1. Organize by category and then color. Not only does this make it easier to see what you have when you get dressed, but putting things away and maintaining order is almost effortless. In my mom’s closet we have have great little closet dividers that she got off of Amazon.com seen here. There are a ton of great options out there, or you can make your own if you are feeling crafty. It really makes maintaining the system easy and looks cute too.
One thing you may notice from this picture is that most of the hangers are backwards. I picked up this method years ago as a way of showing you what clothes you need to get rid of. Hopefully when you organize your closet you sort through your things for what should be donated, to take is a step further I suggest putting all of your hangers backwards. As you take an item out, turn the hanger around so that after a year (or season) you can see what you have worn and what you haven’t. What you haven’t worn, give away. This is a good way to force yourself to give away things that you really don’t need.
2. Label Everything! Once you have gotten everything sorted into categories you want to be able to keep it that way. I made these labels simply by cutting out squares and attaching them with twist ties to the wire baskets. By labeling these bins everything is easy to find.
3. Put less frequently used things on higher shelves, but still accessible so that you are aware of what you have and where it is. Seasonal items or dressy clutches should still be easy to get to but out of the way of more frequently used items. This helps to streamline the process of getting ready, and who doesn’t want more time in the morning to have that extra cup of coffee?
4. Shoes Storage really depends on space, in my closet I have one of those over the door shoe organizers, but if you have the space like my mom does, its great to be able to lay them all out. Since this is a shared closet, my step-dad’s shoes are displayed on the built in shoe shelves. Baskets holding socks are placed right below the shoe shelves for convenience of use, since sock choice often (and should) depend on shoe choice so why not put them next to each other.
Because my mom is well, a girl, her shoe collection is much larger than my stepdads so her shoes take up more space. In order to save space and stay organized, each pair has a designated plastic bin (that’s labeled) so that pairs of shoes can be stacked and changed out easily for changing seasons.
5. There are many great products available for storing scarves but if you don’t want to spend any money storing scarves on regular hangers is easy and efficient. My mom’s scarves take up three hangers (cramming them on to one would be bulky and difficult to use and maintain). The scarves are organized by color so that she can easily grab the one she wants.
Happy Spring Cleaning Everyone! I hope you got some good ideas for how to whip your space into shape!
