First, consider the feel of your store. The atmosphere is set in many ways, but for boutiques, it’s all in the details. Your lighting alone should showcase certain areas of the store and set the tone and mood. Customers should feel a certain way as soon as they walk in. Using lighting to calm or excite is one way to start out. Many boutiques use drop down decorative spotlights and lamps to keep things highly illuminated without resorting to harsh overhead lights.

Think about what customers will see when they come in, as they walk around, and as they look through your clothing racks. They should initially see varied textures and displays at different heights. Use tables, garment racks, and interesting things to hang from, such as antique armoires or hat racks. You can even hang art or abstract items on hooks from the ceiling to accent different areas of the store.

Make sure that your displays are always kept orderly and neat. In a boutique, there are often a lot of unique items that don’t fit into categories. These can be showcased in a lot of different ways, just make sure that you don’t make any one area cluttered, or people won’t feel like sifting through. Many boutiques effectively maintain an orderly disorder and it adds to the charm of the boutique.

Details come in many forms. Think about what details you want to add from floor to ceiling. The floor may call for interesting rugs. Be careful not to put rugs in heavily trafficked areas where people might trip over the edges. Hopefully customers will be looking at the merchandise and not the floor! Use rugs in small areas where you have seating or larger items that sit on the floor so that they don’t become a liability.

Your garment racks themselves can be interesting. There are many on the market that are designed for boutiques. They have decorative details and designs that entertain as they display. You can also use other things, like dressers and tables to display so that it doesn’t end up looking like a regular retail store. Avoid a lot of circular or really long racks. It doesn’t do much for the eye and will end up being ignored for more interesting displays.

Have your tags and hangers custom designed. Many wooden hangers can be embossed with your logo, a saying, a picture or a brand. Wood hangers also add to the charm and sophistication of the boutique. Plastic hangers may be cheap, but they’ll say something about the quality of your clothes and are much more likely to damage your inventory. Wood hangers exude the sense of quality and strength. They also come in a lot of different styles, like shirt hangers, skirt hangers, and dress hangers. The specialty hanger sizes and styles are well suited to the custom clothing that you carry.

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

Shoes are a big problem for most people. We have dress shoes, work-out shoes, winter shoes, summer sandals, hiking shoes, running shoes, and boots. It’s no wonder that the closet gets overrun with a mountain of dusty shoes. Keeping your shoes in a pile is not only a dust collecting heap of disorganization, it is damaging to your shoes and you can never find the two that you need. If you do, they’re probably smashed out of shape and scuffed from being buried in the mess.

Shoe storage is a must. You don’t need much room for shoe shelves or cubbies. A lot of people install a shoe rack on the back of the closet door to save space. Another option is to build small corner shelves up each side of the closet. Those front corners are rarely used and are perfect for creating shoe cubbies.

Another option is to install a low shelf all the way around the floor of the closet. You can double it up for double the space. If you need to, move the hanging bar and top shelf up a foot. You can still reach it, you make more room near the floor, and you take up some of that wasted space near the ceiling.

Shoe hanging systems are great too. You can put them on the back of your closet door or on an interior wall of the closet. Use padded hooks at the bottom to hang boots and other shoes that are too large or too tall to fit on the hangers.

Stuff boots and other leather shoes with newspaper or tissue paper to help them keep their shape through the seasons. Using cedar clothes hangers in your closet will keep it from smelling like feet. This clothes hanger absorbs moisture in the closet and deodorizes the air. You can put cedar accessories down in shoes that you know get sweaty, like hiking boots and running shoes. When shoes smell, it is because they are teaming with bacteria. Put them into a plastic bag and freeze them overnight. Just put them outside when it is below freezing outside, or straight into your kitchen freezer. The bacteria will be killed and the smell will be gone. Washing often just feeds the bacteria with the warmth and moisture that they need to survive.

When your shoes are nice and orderly, finish out the rest of the closet by updating your clothes hangers. Like I said, a cedar clothes hanger does double duty in your closet. Specialty hangers like shirt hangers, skirt hangers, and dress hangers keep your closet looking super organized and neat. It all starts with taking care of those shoes!

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.

Suede is perhaps the hardest leather to keep clean. The matte, porous texture has very little resistance to stains. Cleaning stains can be a bit tricky and you may want to take your suede garments to a professional if you have a serious stain. However, if you want to try it yourself, here’s what you can do.

For dry stains, try gently brushing them with a soft toothbrush. A baby toothbrush is best because it is softer. If a toothbrush doesn’t work, you can try erasing the stain with a pencil eraser. Remember to test a hidden area first so that you know if a soft toothbrush or pencil eraser will ruin the nap of the leather.

If the stain is wet, absorb as much as you can by pressing a dry towel or paper towel firmly against the surface. Don’t rub, only press. You may even stand on the spot to squeeze out the liquid with your weight. Wet stains should be taken to a professional. If it’s not worth the cost to you to take it to be cleaned, you can try to do it yourself with a towel that has been barely dampened with white vinegar. Test for colorfastness before you go for the stain. Depending on how the leather was treated, colors could run away from the spot.

Use a hair dryer set to cool to get the spot dry as quickly as possible. Don’t use heat or you could set the stain and harm the suede. Use a dry wash cloth or soft baby toothbrush to restore the nap of the suede as it dries. Don’t ever let a wet spot sit or it will leave a ring when it dries. It will also turn stiff and the leather will be weakened. Suede garments will often tear and crack along the seams if they get too wet.

Drying a suede coat or suit that has been drenched would take forever with a cool hair dryer. You can let them air dry if you do it properly. Suede garments will lose their shape if not dried correctly. Soak up as much water as possible by pressing with a dry cloth as described above. Hang suits on clothes hangers that are made specifically for each garment. Choosing the right clothes hanger can make all the difference. Shirts go on shirt hangers, skirts on skirt hangers, dresses on dress hangers, and coats on coat hangers. This will help to maintain the shape of the garment as it dries.

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 you just need to pull everything out. Write down the measurements of the closet. You will need to decide how much space you need for each type of item. Some things that you normally fold might take up less space if you switched over to using clothes hangers instead.

Pants take up less space if they are hung. This also helps them to stay wrinkle free. They are easier to look through and you don’t have to worry about the stack turning into a muddled pile. When pants are hung up high, it is easy to look at the tags. It’s a good plan if you have a lot of jeans, khaki pants, black dress pants, or other pants that all look similar.

Hanging pants on a special pants hanger can make them easier to manage. Pants hangers normally are open on one side so that you can easily slide out the pants. Cascading pants hangers are nice too, because you can hang a few pairs of pants on one hanger.

Sweaters also take up a lot of room when folded, but you may not want to hang some of the heavier ones. Sweaters can stretch and lose their shape if they are too heavy. You could opt for a wide shallow drawer in your closet, specifically for storing sweaters flat. You can mount the drawer under a large shelf where you stack t-shirts, shorts, pajamas and other items that you choose not to hang.

Baskets and bins are great for small items, like socks and underwear. You can also keep things besides clothes in bins, like camera chargers, books, tote bags, and other items that don’t normally go in a closet. You can put bins and baskets anywhere. You can put them on a shelf, build small cubby-hole style shelves for them, or even put them on the floor. They keep things from getting mixed together and make the closet look more organized and clutter free.

You can customize the space as much as you wish. If you would rather have more shelves, you can build them up one side of the closet. You can shorten your eight foot hanging bar into two four foot bars, hanging one high for pants and one low for shirts. An additional one foot bar can be mounted off to one side for hanging dresses and suits. Choose the type of clothes hanger that you want based on what you have to hang.

Have fun when you design your closet. Get creative and ask friends or family for their opinions. You’ll be surprised what you can come up with. Your plans can be adjusted as you consider the space that you’ll save by using special clothes hangers. Shirt hangers, skirt hangers, pants hangers, and dress hangers can all keep your clothes organized and save space.

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

There are many, many elaborate closet systems on the market that will fit your needs. But, most people don’t want to invest the money or don’t have the space to use one of these great systems. The answer to your problem is closet extensions.

Closet extensions are useful tools for neatly organizing things in a minimal space. There are belt racks, tie racks, hat racks and shoe racks that can help you organize all of the little things that you need to store. These things will hang flat against a wall or door. Some racks are retractable or rotate to help you keep them in a useful spot. You can avoid filling up drawers or bins with these items, freeing them up for other things.

Pants hangers, shirt hangers, skirt hangers, and dress hangers can help save you space, too. Many of these specialty hangers are designed to nest with each other, keeping like clothing close together without cramping and wrinkling them. Cascading pants hangers are great for fitting many pants in the space of one hanger. Cascading hooks and hanger bar extensions can also help you to keep a lot of items in a small space.

You can make your closet look really nice by using wooden hangers. Wood hangers come in a wide variety of finishes, styles and specialties. They can make a low-end closet look extravagant while keeping your clothes from becoming misshapen. Wooden hangers are also available in specialty styles that can help you to save on space without sacrificing style.

Cascading hangers are the most useful clothes hangers that you can find. They allow you to hang many different types of hangers from them, and then they collapse into a flat apparatus. “Metal Wonder Hangers” are an example. You can hang many hangers from it, release on end and you have a lot of clothing hanging in the space of one clothes hanger.

Now that your clothes and accessories are taking up less room, you may have the space to install deep sliding baskets or drawers. These are very useful for linens, sweaters, shoes, and even laundry. Adding storage to your closet may have seemed impossible before. But, with the clever use of specialty hangers, wooden hangers, and accessory racks, you can make room in even the tiniest of closets.

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

People organize their closet and then, before they know it, it gets cluttered again. This is generally because of a lack of planning. We organize, clean and make space for what we keep in our closets. But, what we often neglect to do is to plan for seasonal changes and new items coming into the closet. This can translate into disaster after only a couple of months.

If your closet is not big enough to accommodate your winter and summer wardrobes, then you’re in the same boat as most of us. It is important to get a system down so that you can easily transfer from summer, to fall, to winter, to spring without making a total mess of your closet.

Winter wardrobes are generally bulkier and take up more space, so start there. You may decide to invest in an attractive armoire or wardrobe that stays outside of your closet. Here you can store your winter coats, suits, sweaters and heavy bedding. Getting this stuff out of your closet can free up a lot of space. Plus, if it’s in the room, it will be a lot easier to transfer back to the closet later.

Another option is to store winter items in large plastic bins or vacuum compression bags. You can then put them in a spare bedroom, garage, or under your bed. You may need to use risers to make enough room underneath your bed.

Keep out transitional season clothes that always stay in your closet. You will need about a week’s worth of warmer and cooler clothes for those in-between times when you’re not quite ready to flip your wardrobe. Keeping the process of switching from winter to summer and vice versa simple will save you from having to start over every season.

If possible, utilize a hanging bar for storing your out of season clothes. Keeping your wardrobe on clothes hangers makes it much easier to transfer them to your main closet later. It can help you avoid stuffy odors, wrinkles, and the work of rehanging later.

You can use any kind of clothes hanger, but specialty hangers will allow you to use a small space for a whole wardrobe. Shirt hangers, skirt hangers, dress hangers and coat hangers can all be hung on a cascading hanger, drastically reducing the space that they normally would take up. You can use a home garment rack with a dust cover if you need somewhere to hang your clothes for storage.

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.

Once you’ve decided to organize, you should figure out what type of system will work best for you. Should you add a few shelves? Should you use a wire system? Do you want something more attractive and elegant? Luxury closet systems can cost as much as houses, but you don’t have to go all out if you can’t afford to.

One option is to add sections of your dream closet, a piece at a time, over a few weeks or months. Spreading out the cost can help you to get the closet that you really want without feeling that wallet pinch. You may be able to save money by buying prefabricated cabinets instead of actual closet systems. This little trick can get you a super functional closet that is full of storage. It looks great, it’s sturdy, and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.

Another thing you can do is to build closet shelves yourself. It’s not too difficult if you have a mitre saw. Just measure, buy the boards, and cut them off to the right length. Secure 1×4 boards, as braces, to studs inside the closet wall. Use 3” screws to ensure that your shelves will hold a lot of weight. Place the cut boards on top and screw them down to the braces. You may need to brace the center of the shelves with L-brackets or a vertical board that supports from the floor. This can give you a lot of storage in a short time, for very little money.

To make your new closet look nice, you can stain the shelves, varnish them, paint them, or just leave them natural. You can use cedar for added aroma, pest control, odor absorption, and moisture balance in your closet. You can even use cedar planks to line your closet walls. This creates a beautiful, high end closet for very little money.

Once you have your system in place, give your closet some elegant touches. Using wooden hangers can make a closet look instantly high-end. Stylish wood hangers are also very sturdy and can last you many years. They are available in cedar, oak, bamboo and many attractive finishes.

Don’t forget to get special hangers for special clothing items. For example, shirt hangers, skirt hangers and dress hangers are all made to help these items stay wrinkle free and keep their shape. If you choose the same type of wood that you chose for your wooden hangers, your closet will look spectacular and organized.

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

So, first we look at what makes people happy about living in a small space? Most people living in tiny homes or efficiency apartments like the fact that they are forced to cut down on possessions and simplify their lives. So, the first step to making a small closet work should be to do the same. We are a consumerist society and we accumulate a lot more stuff than our ancestors ever dreamed of. People get a real attachment to articles of clothing, which makes them difficult to get rid of. Tell yourself that you are only allowed to own what you have room for. You’ll either have to down-size, or get more creative with your use of space.

Getting creative is a must. Making a place for everything is so important, but can be a challenge for most. To do this, you’ll need to categorize things. Make a list if it helps you. Keep in mind that there will be some items that don’t fit into a category. Create holding areas for things that don’t have a category. Over time, you will see new categories emerging and you can deal with creating a space for them as necessary.

When everything has a place, the next challenge becomes keeping it organized. You’ll have to come up with a system that works for you. If you can, hang clothing as soon as it comes out of the dryer. You can put a bar in your laundry area specifically for this purpose. If you can’t get things immediately into the space where it goes, reserve an area for things that need to be put away. You may want to put a folding table right outside of the closet, or a space for a laundry basket on the floor may be sufficient. When you do get the time, put it only where it goes.

Encourage yourself to keep it organized by getting some space saving products. There are a lot of types of clothes hangers out there. Choose the clothes hanger that inspires you to keep it organized. Some people like the beauty of wood hangers while others love how much space they can make by using cascading hangers, skirt hangers, shirt hangers, and dress hangers. Spend five minutes every day making sure that things are being put where they are supposed to be. This small time investment can make all the difference in keeping things clutter free and 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.

2) Inevitably, you will want to keep your child’s precious art, or the ticket stubs from your anniversary date. There will be things that come into the house that are special to you. Prepare for that eventuality by designating a “year box” for yourself. Keep it under the bed, in the garage, in a closet, or where ever it can go. Label the box with the year that it is, and keep your mementos there. Force yourself to be choosy and don’t keep things that won’t fit in the box.

3) Have a place for everything that comes into the house. Do your keys have a place? Does your laptop have a special storage space? Do you have an inbox for mail? Simply having a designated spot for mail can cut down on a lot of clutter. When the mail comes in, stand by the trash or shredder and go through it. Take bills out of their envelopes and throw the envelope away. Put bills that need to be paid in your inbox. Throw away everything that you don’t need and go through the inbox monthly to clear out old or outdated information.

4) Force yourself to follow small rules. You can’t expect to change completely overnight, but you can sort of brainwash yourself into behaving. When you are about to put something down, say aloud what you are doing. “I am putting the mail on the kitchen counter.” By implementing this little strategy, you will be conscious of the fact that you are making your home disorganized. When you put something where it goes, say aloud, “I am putting the mail in the inbox. Good for me!” These silly little positive reinforcements will have your brain trained to do the right thing in no time.

5) Laundry is a huge problem for even organized people. Time yourself when you fold laundry. If you fold it right out of the dryer, it usually takes between five and ten minutes. If you are a competitive person, keep a dry erase board by the dryer. Compete for folding/hanging time with your spouse, kids or just with yourself. Get that positive reinforcement by using wood hangers. Wooden hangers keep clothes spaced nicely and the organized look is a subtle reward for your brain. You will trick yourself into wanting to hang up clothes!

Controlling your small everyday habits will save you so much time that you won’t believe that you didn’t do it before. Make it fun or silly and you will have your habits under control for life.

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

Closet wardrobes are actually cabinetry, shelves and racks that can be installed outside of the actual closet. All you need is a blank wall. There are a lot of pre-fabricated closet systems and closet accessories on the market. They can be furniture, like an armoire, but are often installed directly to the wall.

First you need to visualize your design. You can start in a corner and build your way out from there. You can have shelves and cabinets extending out from each side of a window. You can have a solid wall of organization if you’d like, there really is no limit.

Wardrobe closet systems vary from the simplest designs to elaborate conceptions. You can spend a little money or upwards of $100,000. Some people are even turning spare bedrooms into extravagant closets. Islands with drawers and granite countertops are not unheard of. Spiral hanging racks, retractable valet bars, and even sinks, refrigerators, and espresso machines can be a part of your closet system. Some people view their closets as a place to relax while they get ready for special events or just their normal work day.

The secret to designing the perfect wardrobe closet is to make it versatile. Your needs will change over time, so your closet system should be able to change with you. Adjustable shelves are nice to have. You should have plenty of clothes hangers to accommodate changing seasons and new additions to your wardrobe.

The clothes hanger itself can be an important part of your design. This is especially true since your hanging bars will be visible from outside of the closet. There are different hangers to choose from that will help your wardrobe look perfectly straight, while keeping them from wrinkling or getting crammed together. Get special shirt hangers, skirt hangers, pants hangers and dress hangers. Coat hangers are made to keep the shoulder shape of coats and suits.

You can even create the illusion of a more expensive closet system by adding a few details. For example, using wood hangers instead of wire or plastic hangers make a closet instantly look high end. Plus, wooden hangers can be purchased to compliment or match the wardrobe closet system itself.

By expanding your closet out into the room, you will find that it is easier to keep organized. Closet systems can add a luxurious feel to your bedroom and help you make time for all of those more important things in life.

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.