Closets are areas of infinite possibility. Closets can be rearranged, re-configured or re-designated depending on what you need to use it for. You can organize your closets any way that suits your specific needs. The following 5 tips are to help you weed out the things you no longer want or need and to develop the habit of only keeping the things you use or love.
1. Sort Through One Bar of Your Hanging Clothes
Begin at one end of the hanging clothes bar and look at each item individually. Decide if it fits you
and whether you love wearing it. If it doesn’t fit right now, I highly recommend giving it away. Once you are at that particular size again, you deserve new clothes. If you just can’t part with your old pair of jeans yet, consider putting them in a box. If you haven’t gone into the box in three months, give everything in the box away because now you realize that you never really missed those clothes anyway. If there are clothes that you don’t like the color, feel or fit of, give those away too. You don’t have to keep the Christmas sweater your grandmother gave you just to wear next Christmas. Give that sweater away; put it in your donation bag immediately. Only keep the beautiful clothes you love to wear. Enjoy your clothes!
2. Select Five Articles Of Clothing You Haven’t Worn Recently
Let’s face it: most of us have clothes that we haven’t worn in a long time. In 10 minutes, you can try on at least five articles of clothing and decide whether you want to keep each one or give it away. I highly recommend that if you decide to keep something, even though you haven’t worn it in a long time, that you put it closer to the front of your closet where you can easily see it. Being reminded of some of our lesser-worn clothing can actually be a fun way to bring it back into wardrobe circulation.
3. Rotate your Seasonal Clothes
Depending on the climate you live in, rotating your clothes in the Spring and Fall adds more storage space and more variety to your everyday wardrobe. It is pretty unlikely that you need to have access to both shorts and wool sweaters at the same time. Decide what can be put away for a few months to allow more space for the clothes you want to wear right now. Store your wool sweaters, turtlenecks, hats and gloves together for use when you need them. Plastic storage bins
with lids that snap shut prevent moths, moisture and rodents from getting in and eating your clothes. The dresser drawers that you use to store these items in are now empty and ready to be filled with shorts, bathing suits and tank tops. You can actually use the same storage bins all year round and just rotate what is stored in them.
4. Organize All the Shoes in One Closet
Shoes are necessary. Shoes can also be decorative, fun, fashion for the feet. It’s important to be able to find your shoes quickly and easily when you are getting dressed. Therefore, having your shoes organized will save you lots of time and reduce stress. Pick a closet and see how quickly you can match up the shoes, decide which ones you want to keep and which pairs can be donated. Most people keep their shoes in the bedroom. I recommend keeping the filthy footwear closer to the outside door. Store muddy, wet, or sandy shoes in the garage or laundry room rather than in the closet with all your clean clothes. It is easier to maintain a clean house when everyone takes off their dirty shoes right where they enter the home. If you have lots of shoes, separate the boots from sandals and store whichever ones are currently out-of-season in either a different closet or further away from your everyday shoes. Have fun with organizing your shoes!
5. Label the Shelves in the Linen Closet
Is your linen closet packed and nothing is easy to find? If you sort your linens according to size and make neat stacks of sets, you will be able to find what you need quickly and easily. King sheets for the master bedroom need to be kept separate from the queen sheets for the guest room. Twin sheets for the kids’ beds are in a separate stack from the crib sheets. If you label the shelves in the linen closet, everything can be quickly and easily put back in the proper location.
This same system can be used for towels. Beach, bath and hand towels each need their own area in the linen closet. This helps you see at a quick glance how many of each category you actually have. The amount of space in your linen closet also limits the number of items that you can neatly
store on each shelf, so decide which ones you really want to keep. Remember, you can actually fit more things into an area when they are neatly folded. Being organized actually creates more space for you to store things!
Written by Shannon McGinnis, Santa Cruz's only Certified Professional Organizer, and the founder of Organized 4 Success! Shannon publishes the monthly "Strategies 4 Success Ezine" which offers free tips, articles, and advice on how to be more organized. If you enjoyed this article, you can receive your FREE Strategies 4 Success newsletter from Shannon now at: www.Organized4Success.com
Shannon McGinnis, CPO®, Certified Professional Organizer
Author of The 10-Minute Tidy: 108 Ways to Organize Your Home Quickly
831-566-0497
www.organized4success.com, www.10minutetidy.com
©2008 Organized 4 Success, Inc.
Shannon McGinnis is a natural born organizer. She has over 25 years of experience clearing clutter and creating organizational systems as well as being the only Certified Professional Organizer in Santa Cruz, California. Shannon enjoys helping her clients feel empowered while creating a more supportive and balanced environment in their homes and offices. She offers confidential, non-judgmental sessions, classes andworkshops on a wide variety of organizational topics. Shannon’s first book, The 10-Minute Tidy: 108 Ways to Organize Your Home Quickly has been a huge success across the country. She is available for booksignings and speaking engagements.