Have you been thinking about organizing you closet but don’t know where to start? Here are some helpful tips!

If you look into your closet and it has become beyond messy you may need to start from scratch and remove all of the clothes from your closet, in order to make sure there aren’t any un-needed items taking up space (i.e dirty clothes, empty boxes, un-lawful clothes, papers, books etc.). Take all of your clothes off their hangers and out of any bins or drawers in your closet. Fold them in piles on the floor or on your bed. This includes your shoes as well.

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Decide which clothes you will store. You should store the clothes that you will not be wearing for a while because they aren’t seasonally appropriate. If it’s the middle of summer, you can store your winter sweaters and scarves, and if it’s the dead of winter, you can store your tank tops and summer dresses. No need to clutter your closet with items you don’t use on a regular.

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• You can also store clothes that may have sentimental value for you, such as a shirt your grandmother knitted for you, or an old t-shirt from your high school tennis team that no longer fits. Try to keep the sentimental value clothes to a minimum, though. Clothes are meant to be worn, after all.
• When you’re done sorting through the clothes you will store, put them in a plastic bin. You can either store them in the back of your closet, under your bed, or in a storage unit or a different part of your home if you have the room.

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Decide which clothes you will donate, throw out, or re-invent. This is the most important step. If you want to have a truly organized closet, then your goal should be to get rid of as many items of clothing as possible. This doesn’t mean you should throw out your favorite things — it does mean that you should take a long hard look to ask yourself which clothes you will actually never wear again.

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• If you haven’t worn something in over three years and it has no sentimental value, it’s time to donate it, or re-invent it.
• If you have an item that is so worn, covered in moth holes, or faded that you and anyone else will never wear it again, then it’s time to throw it out, or re invent it.
• If you have a few items of clothing that are just way too small, stop waiting for the day that they will fit and donate them.

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Clean the inside of the closet. You should do this before you put back your clothes. Vacuum or sweep the floor, wipe the walls down with all-purpose cleaner, and sweep away any cobwebs that may have accumulated there.

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• If you want to make any changes, such as painting the inside a different color or adding and removing some shelves, do it now.

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Hang up your clothes and organize them. Try to hang up as many of your clothes as you can. This will make it easier for you to find your clothes and to conserve space. You should not only hang up your clothes, but you should also organize them in a particular way so you can easily find them whenever you need to. Here are some ways to organize the clothes you hang up:

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• Don’t waste the space under your hanging clothes. Put a few plastic bins of clothes under the hanging clothing.
• If you have room for a dresser, consider putting one in your closet. It will save you time and space.

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Organize your shoes. Your shoes may take up a lot of the space in your closet, so once you’ve chosen which shoes you will keep, it’s important to make the most of your space by storing them in the most organized and efficient manner. Here are some ways to organize the shoes in your closet:
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• Organize them by type. Separate your dress shoes, sandals, and boots.
• Organize them by how often you wear them. Keep your favorite pair of boots, flip-flops, or sneakers in the place with the easiest access.
• Invest in a shoe rack to place on the floor of your closet. This will make it much easier to find the pair of shoes you want.
• Try storing your shoes in your overhead space. This is another easy way to save space.
• If your closet has a door that opens instead of a sliding door, consider getting a hanging shoe rack.
• If you have a front hall closet, consider putting the shoes you wear the most often there instead to save space in your personal closet.

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Organize any boxes in your closet. If your closet is big enough, then it’s likely that you’ve stored things other than clothes in it, such as big boxes filled with papers , old photo albums, and CDs you haven’t seen for ten years. To finish organizing your closet, you should go through these old boxes to see what you should keep and what you should toss. Here’s how to do it
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• Get rid of any papers or items you’ve kept, that have no sentimental value.
• Consolidate the boxes to save closet space. If your closet is already cramped, consider putting some of the items in a different place, such as putting your old high school yearbooks on the bottom of your bookshelf.
•  If you’ve been using cardboard boxes, trade them up for plastic bins. They will last longer and will be more visually appealing.
• Label the boxes or bins so you know what’s in them next time you move or organize your things again.

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 Organize any additional items in your closet. Take the time to go through any additional items in your closet to make sure that you still need them and that the closet is really the best place for them. Here are some examples:
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• If you find any towels, sheets, or blankets, put them in your linen
• If you’ve had an old lawn chair or another piece of furniture you don’t really need hanging out back there, it’s time to throw it out.
• If you’ve had to pick up an item and spend at least fifteen seconds trying to figure out what the heck it is or why you would need it, it’s time to throw it out.
• Make sure that all of the other items you find belong in the closet and not another part of your home. For example, if you find a box of light bulbs, a box of comic books, or a box of chocolate, ask yourself if those items wouldn’t be more logically organized elsewhere.

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TIPS:

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• If you need to practice on your sewing, you can keep  some of your extra clothes whether it is lawful or un lawful just to practice on. (If the material or outfit is unlawful just don’t wear it, use material as a test dummy to sew in straight line or maybe make a purse or a pillow)
• Organize your clothes by type. You can separate your tank tops, shirts, pants, skirts, and dresses.
• Organize your work and casual clothes. Separate your work clothes from your casual clothes so you can easily get dressed for work in the morning.
• Organize your clothes by how often you wear them. You can choose any method of organization, but hang up a few key items, like your favorite skirts, and dresses in the most accessible place.
• If you really want to step it up a notch, you can use differently colored hangers to mark a different type of clothing. For example, you can hang your tops on pink hangers, or your work clothes on green hangers.
• You can also think about installing another pole to hang up your additional clothes.
• Consider installing a closet organizer to find a more efficient way to store your remaining clothes.
• If you have overhead space, make the most of it. Use it to store bulky sweaters, sweats, and other items that are thick and easy to spot.

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