For someone that likes to shop and has limited closet space, I have had to get creative over the years with closet organization. Unless you are willing to constantly donate or throw out old clothes, making room for new ones is always an issue. Over the years I have adapted new methods of organization when it comes to my closet and today I’ll be sharing the most effective ones.

1. Winter Vs. Summer

• My closet is a standard sliding door closet and I’ve divided it into my winter section and my summer section. In reality, it’s just long sleeves vs. short sleeved items but in my mind I always refer to them as my winter side or my summer side. My winter side has all my long sleeve shirts hanging up and all my button ups as well as all the sweaters that are folded (not hanging) above on the shelf. This makes my life easier as it automatically sorts my closet into half and eliminates half of the clothes that are not weather appropriate. My dress pants and my winter/sweater dresses are also all hanging on this side of the closet.

2. Color coding

• As much as this can be a pain and yes, takes absolutely forever the first time you decide to color code your closet, you will be so thankful later. Color coding makes it so much easier to find things in your closet when you’re in a rush. If you’re not one of those people that sets their clothes out the night before for the following day and is constantly rushing and trying to find the right shirt to wear, color coding will be a major time saver for you. If your closet is already separated into the winter and summer section and color coded, finding an item you need will take absolutely no time.

3. Fold sweaters

• Sweaters tend to get ruined by hangers pretty quickly (in the shoulder area) and to eliminate this issue I always recommend folding sweaters and putting them all on a shelf if possible. This is especially important when it comes to woven and crocheted items as those tend to stretch from hangers very easily. Color coding is not recommended here however. If you fold all your sweaters and lay them out by color, finding the exact sweater you want may become more difficult. When they’re all laying out in front of you by different colors, it’s a lot easier to spot the one you want. Those with patterns are especially easy to pick out if you decide to lay them out this way. Also, do not stack them up all the way to the ceiling as that will just lead to sweaters falling over and creating an absolute mess. I have 5 sweaters per row folded up as compactly as possible and that seems to work very well.

4. Jeans

• My jeans are folded and stacked on a shelf above my summer section of the closet and are sorted by wash. Dark wash jeans are together, light wash and colored jeans are all separate piles (yes I said don’t stack like with like for sweaters but I tend to think people wouldn’t own as many pairs of jeans as they would sweaters. At least in my case that’s true). I also have other pants in stacks next to the jeans such as linen pants, and a miscellaneous category (harem pants, capris, etc).

5. Formal dresses

• These should all be hanging together either in the back of the closet or a separate one if at all possible. Mine are actually hanging in the guest room closet but I know not everyone has an extra closet to use so hanging the dresses in the back is completely appropriate. These items don’t get used very often so not seeing them all the time is okay, hence why they can hang out in the back.

6. Shoe racks

• I used to leave all my shoes in the shoe boxes they came in and have them all stacked up on the floor of the closet. This took up way too much room and I could never find the right shoes as I didn’t feel like searching through all the boxes for the right pair. A lot of shoes got completely neglected this way because I would either forget that I have them or just wouldn’t feel like sorting through all the boxes to find them. When I finally bought a shoe rack, I threw out every single box and now all my shoes are visible and getting used a lot more frequently. I actually have two shoe racks – one for heels and one for casual shoes. I definitely recommend getting two if they can fit in your closet.

7. Layer up

• I have two items hanging on each hanger to save space. I never hang two shirts with buttons or zips together because they are saved to go on top of shirts that take up the entire hanger. For example, a regular crew neck long sleeved shirt is typically hanging underneath either a button up or a zip up. I like to hang like with like in this case (a work blouse with a button up work shirt) so that it makes certain items a little easier to find.

8. Dressers

• If available, take full advantage of dressers. Mine has 6 compartments and I’ve sorted it into 1) underwear drawer 2) socks/tights/leggings 3) workout clothes (all t-shirts, yoga pants, etc.), 4) short sleeved shirts (all shirts that are nice enough to wear day to day but don’t necessarily need to be hung up such as casual solid colored tees, etc.) 5) long sleeved shirts that fit the same description as the short sleeved shirts mentioned before and 6) shorts.

9. Flipped hangers

• A lot of people are probably familiar with this tip but if you are looking for a way to help yourself realize how much of your clothes you actually wear, at the beginning of the year (or just set a set date) flip all your hangers to face one way and as the year goes on and you wear those items, flip the hanger to face the opposite way. At the end of the year all the hangers that aren’t flipped – those clothes get donated or given out. If you haven’t worn an item in a year (this excludes really pricey items and special occasion dresses, suits, etc) then it probably means you won’t wear it in the following year either and that it’s time to let go. For those who have read the Kondo method of organizing, if the item doesn’t make you happy then it’s time to get rid of it. This can get a little more difficult if you have more than one item hanging per hanger but if that’s the case just try your best to remember if you’ve worn the item so when you wear the second one, you know it’s time to flip the hanger. There are also apps such as Stylebook that let you keep track of your closet and what you’ve worn and haven’t worn

10.Seasonal Closet Clean Outs

• I completely go through my closet once every season and either donate or give away the items that I know I won’t be wearing or I know I haven’t worn in a while. This also makes me realize what I still want or need to get for the upcoming season. I typically tend to take the nicer items to consignment shops and get some money back for them and the rest gets donated.

As always, I hope this was helpful. Let me know your tips for closet organization and recommendations! I’m always looking for ways to improve!