Organizing Your Master Closet (Tips To Get It Under Control)

Organizing your master closet will make your mornings so much easier. In this article you will discover lots of ideas to tame your walk-in closet into an organized oasis. Follow these tips and you will have an organized and clean closet with a little work.

It’s time to get your closet under control.

Having a beautifully organized closet is the perfect start to the day. Getting dressed every morning is simple since I can see all my clothes. I no longer have to step over fallen clothes. I am able to find that one pair of black pants that I love because it wasn’t hidden among all the clothes I don’t wear. Why? Because my closet is clean and organized.

You too, can start every morning without being rushed to find an outfit to wear. By organizing and decluttering your master closet, you can start every morning with ease. Because you can actually see what clothes you own. You will leave the house put together and confident!

Let’s get started together and make that walk-in closet work for YOU. Let’s get that closet under control!

Start Organizing Your Master Closet

Beginning the process.

Cleaning out your walk-in closet will take time. Actually, if you can dedicate a weekend to it, then you’d be able to accomplish this fairly quickly.

If not, you’ll have to clean it out in spurts of time, which will make the process more difficult. So, I would recommend you wait organizing your master closet till you can set aside a couple of days to work on this project.

Completely empty your closet.

Empty your closet of everything. Move the contents of your master closet into the bedroom or another area. Yes, all of it. Keeping you motivated to finish. The empty space will help you to decide how to organize your closet when you have finished the sorting process.

Choose an area that is large enough to sort your stuff. Make sure you have enough space to spread everything out. You need room to separate your closet’s contents.

Begin sorting.

When I emptied my closet, I was carrying out more than just clothes. I had all kinds of stuff stored in that closet. It was kind of amazing that I thought keeping old shelves, childhood memorabilia, craft supplies and such was fine to store in my clothes closet. – Carol

It’s not. All that odd stuff had no business being stored in a clothes closet. Those odds and ends take up valuable real estate in your closet. Your closet space is better suited to it’s actual purpose of storing clothing!

Now onto the next step.

First, relocate any items that are not related to your wardrobe. Find those items a home elsewhere.

If you can’t wear it, it doesn’t belong in your clothes closet.

You need three piles designated as:

• KEEP
• TOSS
• DONATE

Take each individual piece of clothing and evaluate it.

• Do you still like it?
• Is it still fashionable?
• Does it fit?
• If you saw it in a store, would you still purchase it?

If you answered yes to those questions, then it definitely goes in the keep pile.

For items that you are not keeping, you need to decide if it should be donated or simply tossed. Which depends on the condition of the piece of clothing. Toss any clothing that needs to repaired or is absolutely worn out. No one really has time to fix the item unless the article of clothing is truly an antique.

Do this with the remainder of your closet. Include shoes, belts, hats and jewelry.

Sentimental Value

The tricky part of this whole process comes down to sentimental value that we attach to the things we own. That can make it very difficult to let go of items that hold no other present value.

Perhaps, a family member gave you a top and although it is not your style, you hold onto it. Purely, sentimental.

You need to give yourself permission to give it way. It’s okay. Remember the outcome of this closet purging is to give you a functional closet. Unfortunately, closet space doesn’t have room for sentimental items . I know, tough love!

Clean Your Closet

Before loading your clothes back into the closet, clean the closet itself. This is the best way to organize clothes in a closet. Start with a clean closet.

• Wipe down the walls of any cobwebs
• Dust any shelves
• Clean the hanging rod
• Vacuum the floor

It’s best to start with a really clean slate!

How To Organize Hanging Clothes

This is the fun part. You get to begin to hang your clothes back in your closet.

At this point, classify your clothes into different categories. Think of your closet as a mini boutique. I have found that this is the best way to organize your master closet.

Hang all together:

• tops
• pants
• skirts
• dresses

Then within each group go by color order. From light to dark.

For tops, hang by sleeveless gradually to long sleeve. Do the same with dresses.

Now your closet should have a boutique feel. Plus you should be able to see each garment and be able to coordinate outfits seamlessly.

By organizing your master closet, you are already starting to see the benefits!

Organize Your Accessories

For accessories such as hats, scarves and belts, you may have to go shopping for appropriate storage solutions .

You may want to hang all your accessories. Or you might want to store these items in labeled bins or baskets on the shelf above your hanging rod. It all depends on your available closet wall space.

Hanging your accessories from hooks on a closet wall would be the ideal solution since then you’d be able to see what you own. As long as you don’t overstuff the hooks.

Purses and small luggage could be stored on a shelf above your hanging clothes. Or place purses in cubbies. You just need a way to store these bigger pieces so they don’t get crushed. Fill empty purses with tissue paper to make the purse stand up. Try to keep the shape of the purse if you possibly can.

A Dresser Is Not Necessary

Now some people don’t have dressers in their bedroom. They use bins and baskets to store folded clothes in their closet. A dresser in the bedroom is not a mandatory piece of furniture. You could use shelves or put a small dresser inside your closet for folded clothes.

What To Fold Or Hang

Sweaters should be folded and neatly stowed in a drawer or labeled bin. Or using a pant hanger, you could fold the sweater and drape it over. You don’t want to stretch out a sweater or have those horrific shoulder bumps from bad hangers. Shudder the thought.

Anything that can possibly be stretched out of shape, should be folded.

Make sure you label any bin or basket to reflect the contents. Six months from now you won’t remember what is in that container. Defeats the purpose of organizing. You need to see what you own!

I wrote an article on how I use an Ikea Alex unit to store my sweaters. I keep it in my closet. It works so well for me. I just love that Alex drawer storage piece.

My casual t-shirts get neatly folded in a drawer so they aren’t taking up space in my closet. This folding method for t-shirts makes it easy to find my favorite tops.

I also use bins to store shorts, swimsuits and workout clothes. The bins keep all these items together. This makes it easy to pull out and find what I need.

Organize Your Shoes

Depending on how many pairs of shoes you own will determine how to organize these.

I would put any special occasion shoes in a plastic see through shoe box and store on an upper shelf. They are still seen but out of the way. You could do the same with seasonal shoes such as boots.

Here are a few suggestions to organize shoes:

• Over the door shoe rack
• Shoe cubbies on the floor
• Put shoes in plastic boxes then place on shelf

How To Maximize Closet Space

• Hangers are probably the easiest way to maximize closet space. The thin velvety hangers are the best. These hangers won’t create any extra bulk. Which means you can really hang your clothes close together. The added benefit is your clothes won’t fall off of them.
  • Plus you can add mini hooks to attach to the neck of the hanger and hang additional hangers on them. They will cascade down, using the vertical space.

• Add an additional hanging rod below your present rod to double your hanging space. I don’t recommend getting one of those rods that attach to the existing hanging rod that are adjustable. They simply don’t hang low enough to accommodate adult size clothes.
• Installing additional shelving above your present shelves. This will allow you to use all of your vertical space. Since this space is fairly high, I would only store seldom used shoes or out of season clothing in bins on those shelves.

Take Care Of Your Clothes

Now that you have a beautiful master closet, you need to keep It efficient. By that I mean, don’t put any clothes back in your closet that need to be repaired. Or ironed. It defeats the purpose of all your hard work.

Make sure to examine your clothing before hanging it in your closet. Go ahead and repair that loose button. Iron that shirt. This will make getting dressed in the morning much easier.

To have a fully functional closet, you need a good laundry system. Learn how to keep up with your laundry so that you won’t have an over flowing laundry basket.

A Clean And Organized Master Closet

In conclusion, you now have a closet that is under control. A functional and well organized space. What a joy to be able to walk into every morning to get dressed and able to leave the house on time. Oh, what a feeling. Congratulations on a job well done on organizing your master closet!

Need more organizing tips? Read how to organize your bathroom for some great ideas.