National Closet Group Article
Helpful Ideas for Organizing Your Closet Space
The first step in organizing your closet space is to decide that something needs to be done with all the clutter, and to take the time to do it! It may be overwhelming, but the only way you will ever get it done is to stop procrastinating and just roll up your sleeves and dive in! If you need to, you can do little steps over a period of time, rather than trying to do it all in one day. The best thing to do is start with weeding out the non-essential clutter.
It may seem crazy, but you will have better luck in cleaning and organizing your closet if you take everything out first, so that you can easily sort through it. When you pull out an item, think about when the last time you wore or used it was, and if it has been more than six months, is there really any reason to keep it? Sure, it may be hard to get rid of sentimental keepsakes, but do you really need an entire closet full of them? Why should they be taking up precious closet space? You either need to find somewhere else to keep them at, or get rid of them. If you are serious about organizing your closet, that is the only way that you will be successful.
If you run across clothing that you have not worn in a year or more, then you should either think about having a yard sale, or donating it to charity. If you find ratty looking shoes or sneakers that you never have reason to wear, toss them out. If you can’t fit into it anymore, give it away or get rid of it, just DO NOT put it back into your closet. If you find clothing that needs to be repaired or altered, bag it up and take it to the cleaners now, before you even think about putting it back in your closet. If you can’t wear it, why should it take up precious closet space? And last but not least, when you find those items that have just been tossed into your closet for lack of a better place, either find them a new home somewhere else in your home, or get rid of them. Your closet should be a stop and drop storage room!
Once you have gotten rid of all the clutter, look at the items you have left that need to be placed back into your closet, and try to come up with some organization methods, to make everything easier to get to and find in a hurry. If you have a lot of shoes, purses, to items that cannot be placed on hangers, you should get cubbies or racks that you can place into your closet to put them on, rather than just piling them up in the closet floor, again. If you have clothing or bedding items that need to be folded and stored, think about installing a shelving unit, to place these neatly on. Measure your closet inside dimensions carefully, and then measure them again just to make sure. You will use these measurements when purchasing your closet organizer, so it is important that they be accurate.
Now you will need to decide how much money you can afford to spend on your closet re- organization project. If you own your home, you likely will want to go with an organizer that will be permanently installed in your closet, but if you are renting, this may not be the best option, unless you are prepared to leave it if and when you move.
The big thing is to make certain that everything in your closet has a place, and that you make certain it stays in that place. Don’t wait until it is all piled up again to clean it up, do it once a month or so, so that it doesn’t get so bad!
