A Woman’s Guide to Organizing the Closet

An organized closet makes everything easier, especially if you wake up late in the morning and have to be someplace. Aside from being unable to find your clothes, shoes, and accessories on time, an unorganized closet can also have psychological effects.

Your closet is one area you see every day, maybe even multiple times, so make sure it’s clean and easy to find what you want. Here are ways to organize your closet:

Step 1 – De-Clutter

Every organizing project begins with the good old task of de-cluttering. Many closets are messy because of overcrowding. All the clothes, shoes, or accessories you own need a dedicated space in your closet. Too many things means not enough space.

Start by pulling out all the items from your closet and separating them. Surely, you will find many items that you vowed to wear but didn’t and probably never will. Not only are these items cluttering your rod, shelves and closet, but they are also cluttering your life.

Get rid of the items you don’t wear. If you ever find yourself questioning whether you will wear a certain item, get rid of it immediately.

Ask yourself three questions about every item:
• Do I love it?
• Do I wear it?
• Do I feel good in it?

If you don’t have positive answers for these questions, it’s time to donate. By the end, you will have a closet with items you wear and need.

One tactic is to once a year (perhaps on your birthday, so you’ll remember) turn all your hangers around so they face the opposite direction. When you wear an item and return it to the closet, hang in the way you normally would do. Next year at the same time, get rid of anything that hasn’t been turned around.

Here are recommended books that can help you declutter and organize, starting with probably the most recognized, Marie Kondo.

Step 2 – Group Your Items

It’s obvious that you will keep your shoes, clothes, bags, and accessories separately. However, grouping your shoes, bags, and especially, your clothes is the most challenging task. The key is to group items in a way that makes the most sense to you. It is your closet; you will have to surf through it to look for your items. So, make sure it is convenient for you.

You can group them:

By Function

Classify your clothing items by function. You can separate your work wear, gym wear, or casual wear and store them separately.

By Type

You can classify your clothing items according to type. Sort your jeans, shirts, shorts, nightwear, sweaters, and camisoles and store them separately. Every time you have to put an outfit together, you can simply choose your favorite jeans and pair it with a shirt or sweater without messing up your closet.

By Color

If you want a more aesthetically pleasing closet, you can consider organizing your closet items according to color. You can opt for a rainbow theme by first hanging all your red clothing items, then the orange ones and so on.

By Season

This is one of the most common ways in which people organize their closet. Every season, they tend to pull out suitable clothing items and keep them in front or at the top. For instance, if it is the winter season, you might want to store your sweater, coats, high-necks, etc., at the top so you can easily find them.

By Style

You can apply all the above ideas for storing your shoes as well. However, the ideal way to store your shoes is according to style. Keep your heels, sandals, flats, boots, etc., separately.

Step 3 – Store Items

After you have sorted out your items, now is the time to store them. You need to find the best possible way to store your items so that you can find them conveniently. For instance, decide whether you want to fold or hang your items. Honestly, this largely depends on how your closet is built.

Here are a few suggestions on how to organize your closet:

• Hang dresses, formal blouses, skirts, pants, coats, and blazers
• Fold and store sweaters on shelves
• Fold your jeans and T-shirts and put them on your shelves
• Get a belt hanger to hang your belts or store them in a basket
• Use a scarf hanger to hang scarves
• Store your undergarments in a drawer or basket

Step 4 — Get a Closet Designed by and for You

When you walk into a new model home, the closets all seem just so spacious. Mostly that’s because only three shirts and two dresses hang in them – so they would seem like they’d hold everything you wear.

Many people find out that the builder-designed closet is inadequate to their needs. To improve that, you can:

• Get a closet design and installation company to build you a new one that fits your style and clothing.
• Buy free-standing cabinets or shelving you have space for outside of the closet.
• Hire an organizational specialists to come in and reorganize your closet for you (or with you).

(Click here to find closet companies in and near Scottsdale.)

Conclusion

Now you know three simple steps to organize your closet. You can try different ideas for grouping and storing your items to discover the method that suits you the best.

To read more interesting fashion and beauty blogs, see other articles at ScottsdaleWoman.com.