7 Ways To Organize Your Closet And Decrease Clutter
Have you ever struggled to find your favorite shirt in your closet or spent too long putting together an outfit in the morning for work? A cluttered closet can turn getting dressed and ready into an unnecessary challenge. A clean and orderly closet can help make your daily life easier and can help you keep track of everything that you own. Not sure where to start? Here is how to organize your closet and sort your clothing efficiently.
1. Organize Your Clothes By Category, Season, And Color
Sorting your clothes in a certain order in your closet may seem time consuming, but organizing them will end up saving you time in the long run. Not only will it be aesthetically pleasing to look at, it will also help you keep track of where everything is in your closet.
There are endless ways to sort your clothes, but three of the main ways you can sort them is by category, season, and color.
Organize Clothes By Category
Organizing your clothes by category will help you put together outfits with speed and precision. Categorical organization in your closet simply means to group and section your clothes by specific types of clothing.
Here is an example from left to right of how to organize your clothing by category. This method uses the idea of starting with your thinner and lighter clothing and moving towards your thicker and heavier clothing. It also uses the concept of the order in which you will put on the articles of clothing.
Organize Clothes By Season
Sorting your clothes by season is very useful for closet organization because it saves you the time and effort of searching through your entire closet for weather appropriate clothing.
It helps to keep the current season’s clothing towards the front of your closet for easy access. As the seasons change, simply shift the current season’s clothing towards the front and move last season’s clothing to the back.
This type of organization can also help with unpredictable weather, where you may need to quickly find a heavier jacket on a chilly spring day or a short sleeved shirt on an unusually warm fall day.
Organize Clothes By Color
Organizing your clothes by color within these other organization categories can also be incredibly useful for creating outfits. This can help you quickly match articles of clothing or choose the color that suits your mood.
Color coded organization for clothes can vary based on personal preference; although, it usually helps to start with lighter colors and move towards darker colors.
2. Save Room In A Small Closet By Folding Sweaters And Jeans
Thicker clothing items can take up a lot of room hanging in your closet, forcing you to squeeze everything together. In turn, you completely run out of room to hang anything else and you have a hard time looking through all of your clothes.
Taking these thicker clothing items off the hangers can give your other clothes more breathing room and give you extra space for new clothes.
Sweaters and jeans are two examples of thick clothing that won’t get wrinkled or ruined if they are folded instead of hung. Folding and stacking these will clear up hanging closet space while still allowing you to stay organized.
Where To Store Folded Sweaters & Jeans
- Built-In Closet Shelves/Cabinets
- Hanging Sweater Organizers
- Bins & Baskets
- Dresser Drawers (inside or outside of your closet)
Bonus Tip: Use The “Rolling” Method For Clothes In Drawers
Just as you don’t want the clothes in your closet to be messy and squeezed together, you want the clothes in your dresser drawers to be well sorted and organized too.
The “rolling” method helps with this. Roll shirts vertically to clear up extra space in the drawer. Rolling your shirts will also allow you to create multiple columns of clothing inside the drawer, which will help you see everything that you own.
You can also use multi-sectional dividers to organize your drawers even more. This is especially useful for keeping pairs of socks together.
3. Organize Shoes By Taking Advantage Of Vertical Space
The width of your closet should mostly be taken up by your hanging clothes. Additionally, if you have a top shelf on your closet, that should be reserved for your folded clothes, not for pairs of shoes.
Instead of taking up precious clothing space with your shoes, organize more efficiently by using vertical space to store all your shoes.
Hanging shoe organizers make it easy and convenient for you to conserve space in your closet and store shoes vertically. You can even hang it in between sections of clothes as a useful way to divide your clothing!
An over-the-door shoe organizer is an even more compact way to store your shoes because it won’t take up space on your closet rod. Easily place your shoes in the hanging pockets to keep them out of sight but within reach.
If you want to think even more outside the box, opt for a tall and skinny bookshelf or shelving unit if you have the room for it. This option is especially great if you want a more aesthetically pleasing closet with a fashionable design and layout.
4. Store Away Out-Of-Season Clothing
Have you already donated clothing that you don’t wear but still own a lot? If you have a small closet or are just running out of room, you may want to swap your clothing out from time to time.
Clean up your closet by removing what you can’t wear. Store away out-of-season clothing and shift it back into your closet when the time comes. This saves you the struggle of having to give away more clothes than you were planning on, and lets you keep everything you want.
Store Out-Of-Season Clothes Under The Bed
Under the bed space savers are a great option for storing your out-of-season clothes because it keeps them out of sight and out of mind. These types of space saves are a clever way to store and hide clothes for a long period of time without forgetting where you put them.
Made to be compact and convenient, under the bed organizers can range from vacuum-sealed bags to thin and long boxes. As the seasons change, swap the clothes in your closet for the ones kept under the bed. This continual swapping process will become second nature after awhile.
Keep Out-Of-Season Clothes In Decorative Bins & Baskets
Decorative storage containers are a clever solution to store away your clothes without sacrificing the decor style of your room.
Get creative with colorful and decorative bins and baskets to keep your clothing in. This way, you can keep the storage bins out in plain sight because they will blend in well with the rest of your room decor.
You can even use furniture that doubles as storage, such as ottoman benches and elegant storage chairs. This is especially useful if you don’t have any extra space in your house or garage to put big plastic storage bins.
5. Use Wall Hooks In Your Closet For Jewelry, Purses, And Accessories
Keeping all your accessories in your closet can help you coordinate better with your outfits on a daily basis. It can also be helpful when you don’t have any room on your dresser to keep your jewelry, or when you want to keep your accessories hidden.
Installing hooks on an empty wall in your closet is an organized way to hang your jewelry and purses without disrupting any needed space for all your clothing.
There are several ways to incorporate hooks inside of your closet for all your accessories without taking up a lot of space. Always make sure to further organize your jewelry and accessories by size, style, color, and other category variations.
- Mounted Coat Rack: Install a small mounted coat rack on an empty wall in your closet for necklaces and purses. This works well if you have some open space higher up on your wall.
- Temporary Wall Hooks: Use self-adhesive wall hooks on the wall behind your hanging clothes for your bags. Your purses and bags will be hiding behind your clothes but they will still be easy to grab and find.
- Bonus Idea: Use an over-the-door shoe organizer for all your jewelry and accessories. You can easily store earrings and bracelets inside the pockets, or even fold up scarves to store in the pockets as well.
6. Decide Which Clothes To Give Away With The Backwards Hanger Trick
Are you looking to downsize your wardrobe but have a hard time letting go? Donating and selling clothes is a great way to reduce clutter and let your clothes breathe inside your closet, but sometimes it’s difficult to decide which clothes to give away.
Make it easier for yourself by using this tactical and clever hanger trick.
The backwards hanger trick will help you learn which clothes you never wear in order to give away all the useless items hanging in your closet. Here are the three easy steps you need to take to participate in the backwards hanger method:
- Start by going through your entire closet and hanging every piece of clothing with the hanger backwards (the hook facing towards you).
- Whenever you wear something, hang it back up by changing the hanger to face the correct way.
- After 6 months, give away the clothes that remain on the backwards hangers – these are clothes that you never wear and won’t miss!
You can also use other methods to keep track of which clothes you wear. For example, you can use a label system where you write down the dates you wore certain pieces of clothing and stick the labels onto the hangers. Whichever method you choose, simply give away the clothing that you rarely wear.
7. Make Use Of Empty Floor Space With An Extra Closet Rod
A lot of closets have one level of organization with one closet rod. While it’s possible to stay organized by hanging all your clothes on one level, you can take your closet organization a step further by doubling up on closet rod levels.
If your closet allows, shift your current closet rod to be slightly higher and install a second closet rod in the center of your space. Use the top rod to hang shorter items such as shirts and jackets and use the bottom rod for longer clothing items such as pants, leggings, dresses, and skirts.
This is another way to take advantage of the vertical space in your closet and preserve the entire length of your closet. It helps you condense everything while still allowing you to sort your clothes by categories.
Tip: If you don’t want to drill in a permanent rod, you can substitute with an adjustable curtain rod or shower rod.
Lakeside Collection Closet Storage & Organization
Now that you know how to organize your closet, it’s time to put these tips and ideas to use! Our selection of closet storage and organization includes under the bed storage bags, over the door organizers, special hangers, shoe racks, and much more to keep you organized and on track.
Underbed Storage Bags
Pull-Up Shirt Hanger
Personalized Wood Tie Rack
Rolling Shoe Storage
Collapsible Laundry Baskets
Over-The-Door Cap Organizer
Transform your entire closet with our new Complete Closet Organization System!
Looking for even more closet organization ideas? Check out our full selection of closet storage!
You can check closet storage off your list and move on to organizing the rest of your house! Our January 2020 catalog has everything you need to fulfill your storage and organization needs for every room in your house. Start shopping here.
I am a professional organizer and have been writing for a local magazine for 14 years. I could not of said this better! Wonderful organizing tips. Only a couple of things I would change, but we all have our own style!
This is something I really have to focus on soon, so the tips came at a great time. We recently moved; I purged clothes as I packed, yet we still have way too many. I absolutely love those brightly colored little bowls you have some of your jewelry stored in- where can I find them?
Hello Suhana- We thank you for the interest in the item, at this time time we are not selling the bowls. If you have further questions please reach out to us.