Decisions � What to Keep, Toss, or Donate

The hardest part for most people when cleaning out their closets is to decide what should go back in. Most how-to articles advise that if you haven’t worn something within one year it is safe to let it go. A year seems like a long time to wait and see if you should be keeping it. Unless it is a seasonal item that can only be worn in the summer or winter, six months is realistic guideline for frequency of use. If you haven’t put on a pair of jeans in six months for whatever reason, you shouldn’t be making space for them in your newly organized closet.

Now that you have your pile of clothes that you have decided you no longer need, what should you do with them? The two common places for these items is the trash bag or a donation bin. How you decide which of the two should receive each item depends on the reason you are giving it up or haven’t worn it.

You should toss any items that are stained, ripped, worn, or any other flaw that makes the garment unsuitable. If you can’t abide with the thought of throwing out clothing, consider cutting up shirts for cleaning rags. You can also cut up denim jeans for patches – decorative or functional. One of the few places that may take donations of clothing such as this is a nursing home. If you take the time to cut up the clothing, getting rid of any stains and tears, the fabric could be reused for a quilt.

If the clothing you no longer want or need can still be worn, it can be donated. Items that fall into this category are pieces that no longer fit, you no longer care for the style or you have too many of the same item.

Different Ways to Organize Your Clothes

Everyone is unique and one way of organization isn’t necessarily going to work for all. Don’t read a how-to book on closet organization and feel that you must follow it to the letter. With any book of this nature, take from it what makes sense to you and then tailor it to suit your needs or wardrobe as the case is here. One way is to group all like items together, like your bottoms, tops, and sweaters, or you can group them according to category, work, home, or gym. Or take combine the two.

If your wardrobe is pretty consistent, meaning most of your clothes fall into one category (whether it is casual, business, or anything else), it might make sense to you to group all like items together. This method will allow you to pick one item from each grouping and you are ready to go with your outfit for the day. This gets a bit tricky if your wardrobe serves multiple purposes and it doesn’t make sense to group your track suit with your business suit.

If you fall into the latter category, have a separate section in your closet for your gym wear, casual weekend wear and your work clothes. Within these sections, you then should group all the pants, tops, etc. together to again make things as easy as possible for you.

Other options for organizing include color coordination – group all of your black items together, blue, brown and so on. When you are folding your sweaters, make different piles for your heavy sweaters and light-weight sweaters so you can choose based on the weather for the day.

Choose a system that makes sense and will work for you - one that you are going to be able to maintain for the long-term.

Closet Organization on a Budget

Do you drool over the closet organization systems that are available longing for a closet that looks like the ones in the advertisements? You know that your mornings would be less stressful and harried if you could just find what you needed when you need it in your unorganized closet. But you don’t have to invest your savings to achieve the benefits of a closet organization system. There are tips and tricks you can utilize to get the same effect without the high cost.

The key to low-cost closet organization is creativity and using the resources available to you. Hang hooks on the back of your closet door or any other vertical surface for a plethora of uses from purses, belts, hats, bathrobes, or any other item you can hang. Plastic storage drawers are inexpensive and available at most hardware stores are useful for the bottom of your closet, again to group and store small things or ones that you don’t typically hang up such as your pajamas. Shelving is a must, where you don’t hang a hook put up a shelf. After your shelving is up, invest or repurpose some baskets or other small receptacles to store items in. If you don’t, the shelves are destined to become messy and cluttered. This is a few of the low to no cost items you can use to organize your closet.

If you have a bigger budget, find a picture of a closet organization system that catches your eye and see if you can recreate it on your own with lower cost supplies found in your hardware store. Plastic shelving, extra hanging rods, and hooks are all that you need to create an organized closet. Invest in enough hangers too; make sure you have enough for all of your clothes to make picking out an outfit easy.

Closet Organization � Categorize

The key to any successful organization project is categorizing. By grouping like things together you will make them easy to find for future use, easy to remember when it is time to put them away and your closet will look nice and orderly. Proper storage containers will make this task easy to accomplish and maintain.

Baskets, bins, and drawers are the perfect addition to any closet. They can be used to store socks in one, belts in other, just try to keep like things together. Additionally, you will want to categorize your hanging clothing. The most popular way of doing this is to put all of your pants in one area, shirts, in the next and so on. If you want to go further when you are categorizing, separate your clothing into groups of when you would wear them (to work, to the gym, at home, at night) and then group the pants and tops together within those smaller categories.

Hooks are another way to store like things together. They can be used for belts, ties, or purses. Having these smaller accessories in one place and on display will make your choices in the morning quicker. If you have a larger closet, you may want to keep your jewelry in the closet too. You can use a traditional jewelry box to keep them together or a small box for your earrings and another for your necklaces and so on.

You can think outside the box too, brainstorm how you use the different items in your closet. Maybe your workout gear can be stored in ready to wear bundles. Take your pants roll up a shirt and socks inside and they are neat inside your closet and ready to grab when it is time to go to the gym for a work out.

Closet Problems & Solutions

A messy closet is a problem a lot of people have and they aren’t sure how to fix it. The messiness can come in many different forms but the root cause is most likely a lack of organization. If you start out organized it is much easier to stay that way. Here are a few common closet problems and some solutions that can be implemented at any time.

Are your hangers a tangled mess or do your clothes constantly slip off? Sounds like you have wire hangers hanging in your closet. To prevent tops from slipping off and falling to the floor or the dreaded hanger crease in the middle of your pant leg, invest in some wooden or plastic hangers. Not only are they functional, it is more attractive to have a uniform type of hanger in your closet (all wire hangers do not count).

If you are consistently looking for a mate to the pair of shoes you want to wear you need to put a system in place to organize your shoes. There are many options for shoe organizing, you can purchase a hanging canvas shoe rack that goes on your hanging bar, a shoe tree, or install some shelving in the bottom part of your closet. This is a quick and easy job, something that can be accomplished in under 2 hours (set-up and organization).

Chances are there are many things you can remove from the closet that doesn’t belong. Put your spare blankets in a linen closet or under the bed, and take the clothes you have been meeting to drop off at the donation bin out to the car so you won’t forget to do it another day. Find the proper home for whatever else is living in your closet when it shouldn’t be.

Closet Organization for Two

In any couple it is bound to happen, one is the epitome of organization and the other specializes in organized chaos. Chances are there are many areas of your home where the organizer takes charge and makes sure things stay neat and tidy. But what do you do if you have to share a closet with a partner who does not share your love of everything in its place? Don’t despair; you have a couple of options available to you.

Option one is to never allow anyone into your closet except for you. This is a sure fire way to insure nothing gets misplaced or starts to get messed up. But it is not a very practical solution. You would have to pick out and put everything away, unless this appeals to you – option two is probably the way to go.

Option two is to organize the closet in a sensible way that makes finding items and putting them away just as easy as dumping them on the floor (well, maybe not that easy). Make sure everything thing has a home and that your partner knows where that home is. Remember that a system that works for you may not work for someone else; you need to get their buy-in too. If they are fine to leave the planning and organizing to you, investing a bit more time to label shelves and bins with the correct contents may save you some big headaches down the road.

Be prepared to do some damage control once a month, make sure the system is still working and weed out anything that isn’t. Like anything in a relationship, sharing a closet involves a lot of give and take. Just don’t take it too seriously; your love of organization shouldn’t get in the way of your love for your partner.

A Place for Everything

A closet needs a system in order to function properly and stay organized. Your system can be as complicated or as simple as you like but the common factor in all closet organization is having a place for everything. Once this is accomplished, the next step to master is to put everything in its place. This has to be done consistently to make your system work which will take time, practice and a little self-discipline.

For instance if the bottom of your closet is a sea of unmatched shoes and you have to conduct a scavenger hunt to find a matching pair – you need to find a home for every pair of shoes you own. This will probably mean investing in a shoe tree or a similar organizational helper. Before you buy, do some research – find out what is available in your price range and where you can find it. Make sure that there is enough room for your entire shoe collection and be forward thinking – leave room for future growth. If you don’t do this you will end up in the same situation as before but with less money in your wallet.

After you have found a home for all of your clothes (or shoes) take the time (each and every time) to put them back in their new spot. But don’t stop at just your shoes! Keep going, pick the next problem spot in your closet, you will know what it is by the level of frustration you experience as you try to find something. It could be belts, ties, workout clothes, socks, whatever it is –find a home for your items, put them there every time and soon it will become second nature and you will never have to conduct a search in your closet again.

Closet Organization for Children

Organizing a child’s closet can get a little tricky, you are not just dealing with clothes here – chances are a fair amount of toys are going to have to be dealt with too. You will have to tailor the organizational system you choose to the age of your child and no matter the system or the age you have to be prepared to step in and help out. By the time a child is old enough to put their toys and clothes away they are developing their own sense of independence, let your child help you decide where everything belongs to give them a sense of ownership over their things and the buy-in you will need to get them to want to help keep things neat and tidy.

Labels are the best way to teach your children what to put where. Whether or not your child can read yet, a combination of pictures and words are a great way to label bins, drawers, and shelves inside a closet. If you have a plastic drawer unit in the closet you might label the first drawer with a picture of some dinky cars and the word “CARS” underneath. Hangers can be tricky for younger children, if they are at an age where they can get dressed on their own consider putting in shelves instead of a rod for hanging. This will make things easier for getting dressed and to begin teaching them to put away their own laundry.

To get off to the right start after you put a new system in place for your child’s closet help them each day to put things where they belong to give them an understanding of the system. As time passes, they will get used to the system and it may only require a weekly clean-up from you to make sure everything is staying on track.