Closet Organization: Three Ideas to Make It Easier

Three closet organization tips to help you identify what you haven’t been wearing, to give away clothes with respect and to keep your closet organized.

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Closet organization in our bedroom is something we don’t tackle often. It had been well over a year since we’d organized and purged clothes, shoes and accessories we no longer wore. It had gotten unruly and was over due for a thorough cleaning. Thankfully we’ve implemented a few ideas over the years that made the task of closet organization much easier.

IDEA 1: Turn hangers around so you can see at a glance what you haven’t worn in the past year.

The last time I organized and purged clothes from my closet, I turned all the hangers backwards. As I wore sweaters, shirts, pants etc throughout the year, I would then hang the clothes hangers forward when I returned them to my closet after doing laundry. This meant that when I went through my recent closet organization efforts, I could quickly see at a glance that all the clothes on hangers that were still backwards hadn’t been worn in the past year and had to go!

IDEA 2:  Share clothes you haven’t worn with a loved one or a local nonprofit organization.

As I took the clothes I hadn’t worn in over a year off the hangers, I examined each one. If it was torn, ripped, stained or terribly out of style, I threw it in my rag bin or threw it in the trash. If there was still life left in the item, I neatly folded it and put it in a nice shopping bag or a cardboard box to pass along. As a rule, I try to never give away clothes in a garbage bag. Though it may be convenient, it communicates to the person receiving it that you’re giving them your “trash”. Whereas, using a nice shopping bag or even a cardboard box  conveys that there is still value left in the item and that it is being passed along with respect to the person who will be receiving it. I’ve often been on the receiving end of gently used clothing from good friends and while I always appreciate the items, when they’re packed nicely I subconsciously place a higher value on the items. If you don’t have a friend or family member that you can pass your clothes, there are numerous nonprofit organizations in your community who would love to have them.

IDEA 3: Make sure everything has its place. Come up with your own closet organization system to keep it manageable.

Baskets and bins for accessories and smaller items go a long way toward keeping a closet organized year-round. You will need to figure out what closet organization tools and systems work for you. I’m not great at putting shoes back on a shoe rack so I keep a plastic bin in the closet where I can toss them. We have a walk-in closet, so we like to use the plastic Sterilite drawers, like the ones in the pictures,
to keep our socks and underwear right in the closet with the rest of our clothes. My husband likes to keep all his short-sleeved clothes on one rack and his long-sleeved clothes on the rack below. When I do the laundry, I always put the shirts that I just cleaned at the far end of the rack, so the ones he hasn’t worn recently get bumped toward the front.

Once you’ve finished with your closet organization, don’t forget to turn all your clothes hangers backwards so you’re ready to start over for next time. It may be another year or more before we sort through our own bedroom closet again, but thanks to these ideas the job will be a little easier the next time we decide to tackle closet organization.

For more closet tips, check out our Easy Closet Organizing Ideas to Tidy Up Your Clothes.

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