DIY Closet Organization- Tips and Advice from E.E. Ward

Spring-cleaning is upon us and it’s time to get down to business. For most of us, the closet is the most cluttered and disorganized spot in the house. Getting your closet organized is a pretty lofty goal in itself. Keeping your closet organized over time is a whole different story. The key to keeping your closet organized is starting out with a good organizational foundation. The moving and storage experts and E.E. Ward Moving & Storage have put together some simple DIY projects for your spring closet cleaning.

Step One: De-Clutter

The first step in closet organization is to go through what’s already in there.

Empty your closet

Remove everything from the closet. Shoes, dresses, suits, pants – everything. You should see nothing but the wall and the racks when you’re finished.

Inventory your wardrobe

After the closet is completely empty, you’ll need to sort through all your clothes. Any clothing that doesn’t fit, you haven’t worn in over a year, you don’t like, or is ripped, stained, or otherwise unwearable should be put into a pile. That pile should then be broken down into 2 piles; a donation pile, for items that are still in wearable condition and a trash pile for clothing that is unable to be saved. Once you’ve cleansed your collection of the things you don’t need, it’s time to tackle what you’re keeping. Group like items together. You might want to separate everything by season, but how you group your clothing is up to you.

Clean

Get rid of any broken hangers, vacuum the floor, dust the shelves, etc. The idea is to start fresh.

Assess the empty space

The idea is for you to maximize your closet space. Look at what you currently have and reevaluate. How can you get the most out of your closet?

Step Two: Rethink, Rearrange, and Renew

Give your closet a makeover. There’s no reason everything needs to be put back the way it was before. Chances are the old organization system wasn’t really working anyway. Creating a strong organizing foundation will make it easier for you to continue to keep things in order. If everything has its own place, things will never be out of place. Here are some ways you can maximize your closet space.

Shelving

Adding shelves to your closet is a great way to take advantage of limited closet space. Items like shoes and handbags can be placed on shelves while your other clothing hangs next to it. You can find the DIY shelving tutorial from the DIY Network here.

Hangers

Hangers can be used for more than just shirts and dresses. You can hang multiple scarves on a single hanger by simply snapping some shower curtain rings onto a hangers bottom bar and sliding each scarf through each ring. The same method could be used for belts, handbags, baseball hats, ties, etc. You can also utilize hangers for your flip-flops. By cutting off the bottom bar of a wire hanger and then using pliers to bend up the ends you can easily make flip flop hangers. You can also use pant hangers to hang boots.

Shoe Rack

Adding a shoe rack to your closet can dramatically improve your shoe storage situation. It is the perfect way to eliminate the tower of shoe boxes or the disorganized pile of mismatched shoes that seems to have consumed your closet floor. There are a number of ways to easily make your own shoe rack; here are 33 clever shoe storage solutions from Architecture, Art, Design.

Step Three: Fill and Enjoy

The final step is to put all your clothes away and enjoy your new, organized closet.