Helpful Tips to Organize Your Wardrobe

Organizing your wardrobe is a great way of maximizing its usefulness. Without proper planning and organization, it can be difficult to mix and match clothing items to put together great outfits. In fact, sometimes it can be difficult to even find items in your closet if you don't have them well organized. Take an afternoon to organize your wardrobe and you'll save time every morning when you get ready for the day.

Take a Clothing Inventory
Careful assessment is the first step to organizing almost anything, including your wardrobe. Take everything out of the closet so that you can see what you have. As you do this, set aside any clothing items that you know you will no longer wear. If the items are the wrong size, you should donate them to charity . Outdated clothing items which are no longer in fashion could be donated to charity , cut up and repurposed into sewing projects, or made into rags. When this process is finished, you will be left with only clothing items that you plan to wear. This is your clothing inventory.

Categorizing Your ClothingAt this point you can divide the clothing up in categories. This often works best if you use the various seasons of the year as the primary categories. If your closet is small, you might want to consider storing off-season clothing in another closet or in plastic bins. This will create more space in your closet for clothing appropriate for the current season.

Within the larger seasonal categories, you should create subcategories. Your method for creating these subcategories should fit the way you think about clothing. Some people prefer to sort their clothing by color, item type, or other defining features. This could mean hanging slacks, shirts and dresses separately on the closet rod. Many people also find that removing the closet shelf and adding a second clothes rod can be handy for shirts and tops. Using this trick, you can automatically double the clothing storage capacity of your closet. You might also prefer to organize your wardrobe in a way that puts outfits together, such as hanging a pair of slacks and a matching shirt together.

Once you have your categories and subcategories defined, it will be much easier to see if you have too many of a particular kind of item, or not enough of another. You can then purchase a few new pieces that complement your wardrobe, or weed out extras and donate them to charity . Once you have everything sorted out, you can return them to the closet in the correct order, which will make finding your clothing much easier.

Organizing Wardrobe AccessoriesAccessories often make the outfit, so you will want to be sure to organize items such as belts, scarves and shoes as well. Racks, bins and other organizers made specifically for these items can help get them under control. Organizers designed to hang on the back of the closet door can also simplify the organization of accessories and maximize your closet space.