Closet Organization

Closet organization is one of those chores that keeps getting bumped down the "to do" list repeatedly for a lot of people.  Let's face it, opening the closet doors and seeing a mountain of clothing and possibly other assorted items can be pretty intimidating.  In my case, what finally got me motivated to start organizing the closets in my house was one too many avalanches of clothes when I was digging for something to wear.

There are a many guides to organizing your life available.  Some people seem to be naturally gifted at avoiding clutter.  Many of them live by the policy of throwing away anything they have not used recently.  I don't necessarily follow this rule, because I seem to always end up needing the items I've discarded within a couple of months and I don't enjoy buying the same items twice if I can avoid it.

Your first step in organizing your closet is going to be taking everything out of it so that you can take stock of what you actually have.  For those people who are already pretty organized, this may seem like a silly step.  If your closets are as cluttered as mine have been in the past however, you will most likely find at least a few things hidden away that you totally forgot about. 

At this point you should start eliminating the items that really don't have to be in your closet.  Test number one is going to be whether or not the items actually belong in a closet designed for clothing.  If you have been shoving things in to the closet just to get them out of sight, you will need to either throw them away or find new storage area.  Tools, lightbulbs, and other assorted items might fall into this category.  This solution for this issue may be as simple as purchasing a couple of large containers that can be filled and then put in an out of the way place like your garage or a laundry room.

Next, you will want to actually try on the clothing that remains.  It may be time to face the fact that your aren't likely to fit into the clothes you wore ten years ago.  Even if you could, you might find that they are dreadfully out of fashion.  If you do lose weight at some point, buy yourself some new clothes as a reward for all of your hard work.

All of this paring down of what had been in the closet should now make the rest of your closet organization much easier.  At this point you can start thinking about the way you would like to organize your closet.  Take a look at the amount of closet space you have available and compare it to the clothing you will be storing.  Small closet organization might require a bit more imagination, but remember that there are closet systems sold for all sizes and types of closets.  You can use one of these pre-made systems or pay to have a custom closet system built for your home.  Your main concern here is going to be making it easy to find and get to the clothing that you wear the most often. 

Consider splitting your closets vertical space so that horizontal bars can hang above each other to accommodate shorter pieces of clothing like skirts or shorts. If you can live with your pants being hung up in a folded fashion, these can also fit into one of these smaller areas. Long items such as dresses or complete suits will require a taller vertical area to hang freely.

Bulky items such as sweaters can be stacked and stored on shelf space that you may or may not want to have divided into cublicles. These cubicle areas are especially good for keeping shoes organized and away from the rest of your clothes.

Finally, think about what style of clothing organization is going to fit your life the best. The whole goal of this project is to remove clutter and hassle from your life and to make your life a little bit easier. Organized closets can save many wasted minutes every day and can go a long way toward eliminating the piles of clutter that make the house look messy. With a little bit of planning and the possible use of a closet system, closet organization can be much less of a chore.

Once you have gotten the hang of getting yourself organized, you may want to move on through your home from room to room.  The same basic principles apply to closets, garages and even kitchen organization.

A big part of getting yourself and your closets organized it getting rid of the clutter.  So should you just throw it all away?

Well, that is something you will have to decide on your own, but I will tell you that many people make money on the deal by selling off their old stuff on eBay.  Older clothes, especially if they qualify as "vintage" can bring a pretty penny.  There are people out there who like to save money by buying second hand and it really won't cost you much at all to put your old stuff out there for them to look over.