How to organise clothes item by item
On this page, we will go through how to organise clothes in groupings. This will include how to organise scarves, ties, bras, T-shirts, tops, sweaters/sweatshirts, jeans/pants, undies, socks, and shoes.
As with anything, organising isn’t difficult, but until you know how to organise clothes, it isn’t easy either.
How to organise clothes
Once you have decluttered your clothes, you are now left with the items you like. On another page, we will look at your closet and wardrobe. On this page, we will go through different items and discuss how to organise clothes effectively.
One question you might have is: Is there a best way to organise clothes? Well, not really. Some items are generally easier or harder to fold or hang, but overall, the best way to organise your clothes is in a way that works for you. Having said that, I will discuss many items separately and in the list below, state how to organise clothes item by item based on my experience.
Using the following groupings, if your pile of clothes after decluttering is still large, you can tackle one item at a time and see how your wardrobe is coming together.
How to organise clothes:
our list of items
Scarves
Ties
Bras
T-shirt
Tops
Sweaters / Sweatshirts
Jeans / Pants
Undies
Socks
Shoes
We have a number of items to go through, let's start from the top (of our bodies).
How to organise clothes: Scarves
It depends on what type of scarves you have. With bulky rectangular scarves (the ones I wore in European winters as a child), fold them and store them away in summer.
If you have, for lack of a better word, “light pretty scarves,” I would probably hang them on a hanger, as you would with ties (which I'll discuss next). At a glance, you can see what colours and patterns you have and how that could complement your outfit (for example, keep you warm or look pretty). Interestingly, with how to organise clothes like scarves, you look at the functionality before looking at an organising solution.
Lastly, it would be remiss of me not to say that you don’t need many scarves. You don’t have to be a minimalist, but if you are searching for ways on how to organise clothes. The most efficient ways is take some time to reduce scarves to the ones you like, wear, and that do the job.
How to organise clothes - Journal Entry
To this day, I have a Thinsulate scarf, an ugly brown square thing, I used to wear with my Thinsulate brown (ugly) gloves. But how they kept me warm cycling 8 km to and from high school in the European winters! Living for more than two decades in Australia now, I clearly don't use these items much, but when we go to the snow (yes, Australia has decent skiing some years) or visit Canberra on Anzac Day mornings, that scarf is the best thing ever.
One thing to remember when you learn how to organise clothes is that some clothes are worn weekly (aka your jeans) were as others might come out once every year. Only you will know if it is time to let go or to simple learn how to organise clothes like this in a simple efficient manner.
2. How to organise clothes: Ties
Most of us don’t have many ties, but maybe hubby has a couple. I tend to prefer hanging ties, as you can easily see how many you have based on the colours, patterns, etc.
Some people use storage dividers and beautifully roll their ties, but this is limiting because
what if you:
Move house and your wardrobe set up changes?
Get more ties and your organising system only has capacity for the exact amount you have now (to combat this, you can follow the principle of one in, one out, but realistically, we might not always do this).
If you hang ties, they can always fit in a space in your wardrobe, and it’s easy to use. So, when considering how to organise clothes, hanging ties is a simple and effective method.
3. How to organise clothes: Bras
Bras can be organised either standing/leaning or stacked on top of each other or stored via a hanger.
With bras, there are a few things to pause and think about:
Firstly, only keep the bras that fit.
Declutter the ones that cut you, don’t feel comfortable anymore, or used to be your favourite but now the elastic is worn down.
Have good-quality bras. My daughter and I go out about once a year to get fitted properly for good bras by a specialist. We then have a small collection of daily and sports bras—that’s it! It’s not cheap, but we only have a few and are comfortable daily.
Think about the number of bras you have. I’ve seen collections where the person spent more money on bras than I have on my whole wardrobe!
A key thing in the philosophy of how to organise clothes is less but better. Have fewer clothes but get the best quality you can afford, it is cheaper in the long run. Bras and anything in the wardrobe is a great place to save serious money once decluttered and organised.
Normally, I like to keep similar items together when I organise things. Bras could be the exception. Why? You might want your sports bras in a different spot than your day-to-day bras. If it makes sense in your mind to keep them by occasion or activity, you could have several locations, with maybe 1–2 bras each.
For organising bras, I prefer to lean them against each other on a shelf or in a drawer. Generally, I don’t go for drawer dividers or bra storage solutions; they tend to be inferior quality and become clutter in their own right. Organising solutions can become cluttered, especially if they don’t work properly.
My daughter doesn’t have space to neatly stack her bras, so we looked at a hanging solution for her, and it works well. That is another key learning for how to organise clothes, you can have different ways to organise items, pick the way that works for you.
How to organise clothes, let's move to something simple….
4. How to organise clothes: T-shirts
For me, organising T-shirts is a no-brainer: you fold them. There is a great sense of peace when all your T-shirts are neatly folded, with the mid-section facing your way. I won’t go all Marie Kondo on you here (she does great work, but I am a pragmatist—it works or it doesn’t, let’s move on).
If you are new to folding like a pro here is a video.
After a bit of practice, you can fold in mid-air, and each family member will have their own little piles of shirts. It looks great in open wardrobe spaces, and provided you face all T-shirts with the folded site to the front you can at a glance, see which colour you want to wear.
How to organise clothes pushing towards minimalism.
If you want to go more minimalist, pick your favourite shirts and only wear those. I like the idea, but this is a bit tricky for women. So, I have a handful of colours: white, black, khaki, red, and blue shirts. That’s it! And this works well in my capsule wardrobe.
For guys, how to organise clothes by having one colour might be fine. But let’s stick with folding—guy T-shirts are easy, as the shoulders are broad, making them a breeze to fold. If the man in your life has many T-shirts, first cull them and then group colours or purposes together. For example, work T-shirts should be organised in a different pile than weekend T-shirts (maybe next to each other, but it's easy to see the difference).
How to organise clothes: Why I don’t hang T-shirts
T-shirts get out of shape, and especially for women’s T-shirts, they don’t always stay well on a hanger, meaning you end up with clothes lying in a clutter pile on the floor. This is not what we want when we’re thinking about how to organise clothes.
5. How to organise clothes: Tops
This becomes slightly more complex because what you classify as a top might differ from what I consider a top.
For simple singlets (the ones Australians live in most summers), I think folding them works well. They can be stored close to the T-shirts in smaller parcels. Personally, I don't have many colours (white, beige, and black) sticking to my capsule wardrobe and using them as undergarments in winter. I stack them on top of each other, but another way of how to organise clothes like singlets can be in a drawer space, you could store them sideways and view the tops like files.
If we’re talking about organising pretty blouses and singlets, I would opt to hang them so you can easily see what colours, patterns, and styles you have. As soon as we add frills, it becomes harder to fold. You could combine folding them in half and placing pretty tops on hangers with multiple spaces. This makes it easier to look at and put away.
6. How to organise clothes: Sweaters / Sweatshirts
What better feeling is there than grabbing your favourite sweater or hoodie (as we Aussies like to call them) on a cold winter’s day?
The best way to organise sweaters or sweatshirts is to fold and stack them or to fold and file them (file them as you would in a filing drawer, but you won’t get many in the drawer, and it needs to be deep). My preference is to fold and stack them on top of each other. Either way, as my other tips on how to organise clothes, you ideally want to see one neatly folded side for each sweater so you can easily pick the colour or specific one you want to wear today.
Note that I’m talking about how to organise clothes with soft sweaters without a solid structure to the garment. As soon as you start having structured sweaters, it becomes more of a jacket, and I hang all jackets to keep them in their proper shape.
7. How to organise clothes: Jeans and Most Pants
When it comes to how to organise clothes like jeans or pants, my preference is folding.
You can fold them in:
Four parts: 1/2 and then 1/2 again
Thirds: 1/3 – 2/3
It depends on how tall you are and how deep your wardrobe is.
You could put them on hangers if you wanted (or if you have a collection of dress pants).
However, if you’re like me and prefer to quickly pull your pants out of the wardrobe, neatly stacked piles of pants are the way to go.
How to organise clothes: Fancy Pants
For work or special occasion pants, you could fold them neatly, but for more formal or fancy pants, I would recommend putting them on a hanger with all the other pants. This keeps them in their best condition while still being easy to access.
How to organise clothes: How many pants are enough?
When it comes to organising jeans, you likely have a favourite pair. Maybe stick with that one and eliminate most of your other jeans. I live on the minimalist side with my capsule wardrobe and only have one pair of jeans: one dark blue pair of the same brand and size for years. You could have more colours but don’t have more than 3 pairs and make sure they are comfy, the key to how to organise clothes is to have fewer of them. In general make sure your pants cover three to four days of the week, allowing enough time to air the pants or wash them in preparation for the next wear. A key philosophy in how to organise clothes is that they are meant to be worn, not stored in cupboards for most of the time.
8. How to organise clothes: Undies/underwear
How you organise undies is up to personal preference. My mother used to fold all of ours into neatly formed stacks (like jeans, T-shirts, and singlets). My take? Life is too short (I use the same approach for ironing), so undies go in the top drawer or a basket in the wardrobe, unfolded, and we live happily ever after. The key thing is they have a clear spot where they go—what I call a ‘home’.
9. How to organise clothes: Socks
If you’ve been in the organising space for a while, you might have noticed there’s been a disproportionate amount of debate on how to organise clothes like socks.
My view: do it your way!
You can:
Roll them (that’s what I do)
Fold and neatly stack them, ala Marie Kondo
Throw them in a sock drawer
You could organise your sock drawer with different baskets for different coloured socks or styles of socks, depending on the volume you have. Just find a solution that works for you! Again the key to how to organise clothes is have fewer. You can only wear one pair of socks at a time!
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10. How to organise clothes: Shoes
Do clothes consist of shoes? I’m not sure, but I thought I’d add a quick heading on how to organise shoes here. Again, you pick what suits you best.
In the past, I’ve had shoe racks in my wardrobe, and I experimented with shoe boxes.
Shoe boxes
Shoe boxes are a “no-no” for me unless you have a handful of really beautiful shoes you only use once a year. The reason I don’t like shoe boxes is that I want to keep my house organised as easily and quickly as possible. Some storage solutions make this difficult. If I have to place my shoes in a box, I will procrastinate, and eventually, I end up with a pile of shoes and empty shoe boxes, which creates clutter. This leads to a bigger job when I finally have to declutter my shoes. It becomes a vicious cycle.
How to Organise clothes, use Shoe racks
On the other hand, if I have a shoe rack, I can place my shoes on the rack within seconds of taking them off. This is much easier to make a habit, and it keeps maintenance to a minimum. Meaning my shoes almost organise themselves.
In some units I’ve lived in, I had shoes in my wardrobe simply because having a shoe rack near the entrance wasn’t always practical. Now that I live in a family home, we have opted for shoe racks in the garage for everyone in the house. Shoes are now in their spot, and no shoes are lying around the house. We can always find what we’re looking for.
The Conclusion on How to organise clothes
So, there you have it! You now know how to organise clothes item by item. Whether it’s scarves, shoes, T-shirts, or bras, following these simple yet effective tips can help you transform your wardrobe into an organised, functional space.
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