How To Organize Your Closet for Spring Cleaning

There's no better time to start organizing your closet than today. Whether you have a walk-in closet or a regular one, this article will show you easy steps you can take to get it organized for Spring cleaning!

Don't hesitate!

Make a decision in 10 seconds or less about an item.

If it takes you longer to decide to keep it, don't toss it into one of the 3 bins.

If you don't make a quick decision your impulse will tell you to keep it, which defeats the purpose of decluttering and getting rid of what you no longer wear or like.

The fastest way to free up storage space is to get rid of old clothing that you don't need. There's a few ways to do this very efficiently.

The 1^st technique:

Get 3 cardboard boxes or bins and label them as follows:

1. To throw away
2. To donate
3. To sell

Now put those boxes near your closet and start going through all your clothing. If you want to keep something, don't toss it in the boxes. If you can't make a decision on whether you want to keep an item or not in 10 seconds or less, toss it in one of the 3 bins. If the item is too old/raggedy to be sold or donated, toss it in the "throw away" box. Go through the rest of your articles of clothing and decide what should be donated versus what can be sold to either a secondhand store or at a yearly Spring cleaning event.

The 2^nd technique:

This takes longer than the first way. About 6 months longer. But it's effective. Take all your clothing and put it on hangers all facing one way. As you wear an item and put it back on the clothing hanger, flip the hanger in the opposite direction. At the end of the season, or 6 months, or 1 year (as long as you want to carry this out) take all the clothing on hangers that are still flipped around, meaning they haven't been worn, and decide to either 1. Throw away, 2. Donate, or 3. Sell just as in the first technique. I was surprised at the end of one year of doing this how many articles of clothing I had never touched!

You have two quick options when it comes to shoes.

Option 1:

Use an over-the-door organizer if you have a walk in closet, or a closet with a door that opens up instead of a sliding door. The only issue with this kind of organizer is that you are limited to smaller shoes. So heels and larger boots might not fit in this and require a different solution. See option 2.

Option 2:

Use a floor organizer to maximize vertical space. Very often vertical space in a closet is wasted, so if you have some summer dresses that you store in a section, use the remaining space underneath to place a floor shoe organizer. The more levels to it, the better.

The ideal jewelry organizer should have the following qualities:

1. Does not take up a lot of space
2. Holds a lot of jewelry
3. Can organize it by type of jewelry

There's no right way to organize jewelry, but there is a wrong way. Ideally you want something that can hold a lot of things, but not take up a significant amount of space, all while keeping your different types of jewelry separate.

Think about the type of jewelry you wear most often and get one or two organizers that cater to that specific type, for me that's necklaces and bracelets so I aim to display those and keep them handy, and jewelry that I use less often can go in a smaller jewelry box somewhere in a drawer.

It's not a good idea to keep perfume in the bathroom (if that's what you currently do) because humidity and warmer temperatures will destroy the molecular composition of your fragrances faster so they'll end up smelling different than what they initially did.

Keep them in a dark, cool place. Your closet is ideal. Make sure you have a tray to keep them all organized so nothing falls on the floor when you least expect it. If you don't have a shelf to keep them on like in the picture below, no problem, Get a plastic drawer organizer and set it in your closet and then place a tray on top of that and use as a shelf. Easy.

Get rid of perfumes you no longer use or recycle them in the following ways:

1. Use as room spray
2. Shoe/Garment refresher
3. Give away to someone

If you have odd items like gloves, shoe inserts, leg warmers or other random small items, you can create a space just for them. I used a cute basked and tossed them in there, then I displayed it right outside my closet door so if I ever need to reach for something, they are still close by.

Follow these easy tips and see how quickly your closet becomes organized!

1. Get rid of clothing you don't need
2. Organize your shoes
3. Separate your most commonly used jewelry
4. Keep perfumes organized in your closet to maximize longevity
5. Organize small misc. items