Best way to organize your closet REVEALED! 5 closet organizing tips to simplify your life

How your closet works for you or doesn’t work for you can truly make or break your day.

When you start your day off struggling to get dressed, well, that’s just an irritation you don’t need. I know you’ve been dealing with this for awhile and I want to give you some quick hitting tips that will make a difference today. Tips that will simplify your life today. Plus as a bonus, I’m going to share with you the best way to organize your closet and it does not include emptying all the contents of your closet in one fell swoop.

As a busy mom, you’re fed up with the mess and chaos of daily life. You want your home to feel peaceful and welcoming. You want it to be a refuge for you and your family. I’m telling you right now that you can have this. You can have peace and joy and a refuge through organizing, cleaning and time management methods that are created with you and your family at the core. Methods that are simple and focus on the function of your home. But, in order to make that happen you’ll have to do something different than what society tells us.

Instead of completely emptying out your closet all at one time, you can make incremental changes that will last. Changes that will help your closet feel and look more organized resulting in a good start to your day and saving time overall. We can all use a little more time in our day, right?!

In this episode I’ll share 3 simple closet organizing tips. In my book simple equals sustainable. What’s the point in making these changes if you don’t have a way to keep them working for you!

Closet organizing tip #1

If you have items you know you want to get rid of, remove them from your closet now.
If the item is no good, throw it away now.
If the item is good, but you’re not going to wear it, place it in a box or bag to donate.

Closet organizing tip #2

Be honest with yourself about the amount of space you have compared to the amount of things you're trying to keep in your closet.

I am an organizing expert that will never tell you that in order to have an organized closet you have to get rid of a bunch of your clothes. It is definitely easier to keep things organized when you have less things to keep organized. BUT, if it’s an emotional roller coaster when you think about parting with things then it’s really just a big fat road block in becoming more organized!

You simply have to recognize how you feel and be ok with it. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that more clothes will fit in your closet than will actually fit. Does that make sense?

If you have more clothes than fit in your closet, you’re going to have to move some of them to another area of your home. You want your closet to be functional, to work for you and when it’s packed with so many clothes you can’t take out one item without 3 others pulling out with it, then it’s really not functional. These are the types of things that I help you with in the course that I offer. You can learn more about it at www.homeorganizingforbeginners.com.

Closet organizing tip #3

Get things off the floor.

Clothes sometimes slide off of a hanger and land on the floor and sometimes we are just too busy to pick them up at that moment in time. Take time now, to pick the item up and hang it up. 

If you have boxes or bags of stuff or shoes or whatever laying on the floor in your closet, make sure you clear as much of it as possible. Having this area of the floor clear makes it easier to get to your clothes and hanging items won’t lay on top of the stacked up stuff and wind up too wrinkled to even wear.

Closet organizing tip #4

Have the same number of hangers as you have clothes to hang.

This tip is coming more from the perspective of feeling like I never have enough hangers. The kids seem to have stolen my hangers as they’ve gotten older. Bigger clothes means they needed bigger hangers so it’s ok. But when I would go to put my clean clothes away, I would end up not having enough hangers! Quite the irritation. I do have a problem right now though because I got a few shirts for Christmas, but I would need to get rid of some old shirts or get more hangers! I am planning to throw some old shirts away or move them to a dresser drawer to use in the summer when I’m gardening or working outside.

Closet organizing tip #5

When taking items off a hanger, place the empty hanger in a designated spot.

When you have this small open space in your closet, hanging your clothes up after they are washed and dried becomes so much easier. When I get a shirt and pants out of my closet, I hang the empty hangers on the bottom bar right in the middle. This makes them so much easier to find when I’m putting laundry away. My husband does not do this and every week I am reminded how nice it is to have easy to find empty hangers! My oldest also does this, but she puts her hangers in a specific spot on the floor of her closet. You could also use a shelf if that would work best for you.

And now I want to reveal to you the best way to organize your closet.

There are 4 things you’ll do, but you have to understand that the best way to organize your closet is a way where you play the main role. You only need a guide or a teacher to walk you through the process of organizing that works for you, your family and your current season of life. No matter what, there are things that must happen so that your closet will be organized and be a space in your home that works for you instead of against you. And not only for a few days or weeks but into the future through every season of life.

I’m going to give you the run down of how this works. When you grab hold of this process, home organizing becomes a normal part of your life instead of this huge event that you have to take vacation to make time for.

Start with a small section - you’ll dissect your closet into small manageable chunks and complete all steps in one section at a time.

Sort - you start by sorting through all the things in that section. Deciding what to keep and what not to keep. You’ll donate some things, maybe sell some. Others will be moved to another area of your home or even set in a box or bin that you need to look at later because it’s something that you just don’t know what to do with yet. Once this is done you clean the section, dust it, wipe it down that kind of stuff. Now it’s ready to put things back.

Organize - you’ll take the items you’re going to keep and you are able to organize them back into the space the way you want them to be. Perhaps you opt for new hangers or some kind of basket or bin during this time. Now the section of your closet is set up the way you want it. It’s important to put measures in place so that it will stay that way.

Sustain - In the sustain step you’re thinking about what needs to be done so that you can keep your organized section organized. This includes documenting functional expectations - what you need to do in the heat of the moment and work instructions - the how to of managing tasks like putting your clothes away. What is the step by step process that you are expecting yourself or others to follow in this area?

Here is the main point. You are involved in doing the work of getting your closet organized. There’s no trick to it, but having someone with experience to guide you through the process is the game changer. 

You can learn more about how we can work together at www.homeorganizingforbeginners.com.

Take the 5 tips and implement today the ones that will work best for you. Then take the next step and join the Home Organizing for Beginners course where you’ll have me as your guide through your entire home organizing journey. You’ll not only have the step by step but also accountability and a forum in which to get individualized help so you can overcome the biggest home organizing challenges in your own home and family.