Monthly Archives: June 2010

Inspiring Closet Ideas

Is your closet overrun with junk? Do you want to fix it up and organize? Are you interested in creating an inspiring space that helps you start off your day on the right foot? Then use these ideas to get your creative juices flowing! An organized closet doesn’t have to be a boring one. If you put your mind to it, you can create a closet that inspires you and helps you to stay organized.

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.

Easy Closet Organization Tips

The closet can seem like a giant project to tackle, so many people put it off until it really can’t be ignored any longer. There are a few basic rules of closet organization that you can follow. These simple steps make things easier to find, easier to organize and helps you get your closet in order.

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.

Closet Sophistication

Does your closet look like you dumped your laundry basket inside and gave up? Closets can get really messy very quickly if you don’t have an easily accessible place for everything. Even if you get it organized, you may not have the right closet accessories to make it look really great. Are you ready to take your closet from cluttered to sophisticated? Creating a sophisticated closet doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Using these creative and simple ideas, you could have a sophisticated and attractive closet by tonight.

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.