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.

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.

1) Out with the old, in with the new. We tend to keep things way too long. We hold onto items that are bulky, out of style, scuffed up, doesn’t fit right, or just things that we don’t necessarily need. Sometimes we figure out while organizing that we don’t like hardly anything in our closets. Imagine if you got rid of everything that wasn’t your very favorite how much space you’d have! Start being picky and get rid of all the excess baggage in your closet.

2) When the closet is cleared out, this is the perfect time to get it really clean. We tend to neglect cleaning the closet floor, baseboards and shelves for long periods of time. This can increase the risk of pests, molds and mildews in our closets. Get in there and clean the floor really well. Wipe down the shelves, hanging bar, and other hardware. You may even decide to give the closet a fresh coat of paint while it’s empty.

3) Now, take inventory of what you have. If you have a lot of t-shirts, you may consider designating a shelf specifically for t-shirts in your closet. If you have a lot of shoes, you may want to invest in some cubby-style shelving to accommodate all of your shoes. If you would like to keep things like socks, underwear, pajamas, and swimwear in your closet, you may want to plan for room on a shelf for baskets, buckets, or bins. The key here is to make sure that you plan the space and have it accommodate your personal belongings. Cookie-cutter organization systems often leave people needing more space in one area and less in others.

4) After you have your personal shelving and hanging bar configuration installed, it is time to get serious about making some storage space. Use vacuum bags designed for storing blankets and out of season clothing. Hang your clothes on hangers that work for your closet. Wooden hangers give the closet a luxurious look and feel. Wood hangers also are functional in helping you solve some of your closet problems. Most wooden clothes hangers are curved to fit suits and coats, helping them to keep their shape. You can invest in cedar clothes hangers to keep your closet smelling fresh. When your closet is designed to meet your needs, you will enjoy having it and keeping it 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.

1) Any closet organization professional will urge you to get rid of as much junk as possible. People store all kinds of things in their closets that don’t actually belong there. This doesn’t mean that you can’t hide gifts or store luggage there, it just means that you need to pay attention to what goes in. Plan a space for all of those things that are going to need to stay in the closet.

2) Clothes are the easiest thing to get rid of. If you haven’t worn it in a year, get it out of there. Narrow your wardrobe down to what you really need, want, and like to wear. Get rid of clothes that don’t fit just right, are out of style, or that you just never are in the mood to wear. Get rid of old stiff and scuffed up shoes. No matter how much you may like your shoes, or how much money you spent on them, if they hurt your feet or don’t match anything, they have got to go. Offer things to friends or try to sell more valuable items if you can’t bear to give them to charity. Use the money that you make to fix up your closet or to buy clothes and shoes that fit right.

3) Shelves are really necessary in a closet. If you only have the one big top shelf, then you will probably need to add some to the sides of your closet, the bottom of your closet, or simply start from scratch. There are quite a few inexpensive organizational systems that are very accommodating to sweaters, hang-up clothes, linens, belts, shoes and more. If you want to build your own, use these systems as inspiration.

4) Making your closet functional is up to you. Most people agree that the things you use most should be front and center, no higher than your head. Keeping this strategy in mind while you decide what shelves to put in can be very helpful. For example, keep your work clothes front and center on the bar. On a shelf to the side of the bar, keep your socks in a bin and store your work shoes in cubbies just below. Store linens, formal clothes, heavy coats, and luggage around this area.

5) Once you get your closet organized, think about making it look great. Wooden hangers make a closet look high-end, even if you didn’t spend a dime on it. Wood hangers are useful for keeping clothes perfectly spaced on the bar, giving your closet that organized look and feel. Shirt hangers, skirt hangers, pants hangers, and dress hangers will keep all of your clothes wrinkle free, easy to find, and looking great in the closet.

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.