Show Your Closet Some Love

Step-by-Step Closet Cleanout and Organization

Want to get your closet sorted out but don’t know where to start? Well, lucky for you, I’m here to help. It’s not going to be quick, and it might not be easy, but the end result of a clean and organized closet filled with only the items you use and love will be worth it!

1. Take Everything Out

This is step one in nearly all of my organizing advice. When you remove all items from a space, you are forced to reckon with each one of them. You aren’t simply shuffling things around–you physically have to touch every single one of your belongings and decide what to do with it.

Usually, when areas become disorganized it’s because we have too many things, we have things in an area where they don’t belong, or we lack proper organizational systems to house our belongings. Once you see everything that was in the closet out of the closet, you can figure out the problem and deal with it.

2. Clean the closet

Once everything is out you can vacuum, dust, wipe down shelving, throw away broken hangers, etc. I recently emptied my closet, and it inspired me to paint it and make it a little fancy by adding a chandelier and a runner. I know no one will see the closet except me and my husband, but it made me so happy to have a nice, updated closet. It also inspires me to keep it neat.

3. Decide what to keep/toss

Deciding on what items to keep and which to toss is the hardest part of this exercise. When making the decisions consider the following:

• Does it fit?
• Is it in style?
• Have you worn it in the last year?
• Do you love it?
• Does it fit in with your current lifestyle?
• Is it in good condition — not stained/ripped/worn

To give some examples, you do not need a business suit you wore three years ago at your corporate job if you are a stay-at-home mom, a shirt your sister gave you that you never wore (and you never really liked), something that will fit one day–if you drop 20 pounds or an old ratty college T-shirt with holes in it.

Use the same process when paring down shoes, accessories, bags, etc.

4. Take stock & make a plan

You’ve taken everything out, cleaned the closet, put items that don’t belong in the closet elsewhere and minimized your wardrobe and accessories. Way to go! Now we need to figure out how it’s all going back. When you find you’re suffering from a lack of closet space, it’s time to get creative with your storage solutions.

Invest in slim velvet hangers.

They take up less space than plastic hangers and are so much nicer than those dreaded wire hangers.

Rotate out seasonal clothes.

Put winter clothes away in the summer (and vice versa) using space bags, under bed storage or use clear plastic bins to keep out-of-season clothes in the attic, garage, crawlspace, etc.

Find creative ways to store accessories.

There are so many products out there to help store everything from purses to baseball caps. A few of my favorites are listed below in the recommendations section of this post.

Utilize all available space.

Back of the door storage is my number one go-to to create additional space.

5. Put it back in

Now that we have the systems in place for the things we know are going back in the closet, it’s time to put it all back. I like to place the hangers the opposite way when hanging my clothes back up. When I wear something and hang it back up, I put the hanger the correct way. After a set time period, something like 6-12 months, anything I haven’t worn I take a look at to decide whether or not it’s worth keeping.

Another nice-to-do way to put your clothes back in the closet is to color code them. If you don’t like that idea, you could group clothing by type–all dresses together, all T-shirt together, etc. You can combine the two and color code by clothing type to get REALLY fancy.

6. Keep it clean

Everything is back in the closet! It’s dust-free, only items you love and need are in there and you’ve turned your hangers around to track what you wear. Here are some tips to keep it clean and tidy:

Keep an empty bin at the bottom of the closet.

Any time you want to get rid of something you can put it in the bin and when it’s full, decide what to do with the items (donate, give away, sell, etc.)

Have a one in/one out rule.

If you buy a new pair of shoes, get rid of an old pair. New shirt? Toss an old one. You get the point.

Periodically review.

Check out your backward hangers after a set time period (6 months to a year) and use your bin to collect items you no longer need.

I hope that the tips above helped you to show your closet some love. Drop a comment below to let me know!

Recommendations

Note: The links below are my Amazon Affiliate links. I receive a small commission for any purchases made from these links. However, I will never recommend items I have not personally used myself or had experience with in some capacity.

There are so many products aimed at maximizing closet space. I have used the following items in my organizing business to help my clients organize and make use of all their closet space.

As recommended above, these Amazon Basics Slim Velvet Hangers are a great way to gain inches of closet rod space over plastic or wooden hangers. Also, the neatness of having uniform hangers in your closet is worth the investment.

These vacuum storage bags are essential for storing bulky, out of season items. This set even comes with a hand pump. The plastic assures that no bugs or dust will penetrate the bag and damage your clothing.

Another way to make use of all available storage space is to utilize the under the bed area to keep items that do not fit or do not need to be in your closet. These NestNeatly Underbed Storage Cubes are just the thing, and what a cute name! 🙂

If you need more shelf storage in your closet, you can hang these hanging closet organizers for items like purses, scarves, hats, etc.

Every closet should have back-of-the-door storage. It’s essential to make use of that space, especially in a small closet. This kind of storage is great for accessories.

If you have a very small closet and you’d like to increase the amount of clothing you can hang, these space saving hangers are perfect. Though not as neat and pretty as the velvet hangers, they will give you a lot of extra space on your closet rod.

I know that I have an issue with storing my larger purses. This purse storage solution keeps the bags separated and upright on your closet shelf.

Another item people have trouble storing is baseball hats. There are a ton of storage options for hats, this one is a cost effective, highly rated and easy to use hat storage solution.