Bigger than the ever-present dilemma of having a closet full of clothes yet nothing to wear, is the issue of space.  Contractors who build houses obviously have no concept of the importance of wardrobe.  If they did, they’d include closets three times larger, with shelving, shoe racks and drawers built in as part of their standard blueprints.  Luckily, there are things you can do to organize your wardrobe in a way that works for you, despite the limited space provided by these oblivious homebuilders.

First, you must get rid of the things in your closet that you don’t wear. At least for women, this immediately brings up the idea of “skinny clothes” – those items we keep for years on end hoping we’ll fit into them some day.  Getting rid of them seems to us like admitting failure, or giving up our goal to someday be a size eight again.  But we must face reality here, and the reality is our closets are a mess, and getting rid of things is a must.  So consider this as a step you can live with: 

• remove all your skinny clothes from your closet and put them into a plastic bin, to be stored in the basement or attic. 

Your precious “what-I-hope-to-be-again” items will not be banished forever, merely in storage until you meet that weight loss goal.  This is real motivation for losing weight, because you’ll have that glorious day to look forward to when you can retrieve that bin, and pull out those items you’ve so desperately wanted to wear again – and you’ll experience even more delight as you realize you forgot about certain items. 

Having off-season clothes in your closet at all times literally doubles the space you need.  There’s no sense having summer clothes hanging up all winter, or winter clothes hanging around all summer.  Get plastic bins and store your off-season clothes in the basement or attic.  Your closet should only house clothes you’re currently wearing, not the whole year’s wardrobe.  You’ll love putting your off-season clothes in storage, because don’t you get sick of looking at them by the time a season is over?. And you’ll love the feeling of “all new clothes” once you get them out again the following year! 

Once you’ve removed these items, you’ll have a little more space to work with, and can move on to these suggestions and tips:

• Please don’t put sweaters on hangers.  Hangers create lumps in sweaters that make you look like you’ve got some kind of growth on each shoulder. Instead, sweaters should be folded, and stored on the top shelf of your closet.  If you don’t have a top shelf, have one installed.  This is space you can’t do without.    
• Handbags can  be lined up on the top shelf.  Hey, there’s a concept – actually having your handbags in a place where you can get to them – see them- use them!
• Plastic hangers are better than wire ones.  They’re just that little bit thicker, providing a little more space between items, eliminating things getting squished and wrinkled beyond recognition.  Go get several ten-packs of colorful plastic hangers.  They look great all lined up in the wardrobe and well, it just feels good to treat yourself to this.
• Once you get everything on plastic hangers, hang them in your closet in this way:  suits and dresses should be hung on the far left.  These are complete – they’re an outfit in themselves.  So place them on the left so you can just grab one when a suit or dress is what you’re wearing.  Next, line up all your skirts, then your trousers.  Skirts and pants should be front-and-center as you look into the closet, because they’re the beginning of an outfit; we usually pick bottoms first.  Then line up your shirts – perhaps organized by short sleeve/long sleeve.  Then end on the right with blazers, which represent a finishing touch to the outfit.  Now you have a clear view of what you’ve got to choose from, and having everything lined up from left to right makes it easier to scan through the items, picking out what goes together.
• Belts can be stored either in a dresser drawer, or on hooks inside your closet.  Make them accessible; belts are back! 
• If you currently have your shoes lined up (or thrown in a pile) on the floor of your closet, consider installing a shoe rack either on the back of your bedroom door or on a wall of your bedroom.  Shoes are like handbags – you have to be able to see them and get to them to take full advantage of what you have.  Purchase a shoe rack of the shoe-store type, meaning a rack shoes sit on, rather than hang on.  When shoes are hung on a shoe rack, it eventually ruins their shape.
• Next, make a list of things you need to purchase or replace.  Make sure you have basic staples: black dress, pants, skirt and dress, neutral, mix-and-match tops, bottoms and blazers, black/brown shoes, high heeled/flat shoes, and basics such as a white-collared blouse.

Lastly, if you have items in your closet that “go with nothing,” either get rid of them or else purchase that “something.”

This content was provided by one of our users, shermand2268