How many times have you pushed off cleaning your closets because you were so discouraged by all the clutter? You are not alone. It's just easier to close the door and forget about it, right? Instead of making our closets more functional, we treat them like storage units. But at some point, you are going to get tired of wasting so much time sorting through the mess trying to find something you need.
BLOG POST BY:
Carla Gentle with Design Realign, Inc.
I taught a class on this very subject, and if you are budget-conscious like me, you will love all the creative and inexpensive ways I show on how to create organized closets. This blog post focuses on saving money and getting organized through inexpensive ‘tools’ to assist in creating an organized closet. This post is NOT about the process of how to be organized. They are two separate things, and I will have detailed content on the process of how to be organized in a future blog post.
The above quotes show how clutter begins in closets!
I grew up doing an annual closet cleaning, but not by choice. My mom made me. :) I had a really small closet growing up, and I have to admit it did feel good to have a clean closet. It was definitely not a walk-in closet which made it much easier for it to become cluttered.
So, why do we struggle so much with keeping closets organized? Maybe if we had some cool tricks up our sleeve to make our lives a little easier, we would be onboard. Well, let's take a look into this:
CONFESSION! I have NEVER had a closet organizer. They are nice to have, but I don't need one. Yes, it's true. This not only saves me money, but it saves me closet space. I know how to keep my closet organized without those costly closet organizers. Keep reading to learn how you can do the same.
However, if you are on a budget but really want a closet organizer, you can save quite a bit of money getting a wire closet organizer versus cabinetry closet organizers. There are creative ways to make up for the loss of cabinetry.
'HANG' IN THERE
In my opinion, the #1 most important 'tool' for an organized closet is collapsible hangers. These are AMAZING space savers! They literally triple your closet space. I know this because I use a bunch of them for my own closets. I have the ones shown below. The box says each hanger can hold five items, but mine hold six because I leave the hangers collapsed; and I use the end hook to hold the sixth item. By the way, your clothes will not wrinkle if you keep the hangers collapsed.
MY TRUE STORY: Life Happens ... An Extreme Case of a Makeshift Closet
The rack above, combined with these hangers, created a makeshift closet due to lack of closet space. Folks, this was actually my 'closet' rack while staying at my mom’s when I moved back to Illinois after my divorce. I made the most of my situation the best I could.
My mom lives in a cozy two-bedroom home. It is a nice home, but there isn't alot of closet space. I was able to use one sliding closet, while she used two, as well as the entry closet. To hold my remaining clothes, I bought this sturdy rack from Uline. You can see in the picture above what the bedroom looked like without the rack, after the rack was assembled, and then the rack full of clothes.
This rack is amazing. For those interested, it holds up to 300 lbs. You will notice it says it can hold up to 50 garments, but mine held about 130 items! It could actually hold quite a bit more, but I was afraid the rack may collapse. As long as the weight is under 300 pounds, you're good.
SORT CLOTHES BY COLOR AND CATEGORY
As a bonus, I will include how I sort my clothes to keep organized. It takes me no time to find any article of clothing because of my sorting system in place. SEE BELOW:
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT you see shorts and skirts, short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, blazers/jackets (the rest were in a closet), pants. And, all of these categories are sorted by color. Then, on the back rack I hung my dresses. DO NOT put five dresses on a collapsible hanger. They will hang too low. You can see mine were individually hung.
THE ONLY WAY TO HANG PANTS
When it comes to hanging your pants, do not use S hooks, because you take up twice as much space by folding them in half to hang them. You also don’t want to use a pants rack, because you have to quadruple the pants thickness to hang them up. Hang them like I show with my pants in the left pic.
WHAT TO DO WITH DIRTY CLOTHES
After you have worn your clothes and they are now dirty, what do you do with them? Do NOT throw your dirty clothes on your closet floor or bedroom floor. I am quite surprised at how many people do this!
It can take no time for a dirty hamper to fill, especially when there are multiple people living in the home. To help with that problem, I suggest if there is room in larger closets to have a 2-bag laundry sorter to separate the dark and light dirty clothes. This way, when it is time to do laundry, all the clothes are already sorted correctly.
THIS IS A 'SHOE-WIN'!
We ladies love our shoes; and for some women, they need a closet just for their shoes! There are several options out there for shoe storage, including floor racks, over-the-door hanging racks, and so on. These are fine options, but I really like these Shoe Slotz. They double your closet space, and you keep your shoes clean by having a protective divider between each shoe. I have several of these myself and they adjust to your shoe height.
You can find these across the internet but these particular ones can be found Here on Amazon.
If you don't have shelving space to put these shoe holders, you can use boot and shoe trays, which can hold six shoe holders (6 pairs of shoes). These trays slide easily in and out of the closet while keeping the floor clean. I have plenty of these trays from when I was a realtor and had used them for buyers to take off their shoes when they first stepped in my sellers' home.
QUESTION: How do you get those darn long boots to stand up, so they don’t flop over and take up space?
ANSWER: Roll up a magazine and slide it down your boot, or cut a pool noodle to size.
FUN HACK ALERT!
Want to know one of my favorite hacks for closets (and offices)? A fun option for closets with wall space is to install a pegboard wall to hang ALL kinds of stuff. Don't be afraid to take up alot of pegboard space. It's better to have a bunch of items on the wall than on the floor! :)
You can also get creative with how you display your merchandise on the pegboard wall like you see in stores. I remember back in the 90s, before pegboard became popular, I used to hammer nails in various positions on the wall above my closet shelf and hung my variety of purses on them. It turned out really nice and it was a fun project to work on. I had a little, collapsible step stool that I used when I needed a purse that was displayed out of reach.
You can paint your pegboard any color you'd like, and it is VERY inexpensive at major home improvement stores. You can purchase an 4'w x 8'h pegboard between $10 - $15. SEE BELOW FOR INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS.
>>> Click THIS LINK to Learn How to Install a Pegboard Wall <<<
WHAT ABOUT JEWELRY?
Ladies, you didn't think I'd forget about jewelry, did you? Check out these simple and inexpensive ways to hang your necklaces or other jewelry. The samples I show below are a hanger, the end of a rake, and the one to the far right is my hanger where I paid a whopping $1 at Dollar General! It also holds earrings (if you look closely, you can see the holes). You can even use Command Hooks, which stick anywhere and come off the wall without putting any holes in the wall or peeling your wall paint.
TO THE ATHLETES OUT THERE
If there is a handyman in the house, you could install high floating shelves all around the closet to hold extra storage and, if you install a little ledge, you can store large (but light) items like basketballs, helmets and other sports equipment.
GET CREATIVE AND HAVE FUN!
There are many inexpensive options to creating an organized closet. We didn't touch on everything, but you can see that you don't need expensive closet organizers to accomplish an organized closet. They are nice to have, but they do take up alot of space and eat away at your budget.
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