There’s little point in owning the latest bag or dress if you can’t find it in your closet when you’re getting dressed. A well-organized wardrobe, rather than a jumbled mess of clothes and accessories, means you’ll maximize all of your purchases and come up with polished, carefully considered outfits even on hectic mornings.
STORAGE SOLUTIONS
If you’re interested in hiring professional help to organize your closet, it may be more affordable than you think. A custom closet is actually a luxury that many of us can afford. Even the major closet companies can design what you would like on a budget. But if that’s not an option, use storage units that allow you to see your clothes and accessories. If you can’t see it, you won’t wear it! Consider using slim-line hangers; your clothes won’t fall off and they give you twice the space, plus they come in a wide range of colors.
START ORGANIZING
How do you organize sweaters versus shorts or shoes versus jeans? There are different solutions for each, so find what works for you. The purpose of organizing your closet is to create an environment that enhances your time and wardrobe in the way that you feel is best.
Tops
If you have the space to hang everything, then hang everything! If not, hang the tops that you wear most, and reserve the dresser for your workout garb and sleepwear.
Sweaters
Fold heavy sweaters so they don’t lose shape on the hanger. Also, the benefits of using cedar are not a myth. Cedar really does prevent moths from damaging your cashmere or wool sweaters. Replace the cedar pieces every six months. Color code sweaters by weight, and use dividers or cubbies. Feeling a little obsessive? Use a sweater folding board to make perfect folds!
Jeans
There are a number of ways to organize your jeans—by cut, brand, color, style or size. The most common option is by color; hang them by the hem and organize from dark to light.
Bottoms
Hang pants, skirts and shorts using clips and fold in the sides so the outside of the garment isn’t marked by the clips. This also makes everything look uniform on the hanger and gives it a cleaner side profile in your closet. Double storage space by folding men’s pants over a hanger rather than hanging them long.
Dresses
Dresses can be arranged by color, length or style — or any mixture of the three, such as choosing to divide dresses “by length” but also “by season”. Never leave your dresses, or any other clothes, in dry cleaning or plastic garment bags. The chemicals from dry cleaning attack the fibers of your clothing and cause damage.
Accessories
Accessory displays are what take your closet decor from typical to designer. There is nothing like the feeling of ‘shopping’ in your own closet. You can create this feeling by displaying your pieces in a way that creates a boutique feel.
Bags/Scarves/Hats/Ties
Take purses out of their dust bags and have as many visible as possible. It’s hard to pick the right bag if you can’t see it! Scarves being folded in piles by color and material works best, and makes it easy to pull one out without ruining the organization of the rest. Tie and belt racks, and drawers with dividers, make it easy to find accessories on busy work mornings. For hats, try hat boxes. Take uniform photos of the hats and glue them to the outside of the boxes. For an attractive hat display, use clips or hooks to hang your hats on the wall. A collection of caps can actually create a nice decorative feature for your closet.
Shoes
A great way to display shoes is to arrange them right shoe toe out and left shoe heel out (or vice versa) so you can see both sides of the shoe, making finding what you’re planning to wear easy. They can also be organized by color and style. Since tennis shoes and flip-flops tend to show the most wear place them in an area that is least seen.
Jewelry
While it’s optimal to have built-in drawers to keep jewelry neat and uncluttered, simpler solutions, such as drawer organizer inserts, or jewelry racks for the top of shelves offer a cost effective way to display jewelry. Tie racks can even be used to display long necklaces, and ziplock bags can be used to hang jewelry on the hanger with its matching outfit.