Easy, actionable closet organization ideas. Tips to organize your closet that will make and keep your wardrobe tidy and functional with minimal effort.
Closet organizing is one of the most rewarding house making tasks you can carry out in your house, no matter how much or how little stuff you own.
Getting your clothes tidy and properly displayed may seem like a trivial pursuit, a vanity project for the Instagram-ready celebrities with wardrobes the size of your living room however, it is all but!
An organized closed makes it faster to get ready in the morning, easier to tidy up in the evening and it is even a boost to your budget: properly stored clothes last longer and you run less of a risk to forget what you own and buy it again!
Organizing a closet can be an overwhelming task but it doesn’t have to be and you can take itin steps.
These are our tips for closet organizing the easy way.
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How to organize your closet: step by step guide
Closet organizing step 1: Define the space to work with
The first thing to do when organizing your closet is to define the task at hand: are you organizing your whole wardrobe or just the main closet?
The distinction may seem trivial but it is an important one to avoid getting overwhelmed fast.
Organizing your whole wardrobe is the Marie Kondo way: you do not focus on one closet or closets but rather, you take out all your clothing from anywhere in the house, purge and find a home for each and every one of the survivors.
This is a wonderful way to go about closet organizing if you have the time, energy and space for it. However, it can be emotionally and physically very tiring and may even be unnecessary, depending on your setup.
If you are not in the mood for such a big purge, you can also more simply go through the clothes you have in your main wardrobe and selectively ignore other clothing areas in your house.
Do you rotate winter and summer clothes? Then only focus on the season at hand. Do you keep your sports gear in a drawer? Then you can tackle that another time.
The one thing we recommend doing is to have a clear idea of where all your clothing is to begin with so you can easily move clothing from one wardrobe to the other in a way that makes sense.
If this is not the case and many items in the house have no fixed home, then you may want to consider the Marie Kondo way or your organization efforts may soon get undone by intruding items!
Organizing your closet, step 2: Select, select, select
The second most important step when tackling a wardrobe is also the most overwhelming for many: going through what you have and decide what stays and what goes!
The fancy name for this step is wardrobe detox and it feels like one: it is not always all smooth sailing but usually ends up with a wonderful sense of accomplishment and hope.
When weeding out a wardrobe, I like to think about stuff as belonging in categories:
- What I love and wear = keep
- What I love and do not wear = store as a keepsake or donate
- What I use but don’t love = keep until you can replace
- What I don’t use and don’t love = donate or throw out
I find this way works for me as I don’t love all my clothes but some are practical and of common use: unless I am able and willing to replace them straight away, throwing them out can be more damage than good. Being aware of them through this exercise, however, might mean I get a better idea of what I need to replace when budget and time allows!
Closet organization step 3: choose the right hangers
Choosing the right hangers is paramount for successful closet organization. The two main things I recommend you look at are:
Quality – you want solid, non-slip hangers that are strong and big enough to accommodate your clothes without creating odd creases and lopsided shapes.
As tempting as it may be to use the wire hangers that come with your dry cleaning, they are awful for clothes and tend get them out of shape in an often irreparable way and are they are hardly ever worth the money they save you.
Color and shape – if you want the inside of your wardrobe to look good and to make the best possible use of hanging space, get hangers that are all the same (shape and color).
They will go a long way to give a consistent and tidy look to what you own and they also tend to make for good use of space as their shape won’t clash with that of other creating dead space that can be filled with extra clothes.
Closet Organization step 4: Create categories
Once you know what you have and you have your hangers, then you can start putting the clothes back in and the best way to do so is to think of them as divided in categories.
Simple ones are long hang vs short hang (dressed vs tops) and you can separate each even more. Depending on your style and space you have, you may have categories such as short sleeve tops / long sleeve tops / knit / sweaters or more detailed categories: sparkly tops / light knit / shirts / sweaters / sport tops etc.
Within each category you can then go by color: this is pleasing to the eye and makes it super easy to put stuff back in its place. It is the best hack to keep your closet tidy!
Closet Organization Step 5: Get storage
Unless you have other storage areas, chances are you will need to fold at least some of the things you have in your wardrobe, may the be underwear and bras (in that case, you can check how we recommend to store your bras here) or scarves and accessories.
Our favorite way to tackle storage of smaller items is with boxes and baskets. They are the best way to display and easily find things and they also make cleaning your wardrobe easier as you can easily slot them out and clean whenever needed.
If you have a lot of hanging space but not a lot of shelf space, look for hanging organizer solutions that help keep your frequently used items visible.
I hope you enjoyed these tips to organize your closet and found some good ideas. Happy homemaking!