By Donna Davies
One of the most rewarding tasks you can accomplish in the home is organizing a closet, because it can take just a few hours before you see striking changes. If you compare the time spent to the many hours it takes to organize photos, recipes or an entire office, you can easily see how true that statement is.
Organizing just one closet may jump-start a whole house organizational effort because it is so gratifying to see such immediate change into an orderly and attractive finished area. Plan at least a day ahead so you have all the necessary items on hand and all your decisions made.
First, take everything out of the closet, laying items on beds, floors and temporary tables nearby to save steps walking to other rooms down the hallway. Then, clean off the shelves and floor area.
Do the walls need to be painted? To be most resourceful, use a light-colored paint you already own. Otherwise, purchase a light pastel in a soft warm color you will enjoy seeing each day. Start early in the morning to give the paint time to dry before returning the items.
Once the closet is cleaned and painted, return the shelves and rods to their places. Make sure there is plenty of light in the closet. You might consider having a light installed if the space is dark or install a battery-operated light.
You can leave the shelves bare or cover them with attractive shelving paper you find at a hardware store. The most cost-effective reorganization is to find items you already have in your home, such as a chest of drawers or storage containers with covers, which you can reassign to a new use in your closet.
If you have room for additional shelves, add them. Add a few sturdy hooks on the sides or back to store belts and ties.
The next step is to sort all the items you have taken out of the closet into groups to keep, to give away to a friend, to donate to a charity, to discard, to sell, to store elsewhere or to recycle. To save steps, have a large trash container nearby along with a box for each of the other categories. If you are a decisive person, this process can go very quickly. If not, it may help to have someone work with you who will assist in sorting and doing the leg work of selling items or taking them to a charity.
While you sort, you’ll notice natural groupings for related items, so once the sorting is complete make sure all like items are grouped. For instance, all the clothes left on the bed are ones you want to keep so you can begin by hanging all the casual shirts together, then all the casual slacks and so forth.
Separate hanging clothes into dressy and casual, hanging the ones you wear most often in an area of easier access. Consider the space in the closet as real estate and place the items you use most often in the most valuable locations. Hang clothes in one direction so all the fronts are facing one way - this makes the arrangement more orderly and visually pleasing. Be sure to leave space between clothes so they can remain wrinkle-free and have room to breathe. Replace wire hangers with plastic ones for a more attractive look. Plastic hangers will also force you to leave more room between clothes.
By using containers with covers and drawers above your hanging clothes, you can separate smaller items such as swimsuits, ties, hats, sweaters and stack them to the ceiling - thereby using every inch of your space. Put a step stool in the closet so you can reach the highest containers. Label them, too, ensuring things will be returned to their proper home.
Clothes you use infrequently can be stored inside hanging cloth bags to keep them dust free. Shoes can line up on the floor or be stacked on shoe shelves purchased at home stores. If additional shoe space is needed, a hanging shoe bag can be placed over the back of a nearby door. These are either canvas or plastic and have room for more than eight pair of shoes.
Donna Davies runs “Let’s Get Organized,” a business aimed at finding storage solutions and rehabilitating closets. For more information, e-mail Ddavies78@sbcglobal.net or call 969-3697.
