Monthly Archives: July 2010

Your Coat Closet Makeover

The coat closet can be used for a lot more than coats. It can be difficult to make enough storage room in any home. Using the coat closet as an entryway home organizer is a good way to keep your home more organized. If your coat closet is packed with coats and junk, it’s time to give it a makeover. This small area of the home can offer big benefits if its space is maximized.

1) First, you should clear out the coat closet of everything. Get it nice and clean since you probably don’t get in there to vacuum and dust very often. This is the best time to do it while it’s completely empty.

2) Now decide what you can do without. Donating coats to charity is a great way to help out those in need. You can also get a pretty good tax deduction, since coats are generally worth more than regular clothes. Get rid of beat up shoes, ones that don’t fit right, or ones that you simply never wear. If you don’t think you’ll make it to the thrift store with all that you want to give, call around. Most charities will come and pick up the items that you want to donate. All you have to do is put them on the front porch.

3) Another option is to have a garage sale or sell your items on auction sites. Nice coats and boots will generally sell once they’re in season. You can use the money to turn your coat closet into the organization center that you’re dreaming of.

4) Most people’s coat closets are near the entryway of their homes. Are you tired of everyone coming in and shedding all of their belongings right inside the front door? Well, the coat closet is a great place to get these things organized. Hooks, shelves, baskets, bins, calendars, shoe cubbies, and more can all be added into a small space like a coat closet so that things don’t get thrown around the house.

5) If your coat closet is too small to hold coats and all of the items that you would like to store there, consider storing most of your coats in another place. The back of your closet, in a spare bedroom, or on a rolling garment rack with a dust cover can all be great places to store coats that you don’t use very often. Making room for keeping shoes, backpacks and other everyday items may be more important to you than having every coat hanging in the coat closet.

6) If you do keep coats in the coat closet, you should update the clothes hangers. A nice clothes hanger makes the closet look great. Coat hangers, like wood hangers, should be used for heavy items. You may want to choose higher end hangers for your coat closet because it’s nice for guests and better quality ones ensure that your coats don’t end up on the floor.

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.

How to Create a Useful Laundry Closet

Is your laundry room or closet a complete mess? Is there not enough storage or space to do your laundry like you want? Use these tips to make the most of the space that you have and get your laundry room in order. Whether you have a large space or a small closet, these tips can help you to have a more manageable time doing your laundry.

1) First, consider your needs. Try not to think that you don’t have enough room for things like a folding table, hanging bar, or ironing board. The most common laundry room need categories are storage for things like laundry detergent and other necessities, an ironing space, a folding place, and a hanging area.

2) Ironing is an essential part of doing laundry for most people. A folding ironing board can be stored easily beside your washer or dryer. You only need a couple of inches of space to fit it there. If you have a little more room, you might consider a wall-mount ironing board. These fold up to take up less space and are easy to access when you need them. If you don’t want to use shelf space for your iron, starch and distilled water, consider mounting a special shelf or container near the ironing board that only holds these items.

3) Most people wish that they had a folding table or more folding space. This can be tricky if you have a laundry closet. However, it is possible. You could consider putting a table or countertop outside of the laundry room for folding. But the more popular option for containing a folding area in a small space is to invest in a small folding table. One about four to five feet long can stand up nicely on the side of your washer or dryer. Plastic top tables are very lightweight and are easy to pull out when you need them.

4) Storage space in a laundry room is generally limited. However, most people don’t properly utilize the space that they have. There is usually room for more shelves or shelves up higher than you’ve thought of before. A folding step ladder can be useful for reaching items that you don’t need very often that can be stored up on a higher shelf. Wire shelving is inexpensive and individual cabinets aren’t much either. Most people prefer cabinets because they keep dust off of their belongings.

5) You need a space to hang clothes that you don’t want to dry in the dryer. You can hang clothes from hangers on a wire shelf or install a hanging bar. If you want to simplify putting clothes away, you might consider a rolling garment rack. When you hang wet clothes, your clothes hangers are important. Wire hangers can leave pucker marks and stretch out the shoulders of your clothes. Coat hangers or wood hangers have a better curve at the shoulder. Plus, they are usually curved to help coats and suits keep their shape, which is also beneficial for drying clothes because they keep the front and the back of the garment separated.

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.

Ideas for Storing Accessories

Closets can become cluttered when you need to store more than just clothing. Do you feel like you have piles of miscellaneous things just lost and thrown in all over your closet? Clutter like this can not only cause you to lose or damage your belongings, but it can take up valuable storage space. Put the space that you have to good use by storing your accessories in a smarter, more orderly fashion.

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.