How To: Organize a Closet

If you’re anything like most Americans, your closet is a room in your house with various piles of clothes, shoes, and accessories strewn about in no discernible order. It may take you anywhere from five to thirty minutes to locate an article of clothing, yet the thought of organizing this mess overwhelms you instantly. If this sounds familiar you’ve come to the right place; the following six steps will guide you through the closet organization process and make at least one part of your life a little more organized.


Step 1: Empty your closet entirely

Remove every article of clothing, shoe, accessory, car part, piece of paper, or book confined within those walls. If the closet in question is meant for clothing only, separate all non-clothes (ie: car parts, paper, book, etc) into a box to be removed entirely from your closet. Throw away all dry cleaner plastic coverings; these covers prevent fabrics from breathing and can actually damage some delicate items.

• Cleaners’ option: Moisten a clean rag with warm water and wipe down your entire closet (the walls, door frame, racks, and shelves); a spray bottle filled with equal parts white vinegar and water can act as an environmental friendly cleaner. Wiping down everything may take a while, depending on the size of your closet, but it’s worth the time. You and your clothes will benefit from setting them up in a lint, dust, and dirt free environment.

• Designers’ option: It’s never a bad idea to paint/decorate your closet. If it’s big enough, you can turn your closet into a stylish retreat from the world, a calming oasis, or a man-cave. A fresh coat of paint, wallpaper, or art can spice up a room most people overlook. Check out these closets on HGTV.com for decorating ideas.

Step 2: Sort

Sort your clothes into three separate piles: keep, donate, and sell. Unless you’ve got an ample supply of stained, ripped, or faded clothes, virtually everything you don’t want can be donated if not sold. Goodwill accepts gently worn items. Mid to high end pieces can be sold at consignment stores in your city. If you live in the DC Metro area, check out this blog for a list of consignment stores in the area. Shoes are tricky; unless they’ve never been worn or only worn once, most consignment stores and even Goodwill will reject worn shoes. Shoes retain more germs than other articles of clothing and are difficult to recycle. If you know of a place to recycle shoes, email OrganizeCleanDesign@gmail.com and let us know.

Step 3: Organizing your ‘keep’ pile

Chances are the clothing you decide to keep will be an assortment of spring, summer, fall, and winter items. If not, you’re either pretty organized already (enough to sort your warm weather from your cold weather clothes) or you live in one climate. Move the two other piles clearly out of the way (to avoid clothing mix-ups) and start separating your ‘keep’ pile according to season. The season that you’re in right now will be the season that goes back into your closet.

• Out of season clothes and shoes: Head to the Container Store because you’ve got to purchase plastic storage bins for your out of season clothing. Plastic storage bins work better than cardboard boxes because they’re transparent (which makes it easier to locate specific pieces), reusable (the greener option), stackable, water resistant, and can be written on with an erasable marker (for labeling what seasons/whose clothes are in which bins). Plastic bins can be purchased that fit under your bed or stack neatly in your closet. The same rules apply for clear shoe boxes; they can be stored alongside your plastic bins. 

Step 4: Choosing the right hanger

When it’s time to put your clothes back in the closet, deciding what to hang as well as knowing the right hanger to use will help keep your closet organized well into the future. The right hanger will prevent your clothing from slipping off and onto the floor, keep your freshly tailored pants wrinkle free (thus reducing your prep time in the morning), and make finding clothes much easier (as you’ll know what hanger to look for).

• Padded hangers: good for wrap collars (coats, cardigans, thin wrap sweaters)

• Wooden hangers: good for suits; help maintain their shape through the shoulders

• Trouser hangers: good for pants (hang upside down from the cuffs to prevent wrinkles), skirts, strapless tops (if the plastic hang straps are missing), anything with thin straps (to prevent strap stretching)

• Plastic hangers: good for basically everything else

• Wire hangers: THROW AWAY

Unless you’ve got lots of room; cotton t-shirts, cotton shorts, cotton leggings, socks and underwear can all go in decorative bins that can be stored in your closet. Home décor stores like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Target, the Container Store, even K-mart have great varieties of closet storage options that come in a range of patterns and colors (if you painted, make sure to pick colors that don’t clash… email OrganizeCleanDesign@gmail.com if you’ve got color questions). Grab some decorative bins, toss your cotton and wrinkle resistant goods inside and set aside.

Step 5: Shoe and boot boxes

As with out of season storage, clear shoe and boot boxes are great for storing shoes. They stack easy and make finding shoes a breeze. Buy these in abundance; it’s really easy to stack plastic shoe boxes and boot boxes but throwing a cardboard box into the mix can mess up the visual appeal (and stack-ability) of your organized closet.

Step 6: Refilling your closet

Once everything in your closet is hung and stored, it’s time to begin refilling your closet. If you’ve got multiple levels of height in your closet, place pants, dresses, and other long items on the closet bar furthest from the ground. Shoe boxes can go under long items provided they don’t cause your items to wrinkle at the bottom. Group the same items together (i.e.: pants with pants) and arrange each section of clothing from lightest to darkest. If you’re short on space; thick items like jeans and sweaters can be folded and stacked on shelves or folded and stored in those decorative bins. Dividers can keep your folded items from leaning over and becoming disorganized. Place decorative storage bins on shelves.

• Cleaners’ option: It doesn’t hurt to vacuum or sweep your closet after filling it back up. After the heavy traffic of cleaning and organizing, your floors are probably a bit dirtier than before this project began. Giving them a good cleaning will also prevent old dirt from being kicked back up onto your clothes.

Follow these six steps and you’ll have an organized closet in a matter of hours.