There are many problems with closets that we run into often. Clothes that become wrinkled or fall off the hanger, things getting too crowded, and lack of storage space are the biggest complaints. Closets can be a real asset when they’re designed to meet your personal needs. Getting creative and making the space work for you is key. Use these tips and tricks for making your closet work for you, instead of against you.

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.

We hope you enjoy this article from Oprah. Learn to organize your closet.

One of my clients has a five-bedroom house that needed so much organizing it took us almost a year to complete the job. We tackled a closet first, because I wanted her to see results immediately. In just a few hours, we transformed her front hall closet from mayhem to order, providing a home for every jacket, coat, mitten, glove, hat and umbrella. No matter how formidable the rest of the process seemed, that one space gave her the confidence and momentum to keep going.

Our organizing project is to redo your closets. Before getting started, keep the following in mind:
When you arrange a closet, you should consider its relationship to other storage areas in your home. What kinds of things need to be in this space, and what should logically go in another place?
Complete one closet at a time…starting with the one you use the most.
Pace yourself—it takes three to six hours per closet. Never undertake more than two per weekend.

Now, here’s your plan of attack:

Sort.
Pull everything out of the closet and divide it into categories—such as sweaters, dresses, blouses, pants and jackets. You may be surprised by how many of the same item you own. A client of mine was shocked when we unearthed 16 nearly identical black cardigans. Every time she went shopping and nothing caught her eye, she figured, “I could always use a basic black cardigan,” and bought one.

Purge.
Keep only what you use and love. Throw out clothes that are irredeemably stained, torn, pilled or out of shape. Get rid of fashion mistakes you bought but never wore. Keep only your current size in your closet and give away or store what doesn’t fit anymore. Passing things along to a charity or friend can make it much easier to part with them.

Assign.
Create a specific home, whether a shelf, section of the rod, or drawer, for each category of garment (pants and other long-hanging clothes on one end of the rod, blouses on the other, hats on the top shelf, belts on the closet door, etc.). With the exception of items intended for long-term storage (e.g., old tax records), things stuffed into the dark recesses of your closet are as good as forgotten.

Containerize.
Now the fun part! Selecting containers you like looking at makes it delightful (or at least less boring) to put things away. Shelf dividers can keep sweater stacks from toppling over, and a shoe rack under short-hanging clothes makes great use of that otherwise unused space. You can store extra wooden hangers in a basket on the floor to save room on the rod.

Equalize.
Maintain your system with the one-in, one-out rule—for every new garment you buy, toss something old to make room for it. Keep a giveaway box on the floor.

You might be the only person who sees the inside of your closet, and frankly, no one else will care if you cram things in and shut the door. But organizing is for you—it’s about identifying what’s important to you and giving yourself access to it. An organized closet will save you much more than time—it will keep you grounded, allowing you to begin and end each day on a note of calm.
From the May 2003 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/home/Transform-Your-Closet#ixzz21hcePcP1

Is your closet cramped and cluttered? Organizing it doesn’t have to be a huge hassle, cost any money, or take a lot of time. If you’re interested in doing some quick rearranging to make more room in your closet, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve taken tips from closet organizers everywhere to compile this list of helpful tips for getting organized in a hurry.

1) First, do a quick sift-through to get rid of anything that you haven’t worn in a year. Try not to think too hard or be too sentimental. Get rid of it and feel good about donating it to a charitable organization or a friend.

2) Decide what can be hung and what can be folded. If your dresser drawers are overflowing, you might be better off hanging something like t-shirts and reserving your dresser drawers for socks, pajamas, swim wear and underwear.

3) Hang things according to length. If you hang all of your dresses and other long items all together on one side, then they won’t be taking up space in the bottom of the closet for the length of the bar. Hang the next longest thing next to that and line everything up until one end is only occupied by your shortest shirts or pants. This should free up some space beneath the hanging clothes.

4) Use the space between the hanging clothes for a laundry basket, a bin for tossing things that you decide to donate to charity, or a shoe rack. If you have some low shelves, you can slide them in to hold bins and baskets for smaller items or folded stacks of clothing.

5) The fastest and easiest way to double or triple closet space is to use flat, space saving hangers. Hangers that fit really closely together save precious space. Add clips and you can hang skirts, shorts and pants. Use cascading hooks and you can hang your hangers from each other, coordinating outfits.

6) Specialty clothes hangers allow you to hang specific items in specific ways. For example, multi-pant hangers let you hang four or five pairs of pants in one place. These are great space savers, especially if you use them for storing out of season clothing. If you don’t store out of season clothing in another place, then you won’t have to switch out wardrobes when the seasons change. Finding ways to make space in your closet will help you to spend less time organizing, hunting and rehanging your clothes.