Growing up I was the oldest of 4. We lived in a small house. My sister and I shared a room. My brothers shared a room. Our rooms were far from spacious but it was enough. My mom seemed to be always cleaning, decluttering, sorting. I didn’t understand it at the time. Now that I’m a mom of 4 myself, I get it.
I could talk about organizing for a while. I feel like there’s still a lot of tips out there that I just haven’t learned yet. That’s why I’m sharing mine with you. If I can help one mom keep their sanity then I feel like I did something. While there’s lots of areas of the house to organize, I’m going to stick to closet organization for this post.
When we bought out current house we went from having hardly any closets to having tons of storage space. I thought, “Oh we have tons of storage space. I’m gonna be so organized” Now I wonder how we ever did it with the limited space we had before.
Just yesterday, I cleaned out and reorganized the master bedroom closet. It was a daunting task but I really felt like I did something when I was finished. So here are my favorite closet organizing tips
My Favorite Closet Organizing Tips
- I go through mine and the kids clothes twice a year. Usually in the spring and again in the fall. We donate clothes that don’t fit and no one else in the family can use. This also gives me a good idea of what the kids might need coming up for the next season. Clothes that are stain, torn, etc are either repurposed as cleaning cloths or are thrown out.
- Clear shoe boxes. This is my favorite. I get muti-packs when I find them at TJ Maxx or Ross Dress for Less. I can get a 10 pack for 12 dollars sometimes and it’s easy on the wallet. I store my shoes in those. It’s more uniform and visually appealing. I can see into the boxes to see what shoes are in there without having to open the boxes, and it keeps the dust off the shoes I don’t wear as often. They’re not just for shoes though. They’re great for organizing small toys, crayons, hair clips, whatever you can think of really.
- If it’s not been worn in 2 years, get rid of it. I give myself 2 years. Sometimes there’s just a one size difference. Sometimes I think I’d wear the shirt or skirt in certain circumstances. But, after two years, if I haven’t worn it, it needs to go.
- Belt/accessory/handbag organizing racks. There are so many depending on space. You can get some that hang on the wall, there’s organizers that hook over the door, there are even some that can simply hang on a clothes rack, like this purse organizer. I just ordered this accordian wall rack for my purses and scarves.
- When going through your closet have 2 garbage bags with you. One for garbage and one for donations. I fille up a big garbage bag with things like really old pants that the elastic had dry rotted, broken hangers, packaging, expired products, shoes that have seen their better days, etc.
- If you have a small closet or no closet at all, one thing my mother did was to pack up the clothes at the end of the season, put them in a garbage bag or tote marked with the gender and size and put the in the attic so they could be passed down to my sister, a cousin, or donated to someone in need. This cuts down on the amount of clothes you need to find a space for in the closet or bedroom and it’s not so overwhelming to look at.
- As I said, in our old house we hardly had any closets or storage space. We ended up finding creative solutions that fit our budget. You can get tons of ideas from browsing storage and organization categories at your favorite stores. From moveable racks, to temporary and shelving solutions that can be cut to fit to fancy closet systems.
- Everyone helps with their own closet/dresser. This allows your child to have a say. They may want to get rid of something you didn’t think they would. They might have sentimental value in a specific shirt or hoodie. Their room is their space. They should have say in how things are organized, what is donated, etc. After kids learn how and what to do they have sense of pride in taking care of their space which carries on later in life. Plus, things get done faster when the workload is split.
- Organize like things together. Long sleeve shirts in one space, pants in another space, t-shirts in a different space. Even if it’s just making sections in a drawer.
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