Whether you have one closet or many, closets can inevitably become dumping grounds for all sorts of items.  In this section we will learn how to organize a closet. When possible I will give examples of products that may help you learn how to organize your closet. Will purchasing a bunch of organizational products make you organized? Of course not, but some products can help you in your quest to become organized.  You can generally purchase these products by clicking on the links or use the products as an example and look at your local store. 

Will purchasing a bunch of organizational products make you organized?  Of course not, but the products can help you in your quest to become organized.

If you recall on our home page, How to Organize, we went through a list of steps, we will call them our "Steps to Organization" (simply becuase I think it is a cool name – I was going to call them the steps on how to learn how to organize your home, office, school, life and more – but that is just a bit wordy), this page will explain how an example problem closet would be organized.

Note : if you have only short periods of time to work on your organizing project then still work your way through the steps to organization, however do it in small sections.  So, in this example, we would do the floor first, then shelves (one at a time), etc.

Problem : how to organize a hall closet that has become a dumping ground

Solution : The Steps to Organization (aka How to Organize)

Step 1 : Sorting -

Begin by making piles as you empty the closet.  You will want piles of like objects (a pile of shoes, a pile of clothes (outerwear / jackets / etc), a pile of shelf items (this is whatever items you keep in your closet that are supposed to be there like light bulbs or vacuum cleaner bags.  The final pile is stuff that doesn’t belong.  A good tip is to utilize boxes for this step.  When you are learning how to organize you must first make a bit of a mess.  This mess can be more controlled if you have boxes.  Use the boxes for the various piles – i.e one box for trash, one box for donate, one box for stuff to keep, etc.

Step 2 : Building the Border

Before we start putting stuff back into the closet, we need to have somewhere to put things.  Rather than just putting items back in like they were (becuase that wasn’t working) we need to build our border.  This is where all of those wonderful organizing supplies come in handy.

Shoes -

There are several ways to organize shoes. The important part is to find a way that is simple enough for everyone in your home to use and easy enough that it will be continued.  If everyone in your home doesn’t knwo how to organize, that is ok – as long as the system is simple it can be used by everyone.  A 1 year old can be taught how to organize shoes by putting the shoes on a shoe rack (granted he will take them off many many many many many many times, but he can be taught to put them on the rack.)

Basic shoe rack : A basic shoe rack will give you a place to put your shoes so they are not in a pile on the floor.  That is one of the pros of the basic shoe rack (no more big messy pile of shoes), one of the cons is that a shoe rack will take up space (limited floor space, but at least it looks better).  Some options for shoe racks are : 

Whitmor 6579-1975 3 Tier Expandable Shoe Rack

Whitmor 6026-220 Closet Shelves, Chromed Wire

Whitney Design 2103 Stackable 2-Shelf Chrome Shelving Unit

Over the door shoe rack : an over the door shoe rack is another idea on how to organize your shoes.  The pros – takes up less floor space, the cons – doesn’t always fit all shoes.  Some options for over the door shoe racks are :

Richards Homewares Polyester 26 Pocket Over-the-Door Organizer

OTD Shoe Organizer

Shoe Rack – Shoe Organizer (Natural) (63"H x 19"W)

Whitmor 6486-1746-WHT Over The Door Shoe Rack, White, 36-Pair

Choose which organizer works for you and your family. Bear in mind part of learning how to organize is sorting.  You need to sort through your shoes before putting them back into the closet. Think carefully when going through the pile, if the shoes are ones that you love, keep them, if they are shoes that you wear all of the time, keep them, however if you find a pair that doesn’t fit, doesn’t look right or that you don’t like – donate them.

Jackets, Sweaters and other outerwear –

So your shoes now look great!  next we will discover how to organize all of that outerwear that is stuffed into your closet.  Depending on the size of your closet and any alternate storage areas one great way to keep your closets from looking over crowded is to rotate items seasonally.  To do this in an organized way you will want to obtain some clear plastic storage boxes (such as Clear Plastic Boxes – Large Deep).  Your number of boxes will depend on your amount of clothes.  You will want to have at least one box – this will allow you to store two seasons (spring / summer or fall / winter) in your storage box while the other two seasons are in your closet.  Again how many items you have will determine how many boxes you will need.  At our house we have adults and children so when we put away winter coats they fill more than one box.When you are deciding how to organize the out of season items consider having a kids box and an adult box.  Perhaps you need a box just for winter coats, deciding how to organize these items before you start filling your boxes will save you time in the end.
 

Another thought, if you have a bigger family, (or just lots of gloves and scarves) is to think outside the box and find something like the  Whitney Design 1842 Three-Shelf Natural Canvas Hanging Sweater Organizer this is a hanging shelf organizer.  It will take up space so you will need to determine if it is something that you need, but it is a neat idea that you can work from.

As I said before, before you put items back into your closet, determine if you need all of the jackets in your closet.  If you don’t use it, don’t need it, don’t want it, then donate it.

Next, let’s discover how to organize those items on the shelf (YEAH! – more organizing!)

Shelf items –

In our disorganized (soon to be organized) example hall closet we have a shelf. Let’s say that when we were sorting the items (way back in "how to organize" step 1) we took the following items off of this shelf: some light bulbs, vacuum cleaner bags, board games, a few scarves, some blankets, an apple core, and other odds and ends. So here we are still building our border.  Part of the border building is deciding the purpose of the room.  For our hall closet, we want to be able to store some items (like the light bulbs and vacuum cleaner bags), so we need to find a new home for the rest of the items.  These items will go into the doesn’t go here pile, while we will find storage boxes for our light bulbs and vacuum cleaner bags.  To determine which size you need, measure the space you have on your shelf – do you want the boxes to completely fill the shelf, what are you planning on putting in them, do they have drawers that need to be able to open (note : if they have drawers – you want them to be able to open it is so much harder otherwise).  After you have your measurements and other determinations you can start looking at storage boxes. 

A few notes on your learning how to organize journey -

* boxes with lids stay neater than boxes without lids

* clear boxes allow you to see what is inside without having to pull the box out of the closet every time

* drawers allow you to stack your boxes, but don’t allow you to pull them off the shelf as easily

* lots of little boxes just make a slightly organized mess – go with bigger boxes to hold more items, if you need to organize within a box then you can get smaller boxes to go into the bigger boxes, but this is, in my opinion, overkill (this is not learning how to organize, this is learning how to make a big mess become a slightly organized big mess).

Step 3 : Filling in the pieces

Ok – so you have all of your plans for organization, you have a system for how to organize your shoes, you have plans for how to keep your clothing organized, and you have plans for the shelf items as well. You are well on your way to learning how to organize.

Great!  Good job!  I am proud of you!  Now – start filling on the pieces.  What does this mean in the learn how to organize world?   Simply start putting things back into the closet.  Shoes go on the shoe rack, clothes go either in the storage boxes for alternate seasons, or on hangers, shelf items go in the storage boxes on the shelf.  (do you see a pattern here?)  A quick not about hangers – all hangers are not made equal.  Wire hangers can stretch out sweaters or leave marks on clothes.  If your hangers are working for you then by all means keep using them, if however you want new hangers, be sure to purchase all of the same type, as they will hang together nicely.  As you put each item back in though, think about each item one more time.  Do you need it?  Do you love it?  If the answer to either is yes, then by all means, hang on to it.  If the answer to both is no, then pass it along to someone who does need and will love it.

Step 4 : The Final Step – How to Organize so that You Keep it Organized

First, old habits are hard to break.  When you or someone in your family is used to doing something one way for a long time, it will take time to change.  However, the simpler the system, the easier to follow it.  Rather than organizing shoes in shoes boxes with lids and stacked according to style, size and color, have them in view on a shoe rack with their mate.  Rather than arranging jackets by season in the closet, store the out of season items in an attic or other storage space.  As long as your system is simple it will work for you.

The previous example focused on how to organize a hall closet, however the same principles can be applied to any closet.  Start with the sorting, move on to the border, then filling in the pieces.  Below you will find some ready-made "borders".  These are great ways to organize either as is or to use to gain ideas to build your own border.

Take what works, leave what doesn’t and enjoy your organized closet.