Organizing: Closets - Helpful Tips & Strategies - Part 1

With winter around the corner, the dropping temperatures creates for more indoor activities. It also makes for the perfect time to stay in a couple hours and organize things around the house. 

There's nothing like an organized closest, so here are a few tips and strategies from the industry's professionals for organizing your closet. Today we focus on how to organize folded and hung clothes so that finding and enjoying them are way easier!

Strategy: Folding Clothes

If you prefer to fold your clothes or have a lot of clothing that is best stored folded, Meryl Starr, a professional organizer in New York and author ofThe Organizing Workbook, recommends these tips for folding clothes within your closet.

- Shelves should be about 12 inches deep, roughly the

depth of a stack of clothes. You don't want a lot of

wasted space in front or behind.

- Ventilated shelves promote airflow around folded

clothes, which cuts down on the possibility of mold,

mildew, and pests.

- Group like with like (jeans with jeans, etc.).

Same-size items stack more neatly

- Put clothes you use most in the center at eye level.

-Don't stack higher than about a foot, and leave at least

6 inches between the top of the stack and the next shelf

for easy reaching in.

- Add drawers to collect smaller items. If you don't have

drawers, use a basket or two. Position drawers below eye

level so it's easy to peer in.

Strategy: Hanging Clothes

Hanging up clothing inside a closet is an easy way to keep clothing organized, especially if you have a lot of dress clothes, suits, or dresses. Lorie Marrero, creator of The Clutter Diet online program, recommends these tips:

-- For the double-hang area, put the shortest clothes on

the top rod and hang the bottom one as high as possible

under them. Use space freed up near the floor for a shoe

rack or storage bins.

-- Organize garments by category and separate with hanging

labels; the more specific the categories the better. For example,

subdivide your shirts into short- and long-sleeve, or casual

and dressy. Bonus points: Organize by color within a category.

-Keep shoes, purses, and jewelry in hanging organizers there

are dozens on the market, so you can see them alongside your

clothes.

photos: pinterest

text adapted from better homes and gardens

Quick Tip: Utter Clutter No More!

What you need to get rid of:

It doesn't fit/too tight/too short/too small

Clothes that you say 'you will fit into' (again) one day/soon:

Hopefully you'll soon reach your health goals, and fit into 

that favorite blouse of pair of pants sooner than later. However,

when that happens you will most probably want to update your

wardrobe anyways so don't waste time and space keeping those

clothes.

There are people out there that are 'dying' for clothes and

would be better off right now with those. Plus once you reach your

health goal, spending a couple $ on just a few clothing items can 

be the way you reward/treat yourself!

Feeling guilty because someone gave you something.

Well it's no use if you're not using it, or if you have something like it

already. Go an exchange it for something you will use, or give it away

to someone else. If you want, and if it's new, sell it. Make some space.

Your only responsibility is to thank the person for the gift. 

Unsubscribe

to those emails that you never read anyways

You click delete, you barely ever open them. At one point you thought

it would be interesting to get those emails and keep up with them, but 

you're surviving without them, they are obviously not making a significant

difference in your life, andso you can just "unsubscribe!"  

Un-clutter your life!

Photos via Pinterest