Are you tired of looking at a haphazard closet in your home? Are you wondering how to organize a closet? Watching all those home design shows can inspire people to spring into action and transform their closets. Of course, decluttering and reorganizing your closet is not as simple as it seems.
It takes a bit of planning to achieve functional organization for your closet. An Organized Home OC is a professional home organization company in Southern Orange County. Led by Lisa Cantu, a certified professional home organizer, who has prepared a few essential tips on how to organize a closet that can help you make quick work of decluttering and organizing that closet of yours. Follow these tips to finally get that satisfaction you’ve been yearning for with a well-managed, decluttered, and beautifully organized closet.
A Quick Look at the Steps to Declutter & Organize Your Closet
How to organize a closet for you might be slightly different based on your wardrobe size, lifestyle, and the space in your home. However, we’ve created a guide that gives you universal tips that you can adjust based on your specific needs to achieve the ideal functional organization for that closet of yours.
- Gather what you need
- Empty the closet
- Clean, clean, clean
- Get rid of things you no longer need
- Match your closet organization solutions with the space
- Start repopulating your closet
- Come up with a plan to keep things neat and tidy
1. Gather What You Need
Here’s a short list of the closet organization tools you’ll need:
- Similar hangers
- Catch-all basket
- Tape measure
- Hat hooks
- Belt hooks
- Shoe organizers
- A strong will and determination
The last item on the list above might seem like a joke, but trust us, it isn’t. You’ll realize why.
2. Empty the closet
Now that you’ve got everything you need, it’s time to get to work on how to organize a closet. The first order of business is to clear everything out. Just empty the entire closet. Do not leave anything in there. Store all your precious belongings from the closet somewhere safe, take everything else out, and place it somewhere with a lot of space.
3. Clean it up
Before you can organize everything in your closet, you need to clean the space. Depending on how long it’s been since you last cleaned your closet, you might have plenty of cleaning to do. Clean all the surfaces and get into every corner. There’s a chance you might find things you didn’t remove when you initially emptied the closet.
4. Get rid of things you no longer need
This is where you need a strong will and determination. Not everyone has an easy time parting ways with things they’ve had for a long time, but you cannot achieve functional organization unless you are willing to let go of things you no longer need.
Go through everything you had in your closet and start separating the things you haven’t used in a long time. The easiest thing is to focus on things you should keep rather then thinking about what you need to give away.
- Keep it: Hold onto things you love and wear often;
- Thrift it: Consider selling name-brand clothes in good condition to consignment stores or;
- Donate it: You can donate items in good shape or; if you’re worried that items aren’t in good shape you can-
- Trash it: If there’s anything damaged enough that you will feel embarrassed to donate, you should bag it and trash it.
5. Match your closet organization solutions with the space
Time to take out the measuring tape and measure the space. The closet organizing tools you’ve purchased will not add more space to the closet, but they can make the space more accessible for efficiently organizing the closet.
You should take measurements of the closet space and tally it against the dimensions of the different closet organization tools you have to figure out the best placement for everything. An important tip for when you are shopping for closet organizing tools: Do not burn a hole in your bank account by getting the most expensive closet systems. Instead, measure the space and purchase only what you need to store your clothes. If you already have organizing tools, you should stick to repurposing them.
Place the hat hooks, belt hooks, and catch-all baskets in the closet. Add more items if you purchase them, as needed, and organize them.
6. Start repopulating the closet
Now that you have sorted all your closet organizing tools, you can start putting things back into the closet. The key with how to organize a coset is to put everything back in a way that makes the most sense while using the available space. Think of where each category of clothes and accessories needs to go and the most accessible parts of the closet.
- Group like-with-like items first: Gather all the dresses, belts, short-sleeved shirts, shorts, jeans, long-sleeved shirts, work pants, etc., and identify the best place to store each category. Consider organizing tops and shirts by sleeve length.
- Color code light to dark: Once you have the different groups of like-with-like items and decide on the space for each, color code them when storing them in their assigned space for a neater and aesthetically pleasing look for the closet.
- Reserve the easy-to-reach spaces for things you use the most: The easiest area to access in your closet should be reserved for clothes you wear the most. Things you don’t often wear, like formal clothes and dresses, should be stored on the upper shelves or at the back of the closet.
- Put the least-used things aside: Out-of-season clothes, fancy shoes, and other things you might wear only a few times of the year should be tucked away at the top or in the back.
- Organize the accessories: Scarves, shoes, bags, and other accessories need proper space. Don’t lump everything together. Instead, assign the most accessible space to things you wear or use most often. Reserve the space toward the back for things you don’t use too often.
7. Come up with a plan to keep things tidy
Once you’ve handled all the steps above in how to organize a closet, you might feel some satisfaction of restoring order to your closet. Of course, keeping a functionally organized closet that way requires constant effort.
We highly recommend taking one day out of every month to tidy it up again, perhaps going for a thorough overhaul twice a year. Doing this will make it easier for you to keep your closet well-organized and clean.
And if you are looking for a professional home organizer in Orange County, CA and need help on how to organize a closet, you are in luck. Call us at (714) 618-3744 or fill out our contact form, and we’ll get in touch because we’d love to help you Declutter Your Home and Declutter Your Mind.
