Best Ways To Reorganize Your Closet This Spring

By Gretchen Kernbach on April 12, 2016

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Spring cleaning: scrubbing down the bathtub, vacuuming all the rugs, and, most importantly, reorganizing your closet. As the most cluttered space in your house, chances are it needs to be cleaned out and rearranged. Between all the sweaters, dresses, shoes, and shirts, there must be at least 30 percent of unused items taking up precious space.

The first thing to do is separate clothes according to how recently you have worn them. Anything that you have not worn in over a year, throw it out. In addition, a given, go ahead and throw out anything that looks unattractive to you. That one shirt may have been in style two summers ago, but since then you find yourself shoving it back on the rack time after time. Those are the ones to throw away, or even better, donate to Goodwill.

When clearing out a closet, people often find random items that should not even be in there. Things such as old yearbooks or paper awards are frequently found in the depths of storage. This gives you the chance to finally find a new home for those miscellaneous objects.

After setting whatever you choose aside, you should have (hopefully) gotten rid of at least 10 items. As a side note, be sure that all the clothes you are about to put back into your closet still fit.

According to Jeannie Matteucci on hgtv.com:

“While you might think an empty closet is ‘clean’, now is the time to wipe down the closet walls and vacuum or mop the closet floor. Once items are removed, you will probably find stray clothing tags, store receipts or dust bunnies. If the walls need painting, choose a paint that is specifically formulated to be mold and mildew-resistant. If you find your closet walls have mildew or mold after you remove items, have a professional examine your walls and properly clean and paint them.”

Now is the time to start rearranging things.

The first organization option is based on eye-level. When opening your closet, your most-used items should be easy to find. This means not too high and not too low. Second, the articles of clothing you wear a little less often should be stored towards the bottom. It is always easier to reach down than up. Lastly, anything that is rarely worn should be kept on top. The top shelves can be used for out-of-season clothing.

Categorizing your clothes according to color is another helpful organization tactic. Simply hanging up each article of clothing in the order of the rainbow allows you to easily create matching outfits. If you are looking for a blue shirt, it would be easier to go to the “blue section” of your closet instead of searching through piles of clothes.

Sorting clothes based upon occasion is also a good idea. Group together professional attire in one section and athletic attire in another. This helps for those days you are running behind schedule and do not have time to plan out an outfit.

A common problem people run into when storing their clothes is the limited amount of space available. Ideas such as stacking t-shirts upright in a drawer or using ornament boxes as underwear/sock organizers can open up more space and make it easier to locate specific items.

Image via tiphero.com

For smaller items such as hats, scarves, and belts consider putting up hooks on the inside of your closet’s door(s). This reduces the actual amount of objects on the shelves/racks, thus creating less clutter. Cross-body purses can also be hung on these hooks.

Belts and scarves can also be hung up using altered hangers. According to decoratingfiles.com, “Create your own belt storage by pre-drilling holes into a wooden pant hanger, then screwing in cup hooks.” Belt rings are also found at Walmart.

Image via Martha Stewart

Regarding scarves, there are special-made hangers with built-in loops to coil your scarves around. Attaching shower curtain rings to a regular hanger also acts as a scarf-holder.

When it comes to shoes there are many organization options. You can either place them on shelves, in clear containers, or stack the shoe boxes they came in. Placing shoes on shelves allows you quick access to them, but they could easily fall onto the floor and create a new clutter problem.

Clear containers allow you to see which shoes are inside and can hold more than one pair. Shoe boxes require no additional purchases, but the struggle of taking out a pair from the bottom of the stack is the biggest hassle of the three.

The key to reorganizing your closet is so you can find things easier. Whatever method works, use it. Try not to store every single article of clothing you own into the closet — if you do not have a dresser, now would be the time to rent or buy one.

However, organizing that is a whole other story …

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