How to Organize a Closet in 5 Simple Steps

Want to make your life easier? Clean out, clean up, and organize your clothes closet. With an organized closet, you can see what you have, what fits, and the clothes you love to wear. Even better—everything is easier to find!

What’s behind your closet door? Orderly rows of shoes, stacks of folded t-shirts, and hanging clothes arranged by color and season? Or do you have a situation that could be declared a national disaster? If the latter, you might ask the President for federal disaster relief funds, or you could get organized.

Knowing you would feel guilty taking funds from disaster victims, here are simple steps to find calm in all that chaos. By the way, these same principles for organizing a clothes closet apply to linen closets, utility closets, and your food pantry.

Here’s the best part: You can do this without spending a dime—using items and tools you have already.

Tools You Need to Get Organized

Large bags, boxes, or bins

You’ll be sorting all your clothes—those that fit and you love, items to consign or sell, things for donation, and those for the trash.

Labels

If you have a label-maker, great. If not, don’t run out to spend money. You can easily make appropriate labels with plain paper, markers, and tape.

Full-length mirror

Yes. It’s time to decide which items to keep.

Trash can

You’ll find all sorts of little items for the trash, such as the contents of pockets, stray rubber bands, price tag bits and pieces, receipts, and so forth.

Step 1: Everything out

That’s right. Remove everything from the closet—every last hanger, belt, shoe—everything. This will let you see exactly the space you have to work with. Prepare to be shocked by the pile of stuff that comes out of that closet.

Step 2: Deep clean

Now that you can see the light of day, give that closet a good cleaning from top to bottom. If, after thorough cleaning, the space still looks a little grungy, follow with a fresh coat of white paint.

Step 3: Separate

Most people hate this step because it means getting rid of everything you do not use or wear. But what choice do you have now that you’ve hauled it out? There’s no way you could get all of this back into the closet, so buck up, and let’s get this job done.

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Label five containers (see Tools, above) to separate everything you took out of the closet.

Box #1: Keep

Here comes the part of this process you’ve been dreading. Or longing for? Regardless, this is the most crucial step in this whole process. The goal is to keep only those items you truly love, fit well, and wear (or will wear now that you have found them!).

Keep anything you love and wear often. What’s the test? Try it on! Stand in front of the mirror. Does it fit well, giving you that “spark of joy?” Be honest with yourself. If it doesn’t make the mark, out it goes.

Put only items into this Keep Box you have worn or used at least twice in the past year. Be brutally harsh. If it doesn’t fit today, it’s not likely to fit any time soon. Get rid of it. If in doubt, do not put it into this bin.

Box #2: Maybe

This is one of the best ideas ever from one of your fellow readers. It’s not easy to say goodbye permanently. You will come across items that you’re just not sure about. Putting them into the Maybe Box is an easy way to transition. It’s not so much procrastination as empathy and kindness. Trust me; this works. The Maybe Box may be the one thing that keeps you motivated and in charge of this process.

I can tell you from personal experience that while the Maybe Box is very important in this process, it loses its importance as it finds its way to the garage or basement. Trust me on this: After six months, you will not remember what’s in that box. You have not mourned any of its contents; in fact, it might be a year or longer before you recall it even exists. But for now, it’s like a binky that brings a great deal of comfort. Let it do its job.

Box #3: Consign or Sell

Clothes and other items that are not right for you (as evidenced by the fact that you never wear them) but still have a valuable life for someone else should go into this box. These should be either new items with tags or pieces that have been worn seldom. Consignment shoppers are typically looking for name brands.

What you consider ugly may be perfect for someone else. What no longer fits you will fit someone else. Take those items to a consignment store or schedule a yard sale.

Box #4: Donate

Consider donating your good used items to the Salvation Army or another thrift store. You may get a tax break, but more than that, you will feel good. Put all of these items in the garage, the back of the car, or some other way to get them out of the house.

Your local animal shelters and veterinarian offices may be overjoyed to receive towels and sheets that are not suited for resale in thrift stores but have a useful life for animal care and comfort

Try to donate and consign as much as possible, while trash is only for items beyond repair or use.

Box #5: Throw away

Clothes and shoes worn out, hopelessly stained, broken, or in some other state of calamity go into this bin. Work quickly to ease the pain. Empty this bin often to keep the process moving.

Once you’ve divided everything you took from the closet, move Boxes 2, 3, 4, and 5 to the garage or somewhere else. Just get them out of your way for now.

Step 4: Divide, sort, group

Divide and sort the Keep Box’s contents by season, type, and use. If possible, store out-of-season items in another place in your home.

Next, separate your work or professional clothes from your casual attire. Now divide each pile into common wear and infrequent wear, arranging them so the items you wear most often are the handiest.

The goal here is to group like items—belts, sweaters, T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts; shorts, long pants, jeans, socks, and so forth. Search for easy hacks for folding and “filing” things like socks.

 

Step 5. Organization helpers

While not completely necessary, acquiring a few good organizational items will make this project turn out even better—things like a sturdy shoe rack, good hangers, and shelves in addition to your standard hanging rod.

Shoe rack

You have lots of choices, but it all depends on the space you have to store shoes. If your closet just can’t handle shoes and clothes, you might want to consider storing your shoes in another area. This shoe rack is really nice, affordable, and sturdy. But it’s just one idea.

Hangers

I can tell you from experience that when you have matching hangers throughout your closet, you’ll be more likely to hang up your clothes and keep things organized. Again, you have lots of choices. I love these hangers; they’re in our closets because they save space and keep clothes from sliding off.

 

 

Shelves

A good shelving system that optimizes the space in your closet will make all the difference when it comes to keeping your closet organized. Depending on the size and configuration of your space, there are many options.

This all-in-one organizer kit by ClosetMaid, which includes a small shoe rack, is just one way to use shelves to turn an inefficient nightmare of a closet into a well-organized dream come true.

 

Investing in a few good organizational pieces will make organizing your closet—and keeping it organized—a snap!

Let me assure you that it’s easy for me to tell you what to do! Just do it, okay?

• MORE: The Chair

Truth be told, these steps are not as easy for me as I might have led you to believe in the title of this post. But I have done them, so I know just how cleansing the results can be and the sense of peace that comes with a well-organized space. And it’s a routine I must repeat at least twice a year to keep it that way.

 

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