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Closet Tips to Make Room for Life! © 2001, 2005 Pam Hughes
A few simple steps toward organizing your closet will start you on the way to making room for life. We're going to work on the hanging clothes, but similar steps can be done to get your shelves, drawers, and shoes in order. In 5 minutes grab all your empty hangers. Find a spot at the front of the closet to put all of them. Sort them by type and throw out any broken, bent, non-functioning ones. In 15 minutes gather up all your belts, scarves, ties, etc. Sort them, discarding any worn, out-dated, ill-fitting, or unwanted ones. Sort the discards into three bags for "give away", "throw away", and "sell". Mark a fourth bag "clean/repair". Plan on "two weeks tops" to handle items you place in this bag. Anything left in the bag after 2 weeks gets discarded! Now it's time to deal with the remaining ones. Sort them by color and function and place them on hooks or hangers designed for them. Gather up any other closet oddities such as old coffee mugs, shrink-wrapped kids or pets, stale potato chip bags, etc. Remove them from your closet now! Leave the discard/repair bags close at hand for your 30 minute session! In 30 minutes you can really get into it. Start at the left side of your closet and work your way around. Sort by length, function and color, putting like articles together. Pull out the worn, tattered, out-dated, unwanted, ill-fitting items. Use your discard bags. Remember if you haven't worn it in the past year, there's probably a good reason, and someone less fortunate can put it to good use. Besides, it's taking up valuable real estate! If it has some extremely sentimental value, figure a way to "save the memory, but loose the piece" (i.e. shadow box with fabric sample, quilt sampler, photograph). Now gather up all the extra hangers and parse! Perhaps treating yourself to some new ones. Stick with just one color. It makes the closet look more orderly! Time's up! If you haven't quite finished, that's okay. Set a date for your next session and get on with enjoying life today!
Here are a few more ideas. Make a wish list of tools. For shelves and drawers, divide and conquer! Sort and containerize or put in dividers. It makes it easier to find things when you're in a hurry. Double up on the rods in some areas. Not every garment needs a full-height rod! Are you utilizing all the vertical space? Is there room for another shelf up high? What about the back of the door? Do you have hooks for quick items? Do you really use all of your shoes? Are they sorted and containerized in some fashion? Have you gone vertical with them?
Above all, don't despair! Just remember, small steps to organizing gives you more room for life.
“Life is like an onion: you peel it off one layer at a time,
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