1) Become charitable, have a garage sale, or give your clothes to family and friends. Most of us keep way too many clothes in our closets. How many times have you switched out winter for summer clothes only to realize that you didn’t wear half of them? The first step to organizing your closet, or any other part of your home for that matter, is to get rid of junk. Start looking at extra things as “space stealers” instead of “things that I might eventually need”. Now that the excess is cleared out, you can work on the next phase of organization; categorizing.

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.

Do you dream of having an organized closet? Does yours look more like a nightmare than a dream? It’s time to get your closet in order! You may be thinking, easier said than done. Even if you can open your closet door and an avalanche of junk comes pouring out, there is hope. There are ways to make the most of the space that you have by minimizing, categorizing, and making things more accessible.

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.

Keeping organized once you get that way can be terribly frustrating! It takes a lot of time, effort, and schedule adjustments to get things organized. Nothing is more infuriating that getting it done and then seeing it almost immediately back how it was; cluttered and disastrous. Use these tips for tackling problem areas and implementing habits that will help you stay organized all year.

1) Getting it done right the first time is important. If you’ve somehow found the time to tackle an area, then you’re not likely to do it again anytime soon. Therefore, make sure that you do it right. Don’t focus so much on getting it done quickly as getting it done correctly. Dumping everything into a box that you’ll “go through later” is only masking the problem.

2) Find a specific place for things. If you think about it, you can categorize everything in your home. For most people, it becomes difficult when it’s time to organize random items, like the kids’ school work, old photos, knick knacks, souvenirs, and even sentimental clothing. If you actually make a list of what you own and divide it into categories, this category would probably be called “miscellaneous”. Ban the miscellaneous category from your life and you’ll begin to see things in an organized manner.

3) Miscellaneous just means that you haven’t thought about it or made an effort to compartmentalize these items. That’s why they build up and cause problems. They’re like the virus of your organized home, taking hold wherever you let them touch. Some things may seem like junk, but they are actually very precious to you. Take the kids’ school and artwork, for example. This is something that would be great to keep, so you make a stack. Eventually the stack has to be thrown away because it’s just mixed up with a lot of other junk. Fix this one problem by making a specific place for all of the kids’ work to go. A portfolio for each child will fix the problem. When you’re looking through their work and see something you want to keep, toss it in the portfolio. If it’s filed, it’s not junk, but the keepsake that you had hoped it would be. Make the file easy to access so that you actually use it.

4) Think conservatively. Only you can set boundaries for yourself. If your house is really full, then you’ve allowed yourself to own more than you need. Clothes can become a big problem because we’re constantly updating our style, size, or simply adding to what we own. Get your closets in order using special clothes hangers, like wood hangers, to keep them nice and neat. Get rid of something every time you bring something in and it will 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.