apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I tried organizing by color for a while, and it has it's advantages. Now, however, I am really liking a new method I have: Newly laundered clothes get hung on the far Right. Clothes I've worn once but have deemed clean enough to wear again get hung on the Left. Naturally, then, the middle of the bar is full of clothes I don't wear very often at all. Periodically, when I'm doing a purge or when it occurs to me, I'll take a look at what's there in the middle and say to myself "I haven't worn this in a long time, and I bet I won't anytime soon" and I'll toss it in the donation bag. Or, I'll say to myself "I haven't worn that in a while, I really should!" and I'll wear it.

Oh, I've always organized my clothes by color. Even my sock drawer is organized this way. It would feel like complete chaos if I didn't. Somehow I'm okay with the complete chaos that lives in all of the other closets, but in the clothes closet disorder is unacceptable.

amy - wow. even your sock drawer! i need to become as disciplined as you are.

I do mine by color. Makes it really easy to find that blue shirt.

I've done my closet by color for years. What other way is there? If you're looking for a certain top... you know right where to go!

Actually... my bedroom has two closets. I use one for shirts, sweaters, blouses... in color order 'natch - seasonal items move to the deep end. This closet also has a shoe rail below... so it's best for the shorter items.
The second closet gets pants, skirts, dresses and the suits which I don't wear much anymore.

I have hooks on the inside of each door - that's where empty hangers go... so there's no searching.

I noticed that some creative Goodwill employee had organized the sheets and bedding (where I continuously troll for pretty sheets to cut up) by color as well.

I'm considering doing this in my closet, but I don't hang up a whole lot of things--mostly dresses and outerwear.

I organize my clothes by color. My black section is huge - that is for sure! I like it because I'm so sleepy in the morning sometimes I know the general color and I just go to that area to find something that matches and looks good together. I guess it is how my brain works...

i'm also a closet-by-color gal! i even organize from sleeveless-to-longsleeve, shorts-to-pants, etc.

My socks are organized by "black socks, which can be worn with the black mary janes", and "other socks". I have too many socks.

My old closet had two rails - one had shirts to wear to work, and one had shirts that should not be worn to work.

I'm going to have to try hja's method as I know I have a lot of clothes that just don't fit anymore.

I, too, organize by color, however all trousers are with trousers, tops w/ tops so that I can grab things that go together easily. I used to hang t-shirts; now they are folded in stacks by color. Again, a very easy way to find what I'm looking for.

I organize first by sleeveless to longsleeve (with like material grouped together) and then within each sleeve length section by color. Same goes for dress pants.

This method is used for the folded clothes in drawers. My black and white t-shirts and tank tops have their own drawer.

I organize by type and then color. My closet is as big as most people's bedrooms, including my own and it's a virtual boutique. My friends say all I need is a cash register at teh door. My shoes are almost in the 3 digits...I have over 80 pair, all in their original boxes.

i organize my closet by color as well, including my socks boxes. i have double rails, so all the hanging shirts are up, organized by color. pants and sport coats are low, again organized by color. jeans get folded and put on shelves with sweaters and t-shirts. underwear goes into those fabric drawer organizers from ikea, but placed on the shelves.

my closet is the most organized place in my life. lol. if i could conquer the mayhem in my office, i'd be a happy man.

i tried this once and absoloutely hated it. every time i wanted to find one black shirt i had to sort through every single black shirt i owned, and it very often meant i would overlook the one i wanted.

i find organizing by type of clothing works much better for me.

I organize by length. This could be because I mainly wear skirts, but I go from shortest skirts to longest.

I'm glad there's a post about this because my husband believes I'm neurotic. All of my clothes are organized by colour first and then sleeve length second. T-shirts to long sleeves. Once you've done this for a while the problem of "finding" an item you want to wear is nullified because it's always in the same place.

I sort first by formality, then by color.

I need a bigger closet. This is embarassing, but often when I've been in too much of a rush and decided not to wear a certain item instead of hanging it back up, I can literally just shove it between two hanging items and it will stay there until i get it home. It's that tight in the closet. But I share the closet with my boyfriend, and he insists on hanging all his t-shirts.

I dream of the day that I can colour organize. At this point I'm just trying to fit it all in there. So goes the life of a clothing designer I guess, clothing is coming at me from all directions! I need to get it under control! Maybe this fall...

I've always organized by color and then by "wear to work" / "not wear to work". Though that is complicated these days by my current workplace--where dressing up means not wearing jeans.

My largest closet problem is keeping the cats out, I cannot use my lower closet rails because whatever hangs there will end up covered in cat hair. I have two sliding doors without a bottom track to keep them in place, and all the stop-gap measures I've tried have worked in the short term until the clever creatures figure out a new way to open the doors and sleep on my clean sheets (on the shelves by color and fabric type) and amongst the hanging clothes.

technically my closet is by type and by color within type. actually, my clothes are in several sizable heaps.

this weekend=fall cleaning for me.

this topic is making me feel so much better. I also sort everything by color, including socks.

I have two rods..the one on the left is all tops/shirts. the one on the right is all skirts, dresses, pants on hangers.

And on the back wall between the two rods I have two stacks of those closet organizers that hold bins for socks that are sorted by color, various bins for undies, and a bin for sleeping-in only tshirts, etc. it holds 9 bins..and only takes up a two square feet of closet floorspace. A friend claims the fact that I fold my undies means I am officially crazy. but I am feeling very at home here!

the bins are rubbermaid, and I bought eight but needed nine and they quit making this style, so one bin doesnt match. and it still bugs me! I wont even admit how far I've driven trying to find that last matching bin. Then you would know that I really am officially crazy.

I tried organizing by color, but found that I owned none!

carrier- me too! If I organized my closet by colour I would have three categories- black, navy, grey... and other. So 4 categories. I organize by sleeve length first (starting with camisoles/tanks), and then collar type (for example- long sleeve tops, then long sleeve tops with collars) and dresses at the end.

I color-organize and have so for as long as I can remember... but I get kind of annoyed when the clothes are organized as such in actual stores. Color is always secondary to the style, the fit, etc...

Me too Rachel! I'm not a morning person and I find it's so much easier to find things in the wee hours when they're organized by color. I also organize my shoe collection and my belts that way. But there's nothing more frustrating than finding something in a shop that's in a cute color and realizing they don't have any left in my size!

Btw, organizing by color also helps me see what isn't fitting in my closet--the shirt that doesn't go with anything else, the belt that clashes with most of my pants, etc. Then I know that I either need to get something new to match, or get rid of the misfits.

I started organizing my closet by color a couple of years ago. I organize by type of clothing and then by color. It works for me! Much easier to find everything.

i do this. my friends thought i was nuts!

I've done this for years now. I only have two closets and to get max use, I have double hung rods and color code to find items quickly.

Another advantage of hanging your clothes by color is that at a glance, you can see what color tops/slacks/etc. you have too many or too little of (for shopping purposes later).

After I reorganized my closet by color, I immediately realized that I had way too many blue shirts and only a few yellows and reds. So I kept that info in mind the next time I went shopping, by ignoring blue tops and concentrating on adding to my yellows, reds, and other brighter colors.

I organise this way too - I (like clickchick) have two closets - one has two short rails for tops with shoe racks underneath - the other is for all the long items: skirts, trousers, dresses, coats.

Within each wardrobe the clothes are ordered by type (e.g. all trousers together) then by subcategory (all longsleeved t-shirts together, then all short sleeved t-shirts etc) then by colour

I nearly always decide on bottoms first (is it a skirt or trouser day?) and then depending on the weather I can choose a top to coordinate (its a bit chilly, I'll need a long sleeved t-shirt; which colour goes with the bottoms I've chosen...)

I like organising by colour - its so useful when I know I want a black cardigan to go with an outfit to just go straight to the black cardigan section

and yes my black sections are as big as all the other colour sections put together!

Oh and I also organise the colours in chromatic order going from black on the left to white on the right (Oh god, I've just taken it to another level of crazy haven't I?)

This looks good enough in the photo that it makes me think I could do away with a closet and just have my wardrobe displayed on one wall of the room. Would that actually work? Would dust be an issue?

I have always organised my clothing by color and type. Each type (pants, blouses, dresses) gets put in a block. Even my socks are divided into dark and light. When stumbling about in the morning, eyes half closed, this is the only way I manage to properly dress myself.