Five Simple Tips for Organizing Your Closet
Many people struggle with trying to find what they are looking for in their closets. Whether it is a piece of clothing, a book, a tool, or anything else, it is often easy to spend more time than desirable trying to look for something. Organizing a closet to make it orderly and easy to find what you are looking for is, no joke, a fine art.
There are five steps you can take to improve the tidiness and organization of your closet, even if you’re a disorganized person. This five-step process includes separating your clothes into categories, as well as employing the help of organizing equipment.
Anyone can organize a closet with the right mindset and keeping some critical pieces of information in mind. While it may time some time and self-discipline to order your wardrobe in an orderly fashion, we promise that it will not ultimately be a difficult task. Read on for five tips and tricks you can utilize when organizing your closet.
How Do I Get Started Organizing My Closet If I'm A Disorganized Person?
If you are a naturally disorganized person, the first step you will want to plan out and visualize how your closet will look once organized. While this may seem silly to some, going in with a determined, clear mindset is crucial for organizing your closet the correct way. Plus, it will make to decide what to wear today!
Next, determine the amount and types of objects that will be going into the closet. In a bathroom, this might include toothpaste, towels, hairbrushes, soap, and more. For a bedroom, it might be clothing, blankets, etc.
Knowing what you need in each closet will allow you to eliminate anything that doesn’t belong in it, helping you prioritize what needs to be placed inside.
Furthermore, you may want to purchase items that will help you organize your closet. You can use several things, such as a closet organizer (more on this in a moment). Also, making sure you have an adequate amount of hangers will ensure that none of your clothing will take up valuable floor space (in addition to avoiding wrinkles!).
Finally, set aside time in advance to implement your organizational strategy. It is easy to tell yourself you will organize it sometime soon; putting off organizing your closet not only leads to reinforcing bad habits but may lead to you simply forgetting to organize the cabinet in general.
Pre-planning a time and date to organize your closet will allow you to block out a specific time to focus on getting the job done and ignoring everything else related to the task at hand.
What Are Five Tips for Organizing Your Closet?
A messy closet is stressful and, quite frankly, annoying. But don’t worry, you don’t have to live with your closet disaster much longer. Up next, we have the five steps you need to whip that closet into shape.
1. Use A Closet Organizer, Such as a Shelf Hanger
1. Use A Closet Organizer, Such as a Shelf HangerUsing a closet organizer is about as straightforward of a tip as we can offer. Closet organizers come in many different shapes, sizes, and form factors. After measuring the width, length, and height of your closet, you’ll be able to do some research on the amount of space you have available to utilize.
In addition, closet organizers can make it simple and easy to create a system to arrange where you keep specific items. Having a particular spot for everything will allow you to quickly retrieve what you need in as optimal an amount of time as possible.
One type of closet organizer is a shelf hanger. These types of hangers are usually relatively thin and not too deep but are reasonably tall. Because of their form factor, they typically do not take up much room inside of your closet. They are ideal for storing shoes, underwear, socks, and other small objects.
2. Hang Your Clothing by Type, Color, or Another System of Organization
Clothing usually takes up a large portion of one’s closet. While many people will hang up their clothes at random, organizing your clothes in a particular pattern will go a long way to help you immediately find what you are looking for.
For instance, you could arrange your clothes left to right by shirts, short sleeves, pants, business clothes, and then sleep clothes. In addition, you could also organize each category by color, starting with red shirts, red short sleeves, etc.
We also recommend using a divider of sorts to make each section stand out visibly. A divider could be as simple as a few hangers next to each other to create space or a more complex method.
A system of this kind might take a small amount of time to get used to, but the amount of time saved in the long run will usually be more significant than without a system like this.
...But Don't Make Your System of Organization Too Complicated
On paper, many things seem marvelous. However, in execution, they may fail to yield the desired results. This is often the case in organizational management in the workplace, and it also applies to concepts like organizing a closet.
When you are devising an organizational strategy for your closet, keep in mind that simple will always be better than complicated. Putting too many dividers, storage units, and other variables right away will quickly make it harder to remember where exactly everything will need to go.
For example, putting in three shelf hangers may seem like it’ll maximize your space in theory. However, most people will immediately become confused or overwhelmed by where to store everything. In a scenario like this, we recommend starting with one shelf hanger, adapting to it, and then adding additional units, as desired.
The age-old saying goes that too many cooks will spoil the broth. In this case, though, it could be said that too much organizing ruins the closet!
3. Remove What You Don't Need
There is a certain beauty in eliminating clutter and unneeded materials from one’s life. In fact, the concept of minimalism refers to this very concept. For closets, however, it goes beyond just simple aesthetics and becomes more about general utility.
If you can move something or throw it away, do it. This will allow for more space to place other objects. Additionally, this additional space will allow you to easily add items later without worrying about moving things around. And you can make money from cleaning out your closet.
By keeping things simple, you are not only decluttering your closet but also your life by extension.
4. Invest In Thin Hangers
While using hangers is a given for most people, many use thick hangers to hang their clothing. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, thin hangers often allow for slightly more room for clothing in terms of physical space.
While replacing thick for thin seems insignificant on paper, the benefits quickly add up. For instance, if you were to replace 1-inch wide hangers with .5 inch thick ones, this would, in effect, double the amount of storage you would have available to you.
While heavier clothing, such as a sports jacket, may require a heftier hanger, consider using thin, wire hangers for lighter items like t-shirts.
5. Use Wall Hooks and Pegs
To truly maximize the space of your closet, installing hooks and pegs on your closet’s wall will allow you to further hold more items inside it. Sling bags, purses, helmets, coats, and other items can be stored on a hook or peg, additionally giving you more room to hang other things inside of your closet. Just make sure not to throw any good ones away. There are somethings that may become vintage at some point. When does a handbag become vintage? Find out in that article.
Wall hooks and pegs are pretty inexpensive, and the benefits they can provide tend to outweigh the price of admission. If you find yourself struggling to fit everything inside your closet, consider utilizing your wall’s open space to include some bulkier items.
Is Organizing a Small Closet Harder Than a Larger One?
In general, the less space you have available to you, the more difficult it will be to organize your closet effectively. Despite this, there are still plenty of options for managing a smaller wardrobe.
Since you will have less room, you will want to determine what needs to be placed inside this closet. If you can or can put an item in another spot without much inconvenience, you absolutely should.
Once again, closet organizers will help you to maximize the amount of space available to you, as they will allow you to utilize more vertical space that would otherwise be unoccupied. If you do not have much vertical space, consider investing in closet organizer cubes to fit more items in a tight space.
In summary, while a small closet might provide some challenges that a larger one will not offer, organizing a small closet is still a viable thing to perform.
What Order Do People Typically Hang Clothes In A Closet?
While there is no particularly wrong way to hang up clothing in a closet, there are certainly more popular ways than others.
Generally speaking, hanging up clothes by item type tends to be the most commonly used method. This means clothing type is grouped. Other standard methods are sorting by the color of the clothing and by the frequency the clothes are worn.
While less utilized on average, other methods like organizing clothes by season and activity (such as yard work) are also used.
Combining two or more of these methods will help you create an ideal system of organization and allow you to find what you are looking for quickly.
Outro
It has been said that much about a man or woman’s personality can be seen by observing how they organize their closet. While this might be a broad generalization, we feel there is some truth in the statement.
A clean closet is not just a means to find items but can also be a form of expression. Optimizing your wardrobe can also lead to several benefits, ranging from the apparent (finding objects easier) to the less obvious (impressing others)
Anyone can organize a closet with the right mindset and enough time. When it comes to managing a wardrobe, applying discipline will be the critical factor in getting work done. While most people would rather be doing something more fun, like watching TV or going to the park, the rewards of having an orderly closet will provide lasting benefits beyond a specific, fun moment in time.
If you have some free time and a disorganized closet, we highly encourage you to make an effort to declutter your closet and rearrange its contents. While you might not enjoy the initial process, we assure you that you will thank us later when you reap the benefits of a clean closet and, hopefully, a more orderly life!
