shutterstock_138225635One of the spaces in the home that gets the most cluttered is the bedroom closet. It is the one room in the house that is small and out-of-the-way enough to be overlooked by guests when they visit, but it is probably the case that your closet largely goes unnoticed by you as well – at least until you have to retrieve something from it! The idea of cleaning and organizing your closet seems overwhelming, and the notion of keeping it clean and organized in the future may seem impossible. It does not have to be this way. Just taking the time to clear the clutter once goes a long way, and here are some tips for helping you through it.

Step 1: Weed out the wardrobe
Everyone has had the experience at some point in their lives of peering into the closet and staring at an assortment of clothes while lamenting, “I have nothing to wear!” If you find yourself saying this, and yet you still have a closet full of clothes, it is time to get rid of some of those fashions that you no longer wear. It is easy in theory to donate the old clothes that no longer fit or are worn out, especially if we no longer like them. However, in practice, this is a hard thing to do. An easy way to force yourself to move beyond the sentiments of “maybe I will wear that again someday” or “maybe these jeans will come back in style,” is to simply hang all of your clothes in a row in the closet. Each day when you choose your outfit, move the hangers that hung that outfit to a different rack. When you do laundry, be sure to hang every item you washed on those empty hangers. By the end of a month you will have two separate rows of clothing: one row will have all of the clothes you actually wore that month and the other will have the clothes you did not wear. Plan to donate those clothes you did not wear, making exceptions for clothing for special occasions or seasonal attire.

To keep your wardrobe current, place all clothing that you do not need for the season in vacuum-sealed storage bags. It is also a good idea to keep all of your winter coats and jackets in a separate closet that is solely dedicated to hosting your family’s winter outer-garments. By rotating your seasonal clothes out of your wardrobe lineup you save space and prevent your clothes from becoming wrinkled from overcrowding.

Step 2: Optimize Your Storage Space
This is where you will want to call in a professional. A custom closet is more affordable than you think, and businesses like Boston Closet Company can help you design a closet to fit your budget. Adding storage shelves, drawers and racks can make use of some of the vertical space in your closet and allow you to fit more items without cluttering or crowding the space. A custom closet is also visually appealing. Many people are empowered to keep an area clean simply because they have been given the tools to do so. In this case, having a proper place to put everything makes it easier to keep the closet organized all of the time.

Step 3: Store Your Clothes like a Pro
Once you have a place to put your clothes, the question remains of how to store them. For shirts and blouses, hang as many as you have space for. After all, hangers were designed with the shirt in mind. If you are feeling productive, organize the shirts by color. Light sweaters can be hung as well, but for heavier sweaters, you will want to fold them and store on shelves or in drawers or cubbies. Jeans can be hung by the hem, but use hangers with clips to store slacks, skirts or shorts. This makes everything look uniform in your closet and prevents wrinkling.

Non-clothing items can be organized as well. Purses can be hung on hooks in the closet and scarves folded in piles in a shelf or cubby can be organized by color so that it is easier to pull one scarf out without disturbing the rest. Hat boxes are the best storage devices for hats, especially if you have a photo of the hat on the outside of the box. A hat rack is also a nice touch in the closet. Store shoes by color and style with the right shoe toe out and left shoe heel out so you can see the shoe from both sides while choosing an outfit.

Having a clean, well maintained closet is something that everyone can have. To make an appointment with a closet design specialist for a free in home consultation with Boston Closet Company, give us a call at 617.628.1150 or visit us online at bostoncloset.com.