Shelves, drawers, bins and other containers can help you get your closet organized. Small shelving can usually be added on one or both sides of the closet. These are great for small storage items like jewelry ties, socks, underwear, and shoes. They are also good for keeping miscellaneous items that would otherwise cause clutter. Some people keep photo albums, cameras, sports equipment, duffel bags and craft supplies stored in their closets. Making a place for everything will help you keep the closet neat and organized.

Using shelves can help you to quickly and easily create versatile storage areas. You may find that you need less hanging space if you have more shelves. Try some different designs on paper before you decide what you need. A pants hanging bar or pants tree can be installed at the side of the closet, eliminating the need for a long hanging bar. Shelves can be mixed in with shorter hanging bars, making it easy to keep things separated and utilizing wasted space.

You can also eliminate the need for a lot of hanging space by using specialty clothes hangers. Suit hangers allow you to hang pants, shirts, and jackets together in one spot. Other cascading hangers allow you to hang multiple skirts or pants on one hanger. Coordinate hangers allow you to match up tops and bottoms so that you double the space in your closet. Hang your coats and suits on coat hangers or wood hangers that are designed to hold them properly. Other items can be hung on hangers that save space.

Use baskets, bins, buckets, whatever you need to get the shelves organized. When everything has a place, it is easy to keep things straight. You can even have a special bin for things that you decide to give away or sell in a garage sale. This will help you to be selective about what you keep. If you try something on and there’s something that you just don’t like about a garment, get rid of it. If you get organized and realize that you have multiple white shirts, get rid of your least favorites. Keeping things coming out of the closet will help you to avoid clutter and make getting ready a simple task.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

1) You’ve got everything set up how you want it, now it’s time to focus on some smaller details. One way that highly efficient people stay on top of things is to think about everything in order of importance. You can apply this concept to your closet organization routine. Prioritize things according to how often they are used, moved, or replaced. For instance, you probably create laundry, use shoes, underwear and socks nearly every day. These items should be your top priority. Every time you use your closet, make sure that the laundry is in the basket or hamper where it goes, the shoes are on the rack, and the socks and underwear are stocked well enough for the next day. This quick check will help you to avoid that slow creeping mound of disorganized stuff that is so easy to go unnoticed until it becomes a big job.

2) Your second priority is to make sure that things kept in the closet are actually put inside. Keeping a basket or dryer of clean laundry around for a while can cause you to end up with wrinkled clothes. It’s difficult to find what you need, and your clean clothes are likely to get mixed up with your dirty clothes. Create a system to make sure that things go into the closet instead of being set aside. You can use a rolling garment rack to quickly hang clothes as they come out of the dryer. Set a timer when you fold a load and see how long it actually takes. Sometimes you’ll spend hours or days dreading a job that actually only takes you about five minutes. Make sure that your closet is arranged in a way that makes it simple to put things in when you’re in a hurry.

3) Another time and space saving technique is to use cascading hangers. If you hang outfits together in one space, it is super easy to get ready in the morning. If you’re not pulling out things and trying them on, then you won’t mess up the things that you already had organized. Using clothes hangers that are made for the clothes you are hanging helps you to maintain their shape and come straight out of the closet, wrinkle-free. Use sturdy coat hangers or wood hangers for heavy items so that they don’t end up on the floor. The less work that you make for yourself, the more likely you are to stay organized.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

1) Have you ever heard the saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? Well, when it comes to your closet, you really need to take it to heart. You may even want to make yourself a little sign that you see every time you open the closet. Visual aids will help you to remember not to throw things like your shoes into a pile instead of putting them back on the rack. It is important to stay focused on maintaining the organization level of your closet every time you use it. If you really stick to your guns, it will become a habit to immediately hang things that need to be hung. Habitual organizing will help you to transfer that mentality into other areas of your life. Make sure that your closet is perfectly organized every time you close that door and you will save yourself from having to constantly manage the mess.

2) It’s one thing to make sure that everything is in the closet where it goes, but it’s another to make sure that everything in the closet is arranged in the most efficient way. The arrangement that works best for you may be different from the way that your friend organizes, so take your habits and your needs into consideration as you arrange your clothing.

For example, you may want to line up your clothing by length. Hanging all of your short items together will make room beneath for taller things, like boots, a laundry basket, or a set of drawers. Hanging things by color makes it easy to find what you’re looking for and also is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, keeping you focused on maintaining that neatness whenever you see it. Arranging things according to use will help you to not only find what you need in a jiffy, but will also make putting laundry away a snap. If the things that you use most often are all on the right, then when you put things away, it is likely that almost everything will go on the right.

3) Use containers and closet accessories that help you make a specific place for everything. Don’t just pile all socks, hose, underwear, swimwear, and pajamas into one bin. You’re bound to have to dig and mess everything up. Even worse, you will constantly be buying new items that you think you need because you can’t find what you already own. Use smaller bins to separate and organize so that when you put things away, you know exactly where they go. As for your hanging clothes, you should always use the clothes hangers that protect your clothes, make them easy to access, and save you as much space as possible. You should always use wood hangers or coat hangers for heavy items, but you can save space with cascading hangers or coordinate hangers.

Read Part 2 of this article to learn more rules of staying organized.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

1) Before you pull your winter clothes out of storage, get your closet ready for the change over. Take out a few summer clothes that you might still need on unseasonable days. You may need just a few t-shirts and shorts set aside. Try not to keep out too much, because winter clothes are larger, bulkier, and will use more space than your summer wardrobe.

2) Time to store the rest of the summer clothes. Use the space underneath your bed, couch, in the garage, or a spare bedroom closet so that you have plenty of room in your closet that you use everyday. You can even use a garment rack if you have a lot of clothing that needs to be hung. These racks can be covered and zipped to keep the clothes fresh and free of dust until the spring. Use air-tight containers whenever possible to keep your clothes free of moisture. Cedar or cedar hangers can also be used to absorb moisture and help you to avoid pest, mold, or mildew problems. Once your summer wardrobe is stored away, you can start pulling out the winter clothes.

3) Determine what will take up the most space by spreading out what you have. Categorize your wardrobe into multiple sections so that you can see how much space you’ll need for each thing. Bulky coats, ski gear, and other big winter accessories will usually take up the most space. If they’re taking up too much space, consider using a coat closet, armoire, wardrobe, cedar chest, or garment rack for these items. Saving space for your everyday winter wardrobe will make staying organized a much easier task.

4) Smaller items, such as socks, pajamas, thermal underwear, hats, gloves and scarves need to be stored where they can be easily accessed without getting mixed up. Small bins, buckets and baskets are great for storing these things where you can get to them. If you don’t have the shelf space in your closet, consider installing some small shelves in the front corners of your closet. You don’t need a lot of space to organize these small things.

5) You can also use specialty hangers to hang and organize scarves, gloves, belts, and hats. A scarf hanger has a series of holes where scarves can loosely hang and dry when necessary. Some hangers simply have a series of clips that can hold things like hats and gloves when they’re not in use. Single and double clip hangers can even allow you to hang boots to dry when they’re wet with winter snow. Get creative with keeping the little things organized and you’ll be better off all winter long.

6) Hang the rest of your winter clothes on the clothes hangers that are designed specifically for them. Some are made for delicate fabrics, sweaters, or heavy coats. Choosing the right hanger, like a coat hanger or wood hanger for coats and suits and a hanger designed not to stretch out the necks or shoulders of your clothes, can help you to stay organized and protect your clothes from damage.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

The first thing to work on is finding a space for everything. If you’re like most people, you may feel like you’re short on space. This is why you need to open your mind up to seeing things a bit differently. You don’t necessarily need to invest in an expensive closet system, more furniture, or a truckload of plastic containers. You do, however, need to learn how to find storage where you didn’t know you had it before.

For example, you may feel like your kitchen cabinets are packed to the hilt and there’s no way you can get anything else in there. Making a few adjustments over time can help you to free up the space that you need. You may have a lot of mixing bowls, plastic storage containers, and casserole dishes in your cabinets. Slowly replacing these with ones that nest can greatly improve your cabinet space.

In the living room a simple entryway organizer can help to eliminate piles of clutter around the house. A table with a charging station for phones and other electronic devices, along with files or drawers for mail and other important papers coming in can help you to keep down a lot of the clutter.

In the bathroom, using separate containers for different categories of items can allow you to stack and use more space under the sink. Installing an extra shelf or riser in the cabinets can double the space that you thought you had.

Bedrooms can especially get out of control. You may have a computer, medications, arts and crafts, TV remotes, make-up, clothing, linens, camera or computer equipment, and more in there. Keeping the bedroom clutter-free means that you will have to figure out how to make more room in your closet. Small shelves, hooks, over-the-door organizers, and extra hanging bars can give you the room that you need to get some stuff out of the bedroom and into the closet. Don’t neglect the space around the ceiling as this is a valuable storage area. Use specialty hangers, like tie hangers, belt hangers, scarf hangers, and skirt hangers to get multiple items stored in a small amount of space. Clothes hangers that cascade from each other will help you to make even more room in your closet.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

1) First, you should clear out the coat closet of everything. Get it nice and clean since you probably don’t get in there to vacuum and dust very often. This is the best time to do it while it’s completely empty.

2) Now decide what you can do without. Donating coats to charity is a great way to help out those in need. You can also get a pretty good tax deduction, since coats are generally worth more than regular clothes. Get rid of beat up shoes, ones that don’t fit right, or ones that you simply never wear. If you don’t think you’ll make it to the thrift store with all that you want to give, call around. Most charities will come and pick up the items that you want to donate. All you have to do is put them on the front porch.

3) Another option is to have a garage sale or sell your items on auction sites. Nice coats and boots will generally sell once they’re in season. You can use the money to turn your coat closet into the organization center that you’re dreaming of.

4) Most people’s coat closets are near the entryway of their homes. Are you tired of everyone coming in and shedding all of their belongings right inside the front door? Well, the coat closet is a great place to get these things organized. Hooks, shelves, baskets, bins, calendars, shoe cubbies, and more can all be added into a small space like a coat closet so that things don’t get thrown around the house.

5) If your coat closet is too small to hold coats and all of the items that you would like to store there, consider storing most of your coats in another place. The back of your closet, in a spare bedroom, or on a rolling garment rack with a dust cover can all be great places to store coats that you don’t use very often. Making room for keeping shoes, backpacks and other everyday items may be more important to you than having every coat hanging in the coat closet.

6) If you do keep coats in the coat closet, you should update the clothes hangers. A nice clothes hanger makes the closet look great. Coat hangers, like wood hangers, should be used for heavy items. You may want to choose higher end hangers for your coat closet because it’s nice for guests and better quality ones ensure that your coats don’t end up on the floor.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

One option is to stop using your dressers for clothing and start using them for accessories and other closet clutter culprits. Dressers aren’t really designed very well for clothing that you use every day. You end up digging through folded stacks, folding and unfolding as you go along, destroying whatever semblance of organization that you once had. If the drawer isn’t large enough, you end up stuffing and cramming, wrinkling and possibly damaging your clothes.

You may be thinking that you need your dresser for your small items, like swimwear, underwear, socks, ties and belts, but there are plenty of specialty hangers on the market that will help you organize and hang these items to get them out of your dresser. Buckets and bins are great for storing socks and underwear in your closet, making room in the dresser for a multitude of storage items that you would like to get out of your closet.

Shoes are another thing that often clutter-up the closet. Are you tired of digging through a mountain of shoes to get to the ones that you want to wear? Are you tired of finally finding them only to see that they’ve been crushed or scuffed by the rest of the shoes? Why not consider getting the shoes out of the closet? You can store them in an orderly fashion underneath your bed. Choose a rolling drawer or container that easily slides in and out from under the bed. Use risers to make more room for taller shoes. You can use a trunk for out of season shoes, or stack them neatly up the corners of the closet in clear plastic shoe boxes.

Use specialty hangers to get your clothes organized as well. Skirt hangers, pants hangers, and other specialty clothes hangers are great for hanging multiple items from one hanging spot. Coordinate hangers allow you to pair items into outfits, quickly doubling the space. Cascading hangers allow you to hang a lot of items from the neck of one hanger. With just a few adjustments in your bedroom, your closet could be organized and free of clutter in no time.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

1) The first step to organizing anything is clearing out the things that you don’t need to waste your time on. Go in with a lot of trash bags or boxes and get ready to give things to charity. Things that you don’t wear because they don’t fit right, they have a stain, or you’re just not into the style anymore can go directly out of the closet or dresser. If you can’t decide very easily, set some limits for yourself. Say, “I can keep twenty shirts.” Pick out the twenty and then the rest goes. If you don’t have time to drop off a donation, most places will pick it up for you if you call.

2) When you get that part out of the way, it’s time to categorize. Make some large, general categories and make sure that everything has a category to go in. Avoid miscellaneous piles that can slowly turn into more clutter. Keeping the categories large will help you to envision how much space you’ll need for each one more easily. Decide which piles can be hung, folded, or stored in a spare closet or on a rolling garment rack outside of the closet.

3) If you want to keep more stuff than actually fits, you may want to consider some space saving clothes hangers. These hangers fit flat together, can be cascaded from each other, and can double or triple the amount of space in your closet. Investing a little in some specialty hangers that organize your ties, belts, scarves and more can help you to clear out space in drawers and cabinets making room for further organization.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

Hiring a professional organizer can help you to come up with some nifty ideas on how to get your closet organized and keep it that way. Some people find that the cost of hiring a professional is offset by the money that they save on the products that they order. If you’re planning on designing a closet that will serve you well for years to come, hiring a professional organizer may be the way to go.

If you don’t have the money to invest, then you may want to do the job yourself. Some professionals will do a free or low priced assessment for you and help you come up with ideas for what to do with your closets. If you don’t want to go the route of a professional, use these tips to get the job done right yourself.

First, go through all of your belongings and make sure that everything has a place. Categorize things into general categories so that you can see what you have. If one category is too large, let’s say, your t-shirts stack up to considerate proportions, then you should consider breaking it down a little further. You can arrange by length, color, or use to start. For example, you may have some t-shirts that are okay for yard work or painting, while others are casual, work casual, or nice enough to wear under a blazer or cardigan. Some may be just for working out. Consider moving some of them to your categories for “work clothes” or “active wear” to narrow down the stack.

When you are considering storage space in the closet, look for areas that normally go unused. Look up high and towards the front corners of the closets. You may find it beneficial to use storage outside the closet to make room for the items that you use most. Look under the bed, in a trunk, or on a rolling garment rack for spaces outside the closet for storage.

When you’re done choosing containers, closet systems, hanging rails, shelves and cabinets, make sure that you don’t underestimate the importance of a good hanger selection. Hangers can help you to save space and make your closet look uniform and nice. Wooden clothes hangers are a timeless choice that protect your clothes while ensuring that your closet will look great every time you open it.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.

1) Laundry can become a big chore if you don’t have easy places to put things away. Towels, blankets, sheets and other linens can pile up on dressers and in our bedroom closets when the linen closet gets too full. The problem is that most homes are lacking in storage, so we end up putting things in places that are convenient. Therefore, that forty-pack of toilet paper is probably taking up a whole shelf in the linen closet. Things like humidifiers, heating pads, fans and other household items do need a place to go. Getting them out of the linen closet can help you to reclaim the space that you need to store your actual linens. Think about adding additional shelves to make better use of the space.

2) If you have more than one coat closet in your home, or a spare bedroom closet, then you are pretty lucky. One can be used for everyday items, such as purses, backpacks, shoes, and jackets. The other can be used for storage of sports equipment, winter boots, dress coats, and suits. If you don’t have an extra closet, then consider how you can make more space in the one that you have.

3) Look around the coat closet and see what you can do. If it’s a standard reach-in closet, you may be able to add little shelves to the front corners. This makes a lot of extra space for containers that can hold either everyday items or storage items. You can keep your camera equipment, school supplies, board games, and other household items that need a place to go on these simple shelves.

4) Use the right hangers in your closets to keep your clothing safe, even if it does get crowded. Cascading hangers are great for hanging multiple jackets and other light items. Use wood hangers or coat hangers for coats and suits so that they don’t get crushed. Clothes hangers are designed to save space, support shoulders, prevent slippage and more. Choosing the right hangers can make a big difference in all of your household closets.

About the Author: Charlie Hafter is on the staff of Closet Hanger Factory, a leading online resource for clothes hangers. Get all of the closet and clothes hanger accessories you could need at http://www.closethangerfactory.com, which is recognized worldwide for their excellent quality hangers.