How to organise your closet

how-to-organise-your-closet

We have looked in great detail how to declutter and organise our clothes but how do you organise your closet? This has less to do with your clothes and more to do with the “hardware” in your wardrobe.

Once you only have clothes you like. The clothes that fit and make you feel amazing. Then we can start to learn how to organise the closet.

how to organise your closet

Let’s look at the barebones of your closet

What do I mean by this? I have moved a couple of times over the years. And each house you get into is different in terms of how many clothes racks, shelves and drawers you have.

Your first few questions when looking at the wardrobe are:

  • Could I do with more shelving?

  • Should I add a rod?

  • Which clothes can I fold or hang so it works in this particular closet?

Sometimes the key to organise your closet is adding furniture to it

If you find that you don’t have enough space. Or there is a lot of wasted space (this is 90% the case). This is what I suggest you do use boxed furniture.

Simple block shelving comes in 4, 6 or 8. It is incredibly portable and versatile. You can use these blocks to add to the existing shelving that is in place. This will transform your wardrobe instantaneously. This is key to how you organise your closet.

Different sizes

I’ll go through the different sizes and explain how I have used them in the past.

4 square, these are great for shoes, T-shirts, and handbags (on waist height). If you stick to these you can double-stack them when needed.

6 shelves are great if you can utilise the wardrobe space by adding this size. They tend to be that bit higher so you can also store jewellery or a handbag on the top. Where the 4 squares almost work anywhere. As soon as, you go up a size you want to measure before you purchase.

8 squares, can create the backbone of your wardrobe. We once lived in this brand-new house….without proper wardrobe shelving. Both hubby and I had an eight-blocked piece of furniture on our side of the wardrobe. It took care of 90% of our clothes.

A note on these modular furniture options

You can get cheap/flimsy ones these work well within wardrobes as they take up less space. Alternatively, you could go for the slightly more expensive ones. They will take up more space but could also be seen as furniture in their own right.

I have had a combination of both due to a mixture of budget and later the needs of the house.

In organising sessions with my private organising clients, it was not uncommon to declutter. Go to the shop purchase module furniture, come back to the house, and put it together. This then allowed us to transform the space. As well as, learn how to organise your closet once and for all.

Folding technique or rolling your clothes

how to organise your closet

When you organise your clothes. It is really the time you think about how you “format” your clothes. So they look organised and work well for you.

Clearly, there is a debate about folding, stacking, rolling and creating a sandwich look of for example your t-shirts. Here is my take on it… I am in favour of folding if you have enough shelves. It is easy to place frequently used items on eye height and find the colour you are looking for.

What about rolling socks or T-shirts? Sorry Marie Kondo, we love you but I don’t like this way of formatting* my clothes. The reason why I don’t is because it is more complicated than my simple in the air folding technique. It won’t work perfectly for all the different shapes of clothes. If you stack things as files in a drawer this can look amazing until you have too little or too many clothes. Then the stacks become messy. It requires a “perfect” amount of clothes for a drawer. I am not sure about you but even with my capsule wardrobe, this fluctuates for me. To learn about sorting and folding clothes have a look at this page and its videos.

*I used the word “formatting”. This to cover all basis of what shape you place your clothing items in, when they live in the “homes” you made for them.


How to organise your closet with baskets and draw dividers

Diving a little deeper than folding or rolling the clothes in your wardrobe are baskets or draw dividers. They can be very hand for example for socks or undies. Do check how deep your drawers or shelves are. This, so you can find the exact right height, with and depth for your basket. As always I suggest don’t use round baskets. Stay with rectangular shapes as this will make better use of your space. Note if you have a round closet, call me (we will sort something out ).

Draw dividers

For baskets, you can go cheap but for draw-dividers buy the best. If the dividers is weak with its springs, made of flimsy material and breaks. You accidentally added to clutter, chaos and pollution. I know this because I have tried different draw dividers.

Invest in good quality draw dividers and they will last you for years. Another benefit is that if you use draw dividers. You might not need as many baskets or any baskets at all. This will be a deliberate purchase. So similarly to the baskets, do check the length, height and depth of your drawer prior to purchasing them.

How to organise your clothes with hangers

It is so simple but can make a world of difference. I was well into my twenties when one day I bought all the same hangers. They were fake wood, but they looked amazing. It felt like a massive step into adulthood and it cost me less than $30,- on hangers.

Wooden hangers

The types of clothes hangers

  • Personally, I like the wooden hangers because they look posh (so shallow I know).

  • Some people like the black velvet ones

  • Or plastic ones.

Before you purchase hangers in bulk maybe try them out or think what your style is.

If you want a:

  • clean-shaped hanger

  • rod from one end to the other

  • or potentially so extra hooks that help hanging pretty dresses or singlets.

Once you have made the decision. Do a quick count based on the clothes you have (and want to hang up). This will determine how many hangers you will need. It also goes back to the hardware focus, how much space do you have to fold or hang items? Once you know your number buy at least an additional 10 hangers. This will prevent your hangers from not being “matchy-matchy” in the future.

What about all the other hangers?

They can go to the second-hand shop. Go back to the shop you got the hanger from or maybe back to the dry cleaner. Dry cleaner wire hangers are “evil”, you can easily cut yourself. And they do look not good in a nice organised closet.

Getting a bit emotional?

Let’s change the topic a “little” bit from hardware to emotions. You and I know that working on your wardrobe can be a bit emotional. “I bought this expensive thing and didn’t wear it” or “I don’t fit it anymore”. No judgments here since my 30’s I regularly expand out and back in, it happens. It might be worthwhile to have the help of a supportive friend or partner. Someone, that makes you feel good, beautiful and empowered about your choice of clothing.

If at any stage you feel overwhelmed and emotional go back to decluttering your clothes on this page. Once you have sorted the clothes they can help you work on the hardware to organise your closet. Who knows they come shopping with you when you learn and discover the capsule wardrobe. The final stage of organising clothes.

Get inspired to organise your closet and more

Pick any of my organising books to help you on your organising journey.

Wrapping up your organised closet

Emotions aside, who would have thought that organising a closet has much more to do with hardware and thinking through how you want to organise this space. Than it does with organising talent and insight. It is however part of a process.

On that note, please don’t start here if you haven’t decluttered yet. You will be wasting your time organising stuff you might not keep.

Lastly, you might want to learn about the capsule wardrobe before you organise or declutter your clothes. A capsule wardrobe has been an amazing feature in my life. It helps me feel organised, look good and spend very little on great quality clothing. As always reach out to ask any questions, I love talking organised closets.

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