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.

1) First, consider your needs. Try not to think that you don’t have enough room for things like a folding table, hanging bar, or ironing board. The most common laundry room need categories are storage for things like laundry detergent and other necessities, an ironing space, a folding place, and a hanging area.

2) Ironing is an essential part of doing laundry for most people. A folding ironing board can be stored easily beside your washer or dryer. You only need a couple of inches of space to fit it there. If you have a little more room, you might consider a wall-mount ironing board. These fold up to take up less space and are easy to access when you need them. If you don’t want to use shelf space for your iron, starch and distilled water, consider mounting a special shelf or container near the ironing board that only holds these items.

3) Most people wish that they had a folding table or more folding space. This can be tricky if you have a laundry closet. However, it is possible. You could consider putting a table or countertop outside of the laundry room for folding. But the more popular option for containing a folding area in a small space is to invest in a small folding table. One about four to five feet long can stand up nicely on the side of your washer or dryer. Plastic top tables are very lightweight and are easy to pull out when you need them.

4) Storage space in a laundry room is generally limited. However, most people don’t properly utilize the space that they have. There is usually room for more shelves or shelves up higher than you’ve thought of before. A folding step ladder can be useful for reaching items that you don’t need very often that can be stored up on a higher shelf. Wire shelving is inexpensive and individual cabinets aren’t much either. Most people prefer cabinets because they keep dust off of their belongings.

5) You need a space to hang clothes that you don’t want to dry in the dryer. You can hang clothes from hangers on a wire shelf or install a hanging bar. If you want to simplify putting clothes away, you might consider a rolling garment rack. When you hang wet clothes, your clothes hangers are important. Wire hangers can leave pucker marks and stretch out the shoulders of your clothes. Coat hangers or wood hangers have a better curve at the shoulder. Plus, they are usually curved to help coats and suits keep their shape, which is also beneficial for drying clothes because they keep the front and the back of the garment separated.

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.

Intimates: There’s no need to store your intimates in a dresser drawer if you can make space in your closet. You can use baskets and bins on shelves, sliding drawers, or lingerie hangers. Lingerie hangers are generally satin and padded to protect delicate clothing. They not only make your closet more manageable and organized, but they’re also attractive and functional.

Swim Wear: You can store your swim wear in the same manner, on lingerie hangers, in bins, or sliding drawers. There are also circular hangers for hanging and drying bikinis. These hang your swim suits flat and hold them in a natural shape so that you don’t damage or lose pieces while they’re in storage.

Handbags: Leather handbags should be cared for in a specific way. Leather needs to breathe, but it can also be damaged by other closet contents or arid environments. Use a leather treatment on your leather purses before you store them to keep the leather supple and soft. Then, place it in a breathable dust bag cover or pillowcase to protect it from the elements. You can store bags like these on a shelf or in a small cabinet. Other handbags that don’t require specific care can be hung on cascading hooks, which can be hung on the bar, or installed on the back of the closet door or down the side of the closet.

Shoes: Do you have a shoe rack that wastes room, doesn’t hold all of your shoes, or that you simply don’t use because it’s inconvenient? Closet experts rarely recommend shoe racks anymore. They take up valuable floor space that is better used for a laundry basket, cabinet, or small dresser. Store your shoes in air-tight containers that you can see into. Clear boxes are stackable and keep your shoes safe from scuffs, dust, and the inevitable squash marks that deform and reshape your shoes when they get smashed into the bottom of the closet.

Hats: Hats can be kept in containers or hung by hooks. If you’re looking for a creative place to keep them, try over the closet door on the inside of the closet. You can hang picture wire and attach clips for hanging as many hats as you wish. They’ll be protected from becoming misshapen, you can see which hats you have to choose from, and they won’t take up any valuable space in your closet.

Odds and Ends Clothing: We all have those odd pieces of clothing that we don’t use very often, but we want to keep hanging. It could be a prom dress, a dress coat, or an interview suit that never gets used, but you need to protect it anyway. Hang heavier items on coat hangers so that they don’t end up in the floor. Wood hangers are great for many items. Just choose the ones that match the size and shape that is necessary for your specialty clothing. The rest of your clothes hangers can be any type that suits your needs, whether you’re looking to make your closet look sophisticated or save space.

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) Our first idea is to improve the lighting situation in your closet. Shelves and drawers are great in a closet, but we end up rummaging through them so much that we can’t keep them nice and neat. Installing lighting over each shelf and even inside of the drawers can make it easier to see what you’re looking for. This can help you to keep your drawers and stacks of clothes organized for longer periods of time. Plus, it just makes your closet look like a welcoming place. Consider installing a dimmer switch with motion detection so that your closet will automatically illuminate for you at the desired brightness every time you open the door. When you close the door, the light should automatically go off.

2) If you keep linens and comforters in your closet, they can end up taking up a lot of valuable space. Most people use a good portion of their bedroom closet shelving for sheets, blankets and comforters. The space can become even more cramped if you store table linens and curtains in there, too. You can free up that closet shelf storage space by using comforter hangers. They come in different depths to accommodate thick down comforters or thinner quilts. There are special hangers for keeping your curtains and sheets wrinkle free as well. Choose ones with nylon or rubberized surfaces so that they don’t slip off and end up crumpled on the floor.

3) Now, you may be thinking that hanging all of your blankets will free up shelf space, but then it will only be taking up your hanging space. Not necessarily. For around ten dollars, you can get an extra hanging bar. In a reach-in closet, you can install the extra bar up high on the right or left side of the closet. This will give you extra long hanging space for your linens.

4) Using specialty clothes hangers can help you to maximize space and stay organized at the same time. Hangers that allow you to cascade things that hang flat save a lot of space. You can cascade things like skirts, shorts, pants, or anything else that hangs safely close together. Go ahead and use curved, sturdy hangers for coat and suits. Coat hangers or wood hangers are best for hanging heavier items that need to keep their shape at the shoulder. Using a variety of hanger types will allow you to adjust the hanging space that you use to make room for everything else.

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.

First, rearrange your clothing so that your shortest clothes are on one side and your longer items are on the other. This usually frees up some space beneath the shorter clothes. You can add shelves for shoes or drawers underneath the shorter hanging clothes. You can use this space for just about anything.

Next, arrange your clothing in order of color. Make sure that you keep the length of the clothes approximately the same, but group together your shortest black shirts, white shirts, black pants, etc. This will make it easy to find clothes that match when you are getting dressed in the mornings.

Utilize inexpensive items such as over-the-door organizers, hooks and bins. Storage bags that can be flattened with a vacuum are very useful in keeping linens fresh while minimizing the space that they occupy. Store out of season clothes or bulky linens in empty suitcases to maximize overhead space.

Shoes usually end up in a huge pile. Even if you have a shoe organizer, it is hard to keep them all where they go. They fall off, they don’t fit, or you simply have more shoes than shoe space. Use clear boxes for dress shoes. Not only will they be protected from scuffs and damage, but they will be very easy to find. Make a tall stack of clear boxes in the front corner of your closet. You may want to put a dryer sheet in each box to keep shoes smelling fresh. If you plan on storing shoes for quite a while, put them in a plastic bag and store them in the freezer over night. This will kill any odor causing bacteria that may be living in the shoes and ensure that they are ultra-fresh the next time you want to wear them.

If you need additional space for hanging clothes, consider adding another hanging bar. You may have high enough ceilings to have a high bar and a low bar in your closet. Another option is to get an adjustable bar that hangs from your existing bar. You can hang it around your shirts and it gives you another bar just below your shortest items, not all the way across.

Another option for making more hanging space is to buy hangers that can piggy-back on each other. Specialty hangers can hold a lot of pairs of pants, ties, or group together outfits. Some clothes hangers are thin enough to hang clothing closer together, making more room than you might have imagined. Using these simple guidelines, you can make space in your closet and get it set up in an easy-to-maintain order.

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.

First, ponder the meaning of sophisticated. According to the Webster’s Dictionary, sophisticated means “devoid of grossness”, “highly complicated or developed”, and “intellectually appealing”. This can translate into clean, organized, and smart. The goal is to have a place for everything in an arrangement that works best for you. If you can get everything into a configuration that is easily accessible, it will be a lot easier to maintain.

When designating shelves, drawers, or bins for little things, don’t make it so rigid that the closet doesn’t work well long-term. For example, it’s okay to have a sock drawer, basket, or bin. However, if you use those diamond-shaped dividers that make your socks look perfectly in order, you’ll never be able to take away or add a pair of socks to that drawer without messing it up. Consider dividers that have larger sections or that form long columns so that you don’t have this problem. You can have a divider that keeps your socks separate from your ties, and another that keeps the ties separate from your cuff links, but avoid having an individual section for each tie or pair of socks.

Okay, now let’s keep thinking “clean, organized and smart”. Clean the closet of any clutter or storage that doesn’t necessarily have to be there. Thin the herd, so to speak. Come up with alternate storage for your out-of-season clothing, sports equipment, suitcases, or other bulky items that eat up space. You want to end up with a streamlined, organized look and feel.

Creating that “smart” look means that you want to have a couple of features that would make someone think, “Now that’s a great idea.” Popular closet accessories that can upgrade your closet and make it more user-friendly can help you out in this department. Valet rods are cheap, easy to install, and are very useful for hanging your dry cleaning, steaming your clothing, or laying out your clothes for the next day of work. Lighting that illuminates your closet and that automatically turns on and off when you open or close the door is very chic and saves energy, too. Pants rods, tie hangers, scarf hangers, and other organizational products that help you stay organized will help your closet to look better, too.

Use high quality products so that your sophisticated closet stays nice and usable for years to come. Use the clothes hangers that look best in your closet and that are made for the purpose that you have in mind. Coat hangers help coats to stay slightly separated on the bar. Wood hangers give your closet a sophisticated look and feel. Chrome metal hangers save space while giving your closet a contemporary look. Use your own personal taste along with these organizational closet tips and you’ll have the closet of your dreams 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.

Getting the coat closet cleaned out can help you to determine what type of storage you need. Pull everything out and separate like items so that you can visualize the amount of space that you’ll need for each thing. If there are things in there that you don’t use fairly often, go ahead and try to move them to another closet or storage area. Dedicate the coat closet to your everyday things.

When you get the items sorted out, try to rank them in order of what you use the most. The things that are used most often should be easily accessible when you open the closet. The less often you use something, the higher up or further back you can store it. For example, a shelf for keys, wallets, cell phones and work badges should be near the front so that everyone using it can easily get what they need in a hurry.

Now that you have your most important things in mind, figure out ways to store them that makes the most sense for the item. You could use a shelf for keys and wallets, but would it be easier to use hooks for keys and work badges and then use separate shallow bins for each person’s wallet or other important accessories? Making a specialized place for each person to store their things can help keep clutter under control.

Using a variety of shelves, hooks, bins and baskets can make your coat closet a great place for keeping lots of things organized, easy to access, and normally out of sight. A dry erase board on the inside of the door can also help you and your family to keep appointments, soccer practices, school meetings, and other important dates in mind. You can leave reminders for your family that you are sure they’ll see because they’ll have to go to a certain place to retrieve their keys, wallets, purses, etc.

Let’s not forget what the coat closet is actually for. Your coats should be kept safe in the coat closet. Use high quality clothes hangers that are designed especially for coats. Flimsy hangers can break and damage coats. Coat hangers help coats, blazers and suits to keep their shape in the shoulders.

Getting your coat closet under control can help you to keep your life and your family’s lives under control.

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) I know you don’t have much time, but try to set aside a couple of hours for accomplishing this task. Pick a time when you are most alert so that the job goes quickly. Get your coffee and get ready to work! Turn on some dance music to motivate you to move quickly.

2) Start pulling things out of your closet and tossing them into three piles. One pile is for things you will keep. You may want to put this pile on your bed or use a rolling garment rack so that you don’t wrinkle the things that are going back into the closet. The second pile is simply for trash. Throw away things that are stained or damaged. Also try to throw away other things that you’ve been keeping forever but will never use. The third pile is your give-away pile. Donate items to friends, family, or a charity if they can be used by someone else. If you have enough, you may even decide to have a garage sale.

3) Now is the time to bag up your trash pile. Take it out right away. You don’t want to run out of time and end up leaving the mound there to get scattered. Bag or box up your donations and seal them off. Put them into the trunk of your car or out on the porch for clothing donation pick-up. If you leave your give-away pile lying around, you might change your mind about getting rid of everything that you should. Remember, out of sight, out of mind.

4) Put everything that you will keep back into the closet in the order that you think would be most efficient. Some people line things up by length, shortest to longest. Some find it easier to find what they’re looking for if they hang things according to color. You may decide to put the things that you use most often in the center and work your way out from there.

5) Think about using specialty clothes hangers. Some hangers have clips or loops for coordinating outfits onto one hanger. This can be really helpful when you’re running late in the morning. Some save space and help you keep things from getting crowded. Coat hangers, like wood hangers, are curved just right and keep your suits and coats perfectly spaced while supporting tailored shoulders.

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.

2) Categorizing is probably the most important step in the organization process. If you can’t figure out what category something should go in, then it will inevitably become junk or clutter. Everything needs a place and before you can assign it one, it has to fit in with other things that you keep. If it’s pens and pencils, categorize it with office or school supplies. If it’s your son’s precious handprint mold or finger painting, categorize it as a keepsake. You can create categories and sub-categories to keep things organized. Depending on what you have, you may have an entire dresser dedicated to keepsakes, souvenirs, and memorabilia. One drawer could be things made by one child, another drawer for the other child, one for your husband’s keepsakes, and one for yours. The dresser top can be used to rotate things that you would like to look at into and out of storage.

3) The next step is to measure out how much space you will need to get your closet organized. Let’s say that you have a big stack of t-shirts. You can hang them and measure how much space they take up, or fold them and see how much of a shelf they will occupy. Write it down and then come back to it later. Do the same for your pants, dresses, skirts, shorts, socks, etc. Then you will have all of the data that you need to figure out which combination of bins, drawers, shelves and hanging rods will best accommodate your wardrobe. You may be amazed how much space you can save simply by swapping out a shelf designated for holding your shorts for a couple of cascading hangers that keep them wrinkle free and easy to access in a fraction of the space.

4) Now that you’ve figured out the most efficient arrangement for your clothing and accessories, think about what you use most. Most professional closet organizers will tell you to place the things that you use most front and center. If you store your socks up high on a shelf, you’re not very likely to keep putting your socks in there. You’ll end up making another pile somewhere that is more convenient. The key to staying organized is to make it as easy as possible to put things back where they go. You don’t want baskets with latching lids, for example. It’s much easier to toss things in without having to put everything down in order to open the lid.

5) You can make even more space and protect the investment that you have in your wardrobe by selecting the right clothes hangers for the job. You should always hang coats and suits on coat hangers or wood hangers that are curved to keep the shape of the shoulders. Your hangers should fit the space and the style of your closet. Choose ones that help you keep things organized. This could mean getting a few different types of specialty hangers for organizing belts and ties, cascading clothing, or simply choosing the ones that inspire you to keep the closet neat.

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.

Start with the things that you use most. This could be your jeans and t-shirts, or your work clothes. These things that need to be accessed most often should be in the front and center of your closet. By putting the things that rotate in and out the most in an easy access area helps to ensure that they’ll go back where they belong when you’re putting them away. If you have to get a box from the top shelf every day to put away your t-shirts, you’ll end up avoiding it and just piling them on the nearest shelf.

As a general rule, put the things that you use least up high, out to the sides, in the back or on the floor. Things that you want to keep organized and that need to be accessed most often need to be in the most accessible place.

Next you should make sure that you have a container, drawer, or special clothes hangers for each type of thing that you keep in your closet. Shorts should go in a drawer, stack neatly on a shelf, be kept in a big basket, or be hung on a special hanger with clips. Socks, scarves, mittens, gloves, hats, shoes, tote bags, robes, ties, belts, purses and other little things should all have special bins, baskets or hooks. You may have to install some shelving to accommodate everything that you want to keep in your closet.

Minimizing what you own makes everything a lot easier. Most of us hold onto clothing for ten or more years. However, a lot of these clothes have been stained, lost their shape, are out of style, or we are just simply never in the mood to wear them. Use the old trick of turning all of your hangers around backwards on the bar. As you wash and wear clothes, hang them back up in the normal fashion, with the hook facing the back. At the end of a year, give away whatever is still facing backwards without thinking twice. This will help you to really get rid of what you don’t need and free up some closet space.

Use specialty clothes hangers to make more space. Coordinate outfits or use hangers instead of bins for little things like belts, scarves and ties. You’ll notice a huge difference in how easy it is to maintain an organized closet when everything has a place that is easy access and when you’ve minimized the amount of clothing that you have to organize.

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.