Let's Sort It Out By Deb

Closet organization can be the key to saving time, cutting stress levels, and it often saves money.  I don’t know about you…but those definitely sound like things that would benefit my life. There are so many different ways to organize your closet, and these tips will help make it easy!

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How to Organize Your Closet By Color Coding

When I look in my closet, I either know the exact look I’m going for, OR I simply have no idea and I’m looking to be inspired. Either way, I need to see what I have in order to get dressed. It’s practically impossible to find an outfit when everything is jumbled together, all tops whether day or night, mixed with dresses, mixed with skirts, little jackets, long pants, capris, winter items, summer items. You get the idea.

Some organizers say to take everything out of your closet and put it on your bed… but I’m not a fan of that. If you ask me the definition of Overwhelming — Well, that’s it!! Why make a tornado when you only have to deal with a rainstorm?  I can’t even think about doing it that way — talk about daunting!! The most important thing to get done when you are organizing a closet is to weed through and categorize.

Organize Your Clothes into Piles

First, go through your clothes and separate your items into different piles such as throw out, keep, donate, and try on.

When I go to a client’s house, I pull things out one by one and we decide which category each belongs in; but most importantly — I put the keepers right back into the closet to keep our plan as clear to us as possible. As you go through your closet, put any donations into a bag, and anything to try on into a pile that you will do your best to deal with that day!  It’s best not to add anything to your “to-do” list.

Now you may be thinking, “okay, got it, that sure sounds easy!”  Well, now I want to share with you my trick, which will help your organizing go as fast as possible!

Remove Everything From Your Closet

Before you start, push everything to one side of your closet, then, as you pull things out, and if they are the lucky ducks that get to be put back in, don’t just put them back in in the same order that you took them out, hang them back up next to other clothing of their kind, ie, tops, pants, etc.  That way, you are putting things in order as you go along.  Killing two birds with one stone! Deciding and categorizing!

Another trick: If you don’t have room to push everything to one side, go through all the tops, pants, dresses, skirts, etc. by category, each time only putting the item back next to their “friends,” the ones in the same category and color. I also love the cohesive look of having all the same hangers.  These are my favorite, things don’t slip off, you don’t get hanger lines on your pants, and they take up so much less room!

Once you have all the categories and colors set up, the rest is a piece of cake, and who doesn’t like cake!?!?

Putting Everything Back into Your Closet

At this point, it’s all about placement and which categories go where in your closet.  This is totally up to you.  I like to put my most used items towards the front, but you have to find your own helpful visual aid. It’s obviously ideal if you can finish everything in one session, but with my way of not taking everything out and dumping it all on your bed, you can come back to it at another time.

You and I both know we don’t always have hours to devote to organizing on a daily basis.  Sometimes you have an hour or so, sometimes you only have half an hour or even 15 minutes. So instead of scrolling through Pinterest for an extra 15 minutes, take the time and tackle your tops, then the next day your pants, and soon, before you know it, you’ll have everything organized, all the way down to your purple, floral, mid-spring-summer shirts ☺. I truly believe starting the job is more than half the battle.

Most organizing projects don’t get started because we have the feeling that there isn’t enough time to finish them, or we can’t devote hours to the project, and therefore it just doesn’t seem doable. Working this way solves that problem.  There is nothing wrong with breaking tasks down.  It’s actually the key to organizing; the important thing is to just do it.

Organize Your Closet by Category

And here’s an extra little tip that I’ll throw in to take you one step further.  The categories I use are:

• Pants — Everyday long, everyday capris, then dressy pants — by color in each category
• Tops — Everyday shirts and sweaters, then extra dressy blouses — and within those two, I separate by color
• Little jackets — Sporty and dressy — and then by color
• Dressy dresses and skirts — by color
• Casual dresses and skirts — by color
• Coats — Hopefully in a different closet, but if not, I do that by season and color.

And that’s it!  Give it a try.  You will be so happy and satisfied when you’re done.  Let me know how it goes.  I can’t wait to hear all your success stories.  Take a peek at my resources page to see all my favorite hangers, baskets, and accessories.

Oh! Try and take before and after pictures.  You’ll be so proud of yourself, and please share them with me; I’d love to see the transformation!

Any questions along the way, shoot me an email — I’ll be happy to let you know what I think.

Do you have any special tips for keeping an organized closet?  If you do, please let me know.  You can drop a note in the comment section below.  Share tips with all of us.  I’m always looking for new ideas!

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