Surprisingly, getting organized has multiple health benefits. This includes better sleep, increased productivity, lower stress levels, and even improved personal relationships.
Does your closet have you stumped, though? Well, no need to fret. Organizing your closet can take a lot of time and work, but it’s definitely possible.
Before jumping in to organize a closet, it’s crucial to create a plan and follow it closely. If you’re ready to start organizing your closet, keep reading.
Organizing Your Closet: Getting Started
It’s possible to organize your closet at a glance and with a written plan when spring cleaning rolls around. But, if you want to get the job done right, you’ll need to follow three important steps first. These are emptying your closet, sorting your clothing, and getting closet measurements. There are a few reasons why these steps are so essential.
Empty Your Closet
The first step to organizing your closet, is actually to empty it out completely. This includes all items, like clothing, jewelry, and other accessories. You can put everything on your bed, some chairs, and even clean sections of the floor.
Emptying your closet is important, as it gives you a better idea of how much storage space you have, and it’s a great opportunity to clean it thoroughly. And, you can also get a good idea of how much stuff you have, and what might be worth tossing or putting elsewhere to better accommodate your closet.
Sort Your Clothing
The next step is to sort your clothes. This involves dividing it all into different categories. Some examples include bottoms, tops, outerwear, and dresses. You can then divide each category by style, color, and occasion. It’s a good idea to toss or give away any articles of clothing you believe you won’t be using in the near future, or in the long-term. This is a great way to save additional space.
Measure Your Closet
If you’re really keen on optimal closet organization, it’s important to take this opportunity with your empty closet and measure it extensively. This includes the shelves, drawers, hanging space, and any other compartments or sections. Make sure to write all this down, as you’ll use the information to better use the space.
A New Approach to Your Closet
Now that you have an empty canvas to work with, you can adjust how you’d normally approach your closet. This includes learning new ways to fold your clothes, investing in new items that can help, labeling everything, and taking better advantage of available space.
Investing in New Items
Buying a few items for organization can really help. For example, you might want to invest in hangers, vacuum-seal storage bags, new shelves, and even storage containers. These are all really helpful for keeping everything tidy in the long run.
While sorting your clothing, you might have come upon quite a bit that you don’t need right now, but don’t want to throw away or donate. Vaccum-seal storage bags are perfect for this situation. You can stuff a bag full of clothing, suck the air out of said bag, and easily store these away.
New shelves and storage containers might be a bit more tricky. In some cases, you might have to remove current shelves and hire a professional to install new ones. It’s a good idea to get a cleaning company’s help to determine whether or not this is necessary.
Create Zones
This might seem somewhat silly, but creating zones in your closet can have a major impact on keeping it organized. Your hanging area is most likely used for dresses and shirts. But, you can assign different articles of clothing to your drawers, shelves, and other empty spaces. For example, consider putting sweaters in the bottom drawer, socks in a middle drawer, and underwear in the top drawer.
Over time, it becomes second nature to put things where they belong after they’re washed, making organization that much easier.
Label Everything
Better yet, you can consider using a label system for every nook and cranny of your closet. Sure, you can eventually memorize where everything goes. But, it’s much less mentally taxing to glance over a few labels and know where to put or find everything in your closet.
Write Up a Maintenance Plan
It’s common for people to spend an entire day organizing their closet, only to find it completely unorganized within the span of a week. Yes, it’s fantastic to get everything tidy. But, if you don’t have a proper maintenance plan, you’re more likely than not to end up right back at the beginning, messy closet and all.
After everything’s labeled and organized, the next step is to create a regular schedule for keeping it that way. So, you have to schedule regular check-ins. Most people have a weekly closet pit-stop, in similar fashion to a good housekeeping checklist.
At each check-in, you’ll want to sort through at least one type of clothing. Your first check-in can be to go through your shirts, and the following week can involve sweaters, for example. Make sure you have a donation box at the ready for anything you might want to get rid of.
Some people, to truly optimize their closet organization, will dedicate a certain amount of time every day to keeping their closet tidy. Try and make a habit of putting everything back where it belongs after use. And, if you feel like something’s off, you can consider reassessing your zones.
Calling the Professionals
In most cases, you should be able to start organizing your closet with relative ease. Emptying it is the first step, followed by investing in any necessary items, creating zones, adding labels, and finishing with a strong maintenance plan. In fact, the maintenance plan is the most important part of the process.
Sometimes, though, organizing your closet can seem like an impossible task. If you’re struggling too much, you can always reach out to a professional cleaning service to give you a hand.
Contact us if you need help keeping your closet, and your home, clean and organized year-round. We’re more than happy to help guide you through the process from start to finish!