Tips For Organizing Wardrobes
No one loves looking at their closet and doesn’t know what to wear! Better yet forget they have things to wear, the closet is so jammed packed that you can’t see everything in there. When you have a large or small closet a great way to organize is by season first. Long sweaters and long sleeve shirts are not necessary all year long! Shorts and t-shirts may not apply to your 70% of the year. Your nice dress clothes may only be a small amount of space but you never wear it. Let’s take a dive in to all the Tips for organizing your wardrobe.
Closet Habits
The closet tends to be he out of site out of mind space in your home. Most people close the door and forget about the existence of the dirty close on the floor. All the unfolded and random shirts falling off shelves and the socks busting out of their drawers. There is always the select few who have an immaculate closet and bedroom. They tend to have a slight case of OCD or just really like things to be in place. It can minimize time sent in the morning. This is true in so many faucets of life the 80/20 rule.
20% of your Wardrobe you wear 80% of the time!
We tend to wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. That means we wear a ton of the same things over and over! It is true, I wear a ton of the same thing or types of thing because many factors. Comfortability, weather, and time. We all want to dress cute but also be comfortable.
This rule of the 20% of 80% applies in real estate sale, Company’s and even design. A great example is 20% of the design Cost 80% of the budget. These are things like kitchen or depending on the extent of your remodel the flooring and bathroom. Now it may seem like a kitchen more than 20% of the design. Well think about all the other things that come in to it. Paint, furniture, decor, pillows, throws, shelving, and everything in between ( the amount of thing you need to fill a room can be extensive if you want it done right and look warm and lived in.
The Struggle Is Real
I struggle with the Arizona temperature changes it can significantly change from morning to afternoon. You tend to have to wear long sleeve sweater or jacket in the morning to stay warm. I also wear a shorter sleeve underneath to shed the sweater in the mid day. It is almost still too warm by mid day and I feel I should wear a dress instead. For more detail on the temperature here in Arizona we have from mid Nov- end of Feb we are in our “winter” months. It can be in the low 30’s in the early morning and when the sun comes up hit 80.
It is a lot of guessing on our weather channel here for a multitude of reason. Regardless we end up starting our day sometimes literally below freezing and hitting spring/ summer 80 degrees by afternoon. It is like whiplash, and learning how to dress accordingly is a real skill here!
HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR WARDROBE
There is no Quick fix to organization. Emptying your closet! is the first step. It is often time consuming and a lot of move, move again and move again. to come up with a system to have an organized closet. It is great to come up with a group and sub groups for organization.
This starts with what you wear all the time, what is important to keep readily available and what you use constantly.
Group | Every Day
With in this group there is subgroups such as Tops, pants, shoes and dresses.
When we Empty our closet it allows up to move shelves, bar heights and give a clear concise vision of potential placement. These groups or categories, giving a place and then sub group ( or Sub Category) Such as color and length. Now this may not work for your whole set up. My closet isn’t a walk in so it would be difficult to exercise this to its complete potential with sharing a closet with my husband but let me show you the system!
Now this is an example of how you can lay out your closet to have categories or Sub groups. This may not work for you, If you live in a different climate. Maybe you Don’t work in a corporate setting you may not need large section of pants and blouses. Maybe replacing it with T-shirts or your work attire or more jeans if you have a large collection. All these can be completely custom to your needs. If your 20% is leggings and work out clothes then we adjust to the more space & access you need.
Something I didn’t include that would be of benefit to most is Seasonal section! It could be exchanged with the dress section or the Sweater section. There may be no need for Jackets in the summer like in Arizona. This can be a revolving section you remove when the season is done store it in totes. This allow you to bring in summer attire in to replace it. You may need to add more drawers or shoe shelves & eliminate the purse section. Maybe you have a lot of hats, or accessories like jewelry you want to have a display. It is all custom to your wants and needs.
Suggestions if you have more open shelves and folding clothes. Use baskets to fold and store your things you do not want hung. T-shirts, jeans, and scarves or whatever your needs are. It keeps them hidden and easy to view when pulled off the shelf and neatly folded and stacked to see. Labeling is also helpful especially for children. Other storage options
ORGANIZING YOUR WARDROBE
This is to help organize but also simplify and down size. Seasonal selection helps cut down the things you don’t need all year, but this also allow you to get rid of the thing you never wear, still have tags on from over a year ago, and don’t fit anymore and hasn’t for a while.
I know, I know, it is no fun to get rid of clothes.. I find it grueling to let go of things with tags and things I used to wear but never do. RULE OF THUMB: if you haven’t worn it in 6-9 months & you never think to consider it (fancy clothes, and seasonal can have exceptions) Those are things you probably will never wear, and is taking up precious real estate in your closet! My closet is not big and this is a huge help in allowing space for things I will wear and love.
NOW I am not asking for you to just get ride of the things you haven’t worn, a great way to see if this is the right decision. To pull a few pieces you just can’t seem to let go and put them front and center, or put them in a tote. If in 6 months you haven’t even thought about wearing those said items. It helps to justify whether it is the right decision or not.
TIP - DONATE: getting rid of clothes is a great way to give back to your community and let someone who will wear it, have it. This also give you more space to buy things you love and will wear. My work clothes that I no longer fit in is a great way to give to a shelter who is teaching skills such as interviewing, computer and office skills. It helps them dress the part when they are going on interviews.
Group 1
Type of clothing. Shirts, pants, dresses, jackets, sweeter. You will have all these be there own group we then separate them by sub group 1: Color, then subdivide it by color hue and then light to dark and if you do not have ample space you will pair all your red and red hues and you’re going to use your sub group 3 of Sleeve length.
Sub group 1 | Color
Inside your groups/ categories you will have sub groups/sub categories. The first sub group is color! EX: Your Group – Shirts ( if you have a smaller closet you may not be able to have separate sections of long sleeve and short sleeve as well as blouses. You will need to start with a your tank tops then go too short sleeve, 3/4, long and sweaters/jackets if you don’t have ample space).
Grab all the red colored tops ( short, long, sweater, you name it grab them first) I start with red because of the rainbow. You can choose any color to start with if you have no red. Once you have separated all the red we will then start placing them on hanger (if not already done) and things you do not want hung you can fold or roll for storage on shelves or in baskets/drawers. Baskets can be a great hidden storage on shelves especially if you don’t want to show your printed Tee but don’t have ample amounts of drawers.
PROTIP: Try using the same hangers through out! It give the closet a great aesthetic. Baskets are great way to mix texture and give it a more sophisticated look.
Sub Group 2 | Color Hue
When placing your colors I start on the right with light hues to dark hues moving to the left EX: light red ( or even pink shade) to light red, red, dark red, and maroon. I then move on to the next color starting with light hues to dark hues moving left ( I have the left side of our closet. If you want to have it going for light – dark moving right you absolutely can.
EXAMPLE
https://www.pinterest.com/desareer/closet/
Sub group 3 | Sleeve length
Once you have separated by the color you may now start placing in the designated section of your closet ( mine only have 2 bars and a few drawers and shelves) I picked the bottom bar for all tops. Starting from right to left I place the tank tops, short sleeves,3/4 sleeves, long sleeves, sweaters, and jackets last. There will always be an exception to the rule! Some of my tops are one color but have a print I place them last in the section after the solid color then use the second subgroup of color hues from light to dark then sleeve length to find its placement.
IF you have ample space and can have independent section for sleeve length then follow the color group and hues to guide you.
These two Subgroups and season selection should allow you to only have in the closet what you want to wear, It will also make it easier to find outfits as well as maintain the system for the future.
Shoes, Purses & Under Garments
I know that shoes and purses tend to be the hardest to keep organized because of use. We can still apply the same system of groups and Subgroups.
It may need to altered in some way depending on the types of shoes you have. Most likely women are reading this but still want their husbands side of the closet organized. Uses, color, heal height, season or fancy.
My shoes are organized on 4 staggered shelves as well as a trunk at the end of my bed. Let it be know these 4 shelves are not big and doesn’t hold 20% of my shoes and my husband has double the amount I have. None the less we organize the best we can. All additional and season shoes get put in a trunk at the end of our bed. My Shoes are organized by color, uses! ( this is big) and heal height and season.
EX: I wear gym shoes 6 days a week when I go to the gym early morning. I don’t want to be digging and be searching for my gym shoes. So I put the two I wear upfront on the middle shelf. I then move to the left and I put my daily heals Color coordinated and heal height from lowest to highest. ( also turn one facing the front and one opposite to save space) then then move down to boots by heal height and color. I tend to have neutral shoes with a few exceptions. My Husband get the back staggered shelves and he tends to put dress shoes as well as nice tennis shoes. His gym shoes are in our office in stack-able system.
Purses / luggage or bags can take up a lot of space, using a stacking method inside of one another you can save some of it. If you don’t have a ton of purses and would like to store as a statement you can store on shelves facing forward ( like the picture above). If you need to condense for space you can take a larger hand bag and place a slightly smaller bag inside and store standing with the fronts facing sideways. You can use this for luggage as well as other bigger and smaller duffel bags and backpacks.
Under garments such as underwear and bras can be stacked and easily accessible. In drawers or baskets on a shelves. I also color coordinate my bras to make it easy to pick from.
All of this can be achieved in your closet and room! This can be a daunting task and may take time to organize and learn to keep up but it sure is rewarding to have a clean and tidy space!
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