How to Conquer Your Closets

It's said that clothing, like other areas in life, follows the 80:20 rule--
we wear 20 percent of our wardrobe 80 percent of the time. Cull your
clothes and organize your closets, and you'll wear more of what you
own more often--and have a closet even your mother would love.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Pare down

1. Set aside time to clear out your bedroom closet and sort through everything in it. This could easily take a full day. Read 1 Get Organized for the full drill.

2. Remove everything from the closet. While doing this, put anything that belongs somewhere else in a box; when you're done sorting, return things to their proper home.

3. Try on each item of clothing in a full-length mirror and ask yourself these questions: Does it fit? Is it in style? Is it in season? Does it need mending? How long has it been since I've worn it? Is it a duplicate? Is it comfortable? Does it look good on me? Do I love it?

4. Sort everything into one of four piles as you take them off: keep, repair, throw out (beyond repair), and sell or donate. See 12 Get Rid of What You Don't Want.

5. Get rid of near-duplicate items. Keep just two blazers instead of six, for example.

6. Pull out seasonal clothing from your "keep" pile and store it in a separate area. See 139 Store Out-of-Season Clothes.

Organize what's left

7. See if your closet fits your newly pared-down wardrobe. Is there an area for long garments as well as short ones? Is the shoe storage adequate? Is there room for hats, ties, belts, purses and other accessories? If the closet is largely OK, skip to step 4.

8. Call in a professional if your needs are great and time is short. Look in the yellow pages under "Closets and Closet Accessories" for a company near you. Many custom closet design companies offer free in-home consultations.

9. Go to a specialty shop if your closet needs help, but you think you can do it yourself. Many organizing stores, such as the Container Store and Organized Living, offer free closet- and space-planning services. Bring your closet measurements and the amount of different spaces you need. (Planning and purchasing a system may involve several trips.)

10. Head for a department store, a home-improvement center or online retailers such as HoldEverything.com and TheContainer Store.com if your closet just needs a minor tweaking. Look for second rods, additional shelves, hanging shelves (with and without drawers) and zippered bags for sweaters.

11. Group your clothes in your new closet system. Options include organizing by type (all pants, shirts, skirts and blouses together), by use (work clothes, casual clothes, formalwear), by tone (light to dark) or by color. Choose a system that makes sense to you and that will be easy to maintain.

12. Take a picture of your finished closet and hang it inside the door for future reference and inspiration. (Send a copy to your mom.)

Tips & Warnings

• If you've kept a lot of clothes for several years because you think they may fit again, choose just one favorite piece (as an incentive) and get rid of the rest. When you shed those pounds, reward yourself with a new wardrobe.
• Use plastic or wooden hangers, not wire. Wire hangers don't support clothing well and make for a messy-looking closet.
• Some city housing codes require fluorescent lights in closets to save electricity.
• For long dresses, allow for 69 inches of hanging space; robes, 52 inches; dresses, 45 inches; pants, 44 inches; men's suits, 38 inches; women's suits, 29 inches; skirts, 35 inches; blouses, shirts, 28 inches; and pants (double hung), 20 inches.
• Add a valet hook outside of your closet for hanging dry cleaning or just-ironed clothes, or for planning outfits.

[ashiflett]

on 9/15/2007 You have some really good ideas listed in this article. Thanks for sharing them with us!

on 7/15/2006 At Home Depot, I purchased two metal pipes to fit the width of my closet. Using metal rod holders, I placed one rod in the top half of my closet and one in the bottom half. My shirts, blouses and T-shirts hang on top, and pants and skirts hang on the bottom. Since I don't have a lot of dresses, I hang them over a hanger and put them on the top rung. I still have room on the bottom for medium sized plastic bins to store various items. I even hang my bras in my closet, so I can rotate them. I love the closets. Happy organizing.

on 2/8/2006 Once a year, hang all your clothes backward on the rods - with the hanger hooked from the back to the front, open side facing out. Make a note of what day you do this. After you wear something, hang it back up the other way. When one year has passed, anything you haven't worn during the year will still be hanging the wrong way. You will know what to consider purging. For items that are folded rather than hung, place them upside down or backward.