A newly reorganized closet is a sight to behold. You've cleared the clutter, your belongings look great, and you can check another chore off the list. If you're like me, however, this feeling lasts a shockingly short time before the clutter creeps back. I just re-cleaned a closet I organized only a few months ago, and I'm determined to keep it nice with this list of easy tips.
We've done plenty of posts on smart organization strategies, affordable shelving systems, and inspirational closets. The tips in this post are just small things to do to keep the space organized in the long run. I'll admit that it's based on my own shortcomings — please feel free to add your own tips below.
- Put things back exactly where they belong. This tip may be obvious, but I can get lazy about particulars when putting things away. For example, I'll cram my purses haphazardly on their shelf, or throw my shoes on the floor beneath their organizer. If I took an extra two seconds to store things properly, the whole closet would look neater.
- Take wire hangers back to the dry cleaners. I have Huggable Hangers, but once I transfer my clothes to them, the wire hangers from the cleaners often grow into an unwieldy pile. I'm going to put them in a designated bag and return them whenever I go to the cleaners.
- Clean the floor monthly. You may need only a broom or handvac, but cleaning the floor means finding the floor. It will keep you honest.
- If it isn't working, fix it. If you hung scarves on hooks and they keep falling off, or you can't reach the shelf with your jeans, fix it now. Otherwise, it will just keep irritating you. You'll also be less likely to store things there (instead of in a heap elsewhere).
- A brief seasonal assessment. Don't wait to do a major clean-out once a year — instead, assess your closet at the end of every season. There's likely a few things that can go in the giveaway pile.
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To go along with the hangars, I would say having matching hangars makes a world of a difference in the way a closet looks! Also, it is always good to have a few more on hand than you need. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone shopping and brought home something new only to have to drape it over a chair or my bed's foot board for a week until I find the time to go out and get more hangars for it!
outside of maintenance, if anyone has tips on how they set up the organization in a closet (i've got a small one), would appreciate it...
I read this trick for editing your closet: turn all your hangers backwards, when you wear an item and return it to your closet, hang it normally. In six months, or at the end of a season, get rid of anything still on a backwards hanger.
mine is tiny....I was looking for an Ikea one but am afraid there will only be the bed and a huge closet in the room , no room for anything else.
How do you guys with small bedooms do that?
I only have a set number of hangars. That way if I want to buy something new, I know I have to donate something else from my closet. This keeps me from having a closet overstuffed with things I don't wear!
I second the request for tips on organizing the closet in the first place :)
On matching hangers: I'm too cheap to buy the nice ones, but I've started just buying everything white plastic for my closet. Even matching plastic hangers that are 10 for $1 look ok, plus I got dollar store white bins for the shelves and $3 white laundry baskets to hold stuff on the floor. Sure not high-end but it all matches and that helps.
@mobinux I _ love_ organizing closets. If I knew you, I'd be over in a flash to help you. Here are some tips:
1) find all the stuff you need to have in the closet and sort it on your bed or sofa. Sort it by putting like with like, i.e. shoes with shoes, bags with bags etc. For the clothes, sort by item, belts, shirts, jackets etc. Also pull out the longest items of clothing in one stack - long dresses or skirts or trousers that are hung full length. For shoes, put them in pairs, side by side (if you turn each pair so that the heel of one is against the toe of another, they take surpisingly less room. When you do this you are getting a sense of what you have and what space it takes up.
I can't be too specific about how to organize because it partly depends on what makes sense to you - that's what will keep it organized. Maybe you organize by color, or by outfit or by item, it doesn't matter as long as it works for you.
2) Now look at your closet. Can you realistically fit everything in this small closet? If not, decide what to get rid of and what you can put elsewhere. Is there room to add shelves high up toward the ceiling for out of season storage? Look at the closet door, is there room there for storage of shoes/belts/ties/ on the door. What other hidden space you can take advantage of? When the closet is deep, there may be room at the back for hanging things at the back behind the hangers. If the closet is wider than the door opening, don't forget that the inside wall on either side of the door might be useful for ties/scarves/bags/belts etc - anything that can hang flat against the wall.
3) Basically you want to use all the space in the closet. You'll want to figure out how to hang two rows, one above the other and one slimmer section for anything you have that's longer. Dividing these two is some kind of shelf unit - as in the closet above. There are lots of ways of creating this at all price points. Searching AT and other online resources for closet organization will get you a gazillion options.
4) I find that it helps me to stay organized when I 'decorate' the inside of the closet. Usually I paint the inside a color I love, that's a bit bolder or in a different color range than I would normally use. Or a little wallpaper - you can do a closet with one roll from a 'discontinued' bin at the paint store. New hangers are great, too, and can make a difference in how much you can store.
I hope that gets you started.
Lots of people organize by color.
I organize by color within style, so dress shirts in ROYGBIV order, followed by tee shirts in ROYGBIV. Tanks, skirts, blazers, etc. You can tweak the color order/categories to your liking.
@inneedofmakeover: This tip will depend on how open you are to displaying your clothes, but I bought this from Ikea and installed next to my closet for extra dress storage. It definitely takes up less space than another piece of furniture:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90140063/
The other think I like about it is that I can hang clothes that I'm going to wear again on the side hooks to air out before putting them away properly.
in dont have a closet or armoire/wardrobe. i only have a standard 6 drawsers "malm" dresser from ikea.
whenever i buy new clothes the same amount of old ones has to go.
i wash once a week, only dirty cloth keeps piling up because i'm so lazy in the evening.
I grew up with the organize it queen. ROYGBIV by category - sleeveless shirts, short sleeved, long sleeved, turtle neck, sweaters. Followed by short skirts, long skirts and dresses or pants. Depending on the closet you can put an over the door shoe rack in the door.
I've always had at least two closets, albeit tiny ones, so i hang purses and robes inside the other door. Right now I don't have a lot of wall space so I put two little dressers in the closet for sweat pants, pjs and socks/undies. They fit well under my shirts and pants. I edit continuously and limit my total hanger number to a set maximum. i keep t-shits in clear bookend shaped things with sides on the upper shelf - I used to do this with sweaters but I'm too short to keep it consistently well organized up there.
I'm still tackling boots. The queen used a special part of her walk-in and had forms to put inside them so they stood up straight. My challenge has always been where to put stuff like the vacuum cleaner and art projects. I have high upper cabinets for old busines records, luggage, cooler, etc., but right now the vacuum lives with the coats and boots and craft stuff is in boxes under an open sink.
@mobinux: I would also recommend investing in the hangers that the original poster recommended. They're very thin, so you're able to hang WAY more stuff than you'd be able to otherwise. My husband's closet is very small- to the point that he was only able to fit about 6 or 7 wood hangers. But with the thinner hangers, he can probably fit more like 15-20.
Also, go through your clothes and decide what absolutely needs to be hanging. Instead of hanging my pants, I fold them all instead. My husband has such a small closet at the moment because he's able to wear pretty much whatever he wants to work... meaning he was able to fold up all of his business casual clothes and store them elsewhere.
Wardrobe closets were great at our last place where closet space was virtually non existent.
Regarding Ikea ones though, we had 2 from Ikea and 2 from Contempo Space.
After the movers were done getting them to our new home, the Ikeas aren't nearly as sturdy as they used to be. The ones from Contempo Space are still like new.
We remodeled and I purposely chose to create a compact closet, knowing I would just fill up a big one. It forces me to edit constantly AND be thoughtful about what I bring home. I try to pick more versatile clothes and not so many special occasion things that only get worn 1-2 times a year. How many of those do you really need? Also,we installed a wire rack system from Home Depot, and put in more shelves than hanging space, which allows room for folded pants, handbags, sweaters and shoes. The shelves aren't high design, but they are highly functional and I feel like their openness gives my clothes room to breathe.
@INNEEDOFMAKEOVER: I have a very small closet, a 3-drawer dresser, and a narrow open shelving unit in my tiny bedroom. One drawer of my dresser holds underwear, socks, and tights. The middle one holds workout clothes (I exercise a lot) like leggings, sports bras, hoodies, track pants, racerback tops, and bathing suits. The third drawer is sleepwear, shorts, junky t-shirts, camisoles, that sort of thing.
The open shelving is used for the nice clothes that are foldable: sweaters, pants, skirts, blouses. Every couple of months I have to go through and re-fold everything because it gets disheveled, but the open shelving looks a lot better in my small room than a blocky piece of furniture.
The closet is for my suits, dresses, jackets, and button-down shirts. I can only fit about 15 items in there so I have to choose carefully.
I also have some over-the-door hooks for scarves, belts, and hats.
Although the arrangement sounds less than ideal it forces me to be more organized, and get rid of things I don't wear, and I have a much easier time finding things than I did when I had a big closet to store them all.
twnt1andcounting that looks interesting, thanks!
engineergirl thank you, before winter I will hopefully make some time to seriously do something about this.
I worked as a closet designer. The number one thing that will make space in a standard closet is getting rid of that one pole. Of course, if you've already got double hung space this doesn't apply. But if you've got an old school 6' closet with one pole and shelf above, get rid of it! You can hang shirts over skirts, or if you're short like me, you can hang shirts above pants. Another tip that some people resist is putting folded items on open shelving. Your jeans and tshirts will be much easier to rifle through if they're on open shelves. When you put them in drawers, you tend to wear the top few items and never dig down to the bottom. If you DO dig down, you end up messing up the drawer in the process. Drawers are for socks, bras, underwear, bathing suits, belts - anything that doesn't stack in piles.
Another helpful tip: keeping a container (bin, box, bag) permanently in the closet for reject clothes. Though regular (seasonal assessment) is still a must, I find that it's easier to get rid of clothes as I go. That is, when I'm getting dressed, sometimes pick up an item, try it on (or not), and decide against wearing it if it doesn't fit, looks worn, out of style, etc.
Sometimes I tend to rationalize keeping something when I'm going through my closet to discard en masse. Being able to designate it as "removed" when I'm in the midst of my negative feelings towards that ill-fitting stained blouse is much easier. Plus, it doesn't really take any extra time.
As for small space solutions, my small townhouse has teeny tiny rooms and nearly non-existent closets. I had to decide whether to make the 2nd bedroom an office, guest room, or closet. Ultimately I went with closet-- I keep a makeup vainity in there as well, plus all my jewelry. It's easier to keep tidy when I'm not making space compromises with everything (plus keeps my makeup out of the humidity of the bathroom). Also, keeps my bedroom extremely peaceful.
An organized closet is an instant life upgrade. Thanks for reminding us of number 4... if it's not working, fix it! It's disastrously easy to get comfortable with a layout, even if that means balancing on a pyramid of old suitcases to reach your jeans.
I'll be applying this principle to my living room next which, through no fault of its own (read: all my fault), has recently been emptied and is begging for a new and improved layout.
http://thedillydaily.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/pns-there-are-people-creative-enough-to-make-upscale-furniture-from-wooden-crates/.
I'll be looking for input from the AptTherapy community, so keep an eye out!
@CatherineJop I do the reject bag too. anything I notice I dont wear or doesnt fit goes in the bag, and then when the bag is full it goes to donate. If I lose a few lbs or really miss the item, I have a chance to save it, but I find once it's out of site it's soon easier to part with.
As for organizing, I dont fold anything that tends to wrinkle, it either gets hung or rolled. Such as camisoles and T-shirts - they wrinkle when folded. I lay them flat and roll from the bottom up and stick them in one of those clear plastic compartment shoe organizers that hangs at the end of my closet. Jeans and heavier sweaters, underwear get folded in drawers because they do not tend to wrinkle. Everything else gets hung.
I also separated out my occasional wear items such as party dresses and more formal coats in the guest closet. I dont need to see those daily.
Bags I have a strap attached to the back of the swing closet door with hooks running the length of it and the bags hang from this. It looks really neat and with them all on display it's easy to pick one and run, or hang up yesterday's. Scarves and belts hang from a small peg board on the end wall of the inside of the closet.
Exercise clothes are in a hamper basket on the shelf - as I dont care if these wrinkle.
Shoes I have IKEA Stall shoe cabinets in my entry way these are fantastic to hide the shoe clutter, keep things in pairs, and easy to clean.
Totally agree with everything in this post. I am looking forward to one of the quarterly seasonal closet changes soon. Out with the shorts and in with the jackets and scarfs!
Super helpful tip: Hangars are for planes. Hangers are for clothes. They also fit in most closets, which most hangars cannot do.
Haha nice comment above. Putting things back where they belong is so challenging when everything is somewhat hidden in NYC shoebox apartments.
@Vix Vax : I believe I do have the dreaded standard 6' closet with the one pole. How would you suggest getting rid of it and what to replace it with?
I have alot of belts, so I bought a 2 layer christmas ornament box with compartments and rolled up each belt and placed it in a compartment. only takes up the space of 2 shoeboxes, but holds 48 belts, and they are easily visible, but not messy.
Just an idea I use for my boots: get pool noodles from the dollar store and cut them them in half or thirds, depending how tall your boots are, then put a couple of them inside the boot to keep them standing upright.