Thursday, January 23, 2014

Organizing Closets

 Recently a client asked me to help her get her home organized.

When you have a few areas to work on, often a closet is a great first step.  Closets are nice, contained spaces with a clear function.  Usually it's a job you can tackle in a few hours and often it gives you maximum "wow" factor when you're done.  

Let's take a look at a few closets we worked on, and then I'll list some closet organizing tips.

Here is the front entrance closet.
Before

After

The back door with mud room and laundry.
Before

After

After

The 4 year old's bedroom.
Before

After

And of course I forgot to take before shots of the master bedroom walk in,  
but have a look at the end results.






Tips for tackling a closet:
1.  Purge ~ I promise you no matter how much you think you use everything in there, you will find items that don't fit, are worn out, or you never use.  Starting out with the least amount of stuff possible is your best strategy.  Remember, if you are a keeper, ask a friend to come over and help you make non-emotional decisions.

2.  Sort like items ~ It sounds really picky to put all your t-shirts together, long sleeve dress shirts separate from short sleeved, etc..  But it serves a dual purpose.  First, every time you wear something and then do laundry, you can easily pop your stuff right back on the exact empty hanger it came off of, which prevents your closet from becoming messy again.  Second, when you have all your t-shirts separate from your dresses for example, you will find a whole section of space beneath the shorter items that you can utilize for other storage.

3.  Refold ~ Again, it sounds all picky and Martha Stewart like (which may or may not be a good thing I guess), but if you fold things like jeans to fit your shelves well, then you can optimize the number of piles you have and you will have an easier time keeping the piles from falling over.

4.  Use bins ~ If you can group things like purses or shoes or mitts into storage containers, you will have a much easier time keeping your space tidy.

5.  Height ~ use the spots that are the most unreachable for items you will rarely use.  If you keep stuff out of reach that you use regularly, you will very likely not put things back properly.

It's nearly the weekend...a great time to grab an hour or two to whip one of your closets into shape! 

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