A closet should, ideally, be something that makes your life simple. Whether it's a tiny space or a large walk-in, an organized closet should be where you can find all the things you need on any given day — clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry, and other random accessories. It's supposed to be something functional that makes storage easier. Unfortunately, unless you're Kim Kardashian or a professional interior designer, the opposite is often true.
Keeping a closet clean and organized is about one hundred times harder than it seems. One day you've got a spotless space that makes you feel a lovely zen feeling, and then you have a few mornings where you don't know what to wear, and things start to get messy. You promise yourself you'll straighten up later, but then instead you go shopping and add more items to the disaster area. This endless cycle continues until your closet looks like it recently endured a tornado, and you can't glance in there without feeling completely stressed out.
I know the feeling all too well. So, a few months ago when I was bored, I spent hours on Pinterest staring at closet porn (this is totally a thing — fabulous dream closets that will make you want to cry a little), and then I started to organize my own space. Since it has kind of changed my life, and since spring cleaning is right around the corner, I wanted to share what I learned with more people. Because no matter how big or small your closet space is, everyone deserves to have a neat place to hang the clothes they spend money on. These 15 tips on how to organize your closet will make your life instantly easier — or at least it will make it better to get dressed in the morning.
1. Get rid of stuff you don't need.
Go through every single thing in your closet, and get rid of anything you haven't worn in a year. If you haven't worn it in that long, you probably never will again. Yes, this is annoying, but it is completely necessary.
2. Buy closet hanging organizers to save on space.
If you don't have space for a dresser or shelves in your closet, these hanging organizers are the perfect place to put folded clothes.
3. Hang whatever you can on the inside of your door.
If you don't have sliding doors, add hooks to the inside of your door to hang handbags, scarves, jewelry. etc.
4. Buy bins to store anything out of season in another space.
There's no reason to let knit sweaters take over your closet during the spring and summer. Neatly fold all out-of-season clothes and find somewhere else to keep them.
5. Figure out a system that works for you when hanging clothes.
Color coordination is very pleasing to the eye, but I personally find that organizing by clothing type makes it easiest for me to pick things out: sweaters with sweaters, tanks with tanks, etc.
6. Hang everything so that both the clothing item and the hanger face the same way.
This is much nicer to look at and is more functional.
7. Rearrange your closet so you have two staggered racks instead of one.
Take advantage of the space in there! Two racks can change everything.
8. Install a light if you don't already have one.
Being able to actually see your stuff will immediately help keep things more neat.
9. Make use of all available space in some way.
Put a shelf above the racks, put hooks on the walls, buy a shoe organizer for the floor, etc.
10. Buy clear bins to hold your smaller accessories.
Make sure they're clear so that you can see what's in them easily.
11. If you have limited floor space, store shoes in a bin under your bed.
Or, instead of buying an organizer, just carefully line your shoes up on the floor of the closet. Sometimes this ends up taking up less space.
12. Invest in good hangers so that your clothes stop falling all over the floor.
It doesn't seem worth it, but it totally is.
13. Use drawer separators to keep things neat.
Don't just shove things in a drawer — that's not organized.
14. Fold everything that won't easily wrinkle, like jeans or knit sweaters.
There's no need to take up hanging space with items that can be folded.
15. Use a chain and S hook to hold multiple items on one hanger.
You can buy the chain and the S hook from Home Depot.
Images: Giphy.com
