"Project: Organization" Day 8-Closets

You asked for it, so here it is: How to organize those closets. Would you be embarrassed if someone asked, "What's in your closets?" If I walked in, would you be excited to show them to me? I want you to be proud of what they look like. I'm opening up my closets today and showing them to the world (well, not really, but the few of you that follow my blog are welcome to look). I'm not doing this because they are perfect, or the "one" way, but they are functional for me. It's taken me some time to decide how to go about that, but I think I'm just about there.

Here are some tips to get started with (from "Real Simple" website):

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  Edit your wardrobe. Take a look at your clothes and assess what you wear most, least, or not at all. Donate the clothing you haven’t worn in a year or more, as well as anything that no longer fits. If an item is severely damaged, toss it out.
  
  


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  Decide what to store. Let seasonality and frequency of use be your guide in determining what to keep in the closet and what to stow elsewhere.
  
  


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  Organize hanging garments by type and color. Blouses, for example, can be sorted first by sleeve length and then by shade. By keeping like with like, options for a given outfit are clear at a glance.
  
  


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  Choose the right hanger. Your closet will look neater if you use just one type of hanger—wood, wire, or plastic.
  
  


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  Set up zones. A low rod holds tops and skirts; an eye-level pole, dresses; and a high bar, shirts and suits. A high shelf works fine for out-of-season shoes and sweaters.
  
  


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  Arrange folded items. Any clothing that will stretch out of shape should be folded over hangers. When organizing the folded clothing you’ll store on shelves, place heavier items at the bottom of the pile, and lighter ones at the top. After folding, arrange garments by function (workout tops together, business tops together, etc.) and color (white to nude to bright colors to black). If your closet doesn’t have shelves, consider using part of your clothing rod for hanging canvas ones.
  
  


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  Get a garment bag. A sturdy canvas garment bag protects fine suits, dresses, and jackets better than plastic. (Leather, in particular, is susceptible to drying and even cracking if kept in plastic.)
  
  


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  Deal with dry cleaning. Remove clothes from dry-cleaning bags as soon as you get home, and hang your clothes on proper hangers. Return the wire hangers to the dry cleaner for reuse.
  
  


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  Manage odds and ends. Store bags, belts, ties, scarves, and other accessories in plain sight on hooks or racks, which can be attached to the inside of your closet door.
  
  


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  Contain what doesn’t hang. Use containers—consider a matching set of baskets—to hold accessories and clothing that can’t be hung, such as socks and undergarments. Smaller baskets or boxes can store a single type of accessory, such as scarves or hats.
  
  


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  Pick a system for storing shoes. Choose between a shoe rack on the floor, a hanging shoe organizer, see-through plastic boxes, or original shoe boxes with photographs stapled to them to identify the boxes’ contents. Stow shoes you don’t wear frequently in labeled plastic boxes on a high shelf, in another closet, or under your bed.
  
  

I have so many thoughts about organizing closets so forgive me if I jump around as I think of something.

When I have organized my closets, what I seem to find is that I'm trying to put too much stuff in there. That's my first problem. Second problem is that I just stack stuff on top of each other and it never fails that I'll need to use what's on the bottom of the stack-so I have to remove everything on top to get down to what I need. That creates a big mess that I always seem to be short on time to clean!

I REALLY believe that investing in shelves is the best thing you can do for your closets. Now, before you go hand out a wad of cash, you really need to think about what you're going to store in this specific closet. Another thing to think about is whether or not the room might change functions in a year or two? For example, will a closet that's currently storing "extra" storage become a child's bedroom in a year? You don't want to spend a lot of money on a shelving system that isn't going to fit your needs when the room changes functions. So keep that in the back of your mind...
This picture is of the closet in our guest room. It's going to be that for awhile, but not forever. So I chose to go with free standing shelving units. Most everything is in a bin, and labeled for easy access.

This is the master bedroom closet. Because this room will ALWAYS be the master, it was worth the money to put in nicer units. I know I've blogged about this before, but I have to say that I LOVE having my drawers in the closet. It has freed up our bedroom so we don't need a dresser or chest of drawers (which just collect crap on the top of them anyways-am I right?!?!)  If we ever move out of this home, I'm definitely doing this again in the next house. But I'll look for a unit that has doors for the shelves, and see if I can find an enclosure for the corner cabinet where I store bedding. I'm thinking that I'm going to make a little drape or something to keep the dust out. I can't really use bins or baskets there and still use all the space.

Call me crazy, but my biggest pet peeve and first rule of thumb is "nothing goes on the floor of the closet". When I say this, I mean that I do not stack up bins, or lay shoes out in a row, place stuffed animals, etc. I think everything deserves a shelf. That way, if you need what's on the bottom, all you have to pull out is that one bin (and not everything else that's stacked on higher shelves).

This is my hall closet. I used to just have the bins on top of each other and it made it really hard to get what I wanted. So I found these shelves on sale at Target-they come in different depths, widths and heights.

Here is a picture of something I have upstairs in my hall closet. It holds my extra batteries. I got this idea from a Relief Meeting several years ago. These are the small, inexpensive bins you can get at the local hardware store. Here again, it just takes a quick glance to see what I'm missing. I keep it upstairs because that's where we use the most batteries (kids toys, Wii, etc)

 

I LOVE to organize closets and such (and get carried away at times) because there are so many cute and fun lidded bins, baskets and other organizers. I must say that I did find some that I love at Walmart, just earlier this week. I have built in shelves in my master closet where I keep our linens and swimming stuff. It was all just sitting on the shelves collecting dust as the shelves do not have doors. Walmart has these great new fabric bins with LIDS! (Love the attachable lid-keeps the dust out!) Also, they are collapsable. This is great if you find yourself outgrowing the bin, or something happens and you no longer need the bin. Just collapse and store it for future use! (look up to the Master bedroom picture and you'll see three bins on the shelves-these are the ones I'm talking about-they come in different sizes too)

Anyways, I'll get back on topic...so first, decide what you really need to store in the closet. Second, get rid of all those clothes you think you'll fit into in a year or two (even though you aren't exercising and you haven't worn them since High School). A good tip from a friend was to turn your hangers backwards on the rod. Then, if the hanger isn't turned around in three months, or six months (however long you decide), give it away.

Find something to organize your shoes with. They make so many different racks, etc, this should be really easy. If you have no room, buy the organizer for the back of the door. But do something with them. They shouldn't be scattered on the floor. We have the cubby organizer for the shoes that are in season. Then I have a basket that we keep our winter gear in-I bring it downstairs and plop it by the front door so we don't have boots scattered to kingdom come when the snow comes. This is what we don't want...

 
And this is what we do...

 
Hooks on the back of the door are also good, if you hubby (or yourself) has the habit of draping jeans or pjs on your dresser or chair because they are going to wear them again. In your entry way closet, hooks are good to store your purse, hats, scarfs, extra bags, etc.

In the bins on the top shelf in this entry way closet, we have the gloves, hats, scarfs, umbrellas, ponchos for Gordon and I. The boys have their own bins I'll show later. We try to keep just current coats in the closet and put the out of season ones in the master closet (we have a rack dedicated for this). The bottom of the closet is just for my church bag (or two) and our 72 hour backpacks. 

Make sure if you're installing shelves or rods in children's closets (that you want them to have access to), that they are low enough for the child to reach. I put up two rods in my boys' room. On the top rod (where they can't reach) I put the clothing for the season we are NOT in. All the clothing that is acceptable to wear during the current season is on the lower rod. So they know just to pick from that one. The toys that they store in their closet are in marked bins, on shelves.

Ok, here is a unit that we bought a couple years ago while remodeling the laundry room and I LOVE it!

 
Each of my boys has their own cubby! It has two hooks for their coats (and right now also their snow pants), each has a basket on top for current gear like hats and gloves or umbrellas and sunglasses. The bottom of the cubby is where they put their backpacks, and below that is a large drawer where I keep the out of season accessories. It's in our laundry room because that's where the door to the garage is. You can easily put one in your front entry, or if you're in the warm climates, put it in the garage, just by the door to the house-drop a nice rug down and you're set.

Ok, while I'm in the laundry room I thought I'd show this fabulous toy that I love too!

We originally had two cabinets above the washer/dryer and then a rod for hanging clothes. You had to be really tall and stretch real good to reach it. I decided that I wanted more cabinets but I still wanted the ability to hang up clothes straight from the dryer. So we found this contraption online. Just pop it up when I'm doing laundry, and then it collapses and lies flat when not in use. Love it! Now I no longer have clothes that are hanging around the laundry forever and I have plenty of cabinet space on the wall.

Ok, last closet I'll talk about is the bathroom/linen closet.  My linen closet is in our second bathroom. It's good sized so I can store a lot here. The top shelf (not pictured) stores medications and first aid (that will be another post). Then I store my linens for all rooms but the master. I have the shelves labeled "twin cotton", "twin flannel", "queen cotton" etc. Or you can label them by room "Kaden's room", "guest room", etc. So how many sets of sheets do you need? Well, this depends on how you do your wash. I have one extra set of flannels (winter) and one extra set of cottons (spring/summer) for our beds. This is because I wash the boys' sheets at the same time. If I didn't, I'd just need one extra set of twin sheets, instead of one for each bed. Then I have several sets of sheets that I use when guests come (use have several airmattresses). These are usually my older sheets that no longer match my current decor, but still have use to them. I keep my extra bedding (sheets, pillows and blankets) in bedding bags. Mine have the space bag technology in them so I can suck out the air and make them quite small (esp. for pillows and quilts). Then I store them under the bed, or on the top shelf in a closet. No use taking up shelf space in your linen closet if you use these infrequently. Oh, another good tip-store each set of sheets in a pillowcase from the set. This way, if you send your kids to get the sheets, they just need to grab a "bag" from the right shelf. Otherwise when you go back to your linen closet, you might find that your son has tried to refold and rearrange everything, looking for matching sets.

If you have room, I like to organize everything like it's my mini store. This is where I keep my "food storage" for personal care products (shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc) It's really easy to just open the closet and glance at the tag to see what's missing or getting low. Just remember to put the new stuff in back. Toothpastes and such do have expiration dates-even your deodorant! Use small bins or baskets for the small stuff like toothbrushes (or replacement heads), and all those "personal size" items you take on vacation.

One last thing, let's talk about "under the bed". It can easily be an extension of your closet space, instead of collecting dust and garbage. If you need extra storage for your sweaters or seasonal clothes, buy the short, large bins that easily fit under a bed. Your child's bed is the perfect place to store their seasonal clothes, or clothing that is to be passed down. I'd rather have bins under there then lost toys and gum wrappers. If the bed is really short, with minimal space under it, you can purchase bed risers for a decent price (popular on college campuses). It's four blocks that fit under the legs and raise the bed several inches. What kid wouldn't want to sleep on a raised bed that makes them feel like they are royalty? If you want to pay for them, I have seen drawers that fit under beds, if you need drawer space. Under the bed is also a good place to store your extra bedding (seasonal or what you use when company comes). Or you can store your food storage there (I think I'll do a post on this). So many possibilities so don't let this space go to waste!

Ok, I've rattled on long enough. Hopefully you've gotten a few tips to get you started. Just remember-if you find that you don't like the way it's organized, you can always redo it. (That's another plus to freestanding shelves). It usually takes me a couple years of living in a home to decide where I want everything. Just use simple logic to decide and you can't go wrong...there isn't a wrong or right....just get something done!