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7 Tips for Completely Organizing Your Closet and Dresser

Come read my 7 tips for organizing your closet and dresser.

Hello friends!

Is your master bedroom a sore spot? An organizational issue in your home? Are your closets and drawers scarily overflowing? Is putting away laundry a nightmare because you can’t jam anything more in? Do you feel overwhelmed and out of space?

If so, then I know exactly how you feel. I was 100% there before we tackled our closet organization project. And now? I can breath! Today I’m talking all about my 7 tips for completely organizing your closet and dresser. These are tried and tested things that I have actually done and really believe work! But… before you get started with organizing, first you need to PURGE!

Check out my full post on how to completely purge your clothing here...

How to completely purge your clothing poster.

Once the purging has been done and everything you no longer want or need or use is GONE… it’s time to put everything back!

In an organized manner, of course.

And I’m here today to give you some tips and hints for how to put things back in the most organized way possible; so that you have more space then you even know what to do with.

In fact, when I was finished my purging and re-organizing, I had two completely empty drawers in my dresser AND I eliminated two of the upper shelf storage baskets. Seriously! Empty spaces are like an organizers gold!

Okay… let’s get started…

7 tips for completely organizing your closets and dressers graphic.

Our clothes closet has been half-organized for a few months now; we renovated it last November and added new Ikea PAX wardrobes that I absolutely LOVE.

At that time, I did a bit of purging as well, but not as much as I could have {due to time constraints and focus issues – it was nearing Christmas so I was pretty distracted with my Christmas projects and decor. Truly purging and getting organized takes a ton of time, energy, and focus – as I’ve discovered over the past six weeks.

In the past our closet has been an absolute organizational nightmare. Like, truly a huge drop zone and a big ol’ mess. Check it out before our initial “PAX” renovation…

A walk in closet that has lots of clothes inside of it.

Clothes on hangers with baskets above them on a wire shelf.

Empty hangers in the closet.

A bit of a mess, right?? Okay. A big closet mess.

And now for how it’s looking after my second COMPLETE purge and reorganization…

A large sunburst mirror in the closet.

Organized shelves and closet space. There are shirts and sweaters hung up in the closet.

Of course, there is that small aspect of installing a beautiful new closet unit that we tackled last fall.

Which just goes to show you that well thought out storage solutions can make all the difference in helping you to stay organized – as long as you don’t have too much stuff! So after you purge

My first tip is:

Consider Your Storage Options

I waited years to have the time and extra savings to be able to put in a great closet storage unit; so I understand that it may not happen during this organizing challenge. But as you do you best to organize your clothing working with the system that you have; you might start to consider options that could work more efficiently for you. I absolutely LOVE our PAX units and they are worth every penny I spent on them; but there are several other storage systems that work very well too.

I shared a great post on 20 incredible small walk-in closets that is packed FULL of ideas for storing and organizing things in a small walk-in; and I’m planning to share some great ideas for reach-in closets soon as well. Both of these resource pages are a great place to look if you are thinking it might be time to upgrade your closet storage options!

 20 small walk-in closet ideas & makeovers 

Once your new storage solutions are in place or if you are working with what you have; it’s time to thing about:

What to Hang & What to Fold

The age old question. But it really comes down to common sense, doesn’t it? Hang things that get wrinkly or are very bulky. Fold things that don’t get wrinkly or are lightweight and compact. And also fold and store things that get stretched out or out of shape when you hang them (sweaters and knitwear, for example).

I found this great infographic checklist that I thought might be helpful!

I folded and stored in drawers or on shelving my and my husbands:
jeans
skirts
tights
t-shirts
tank tops
lightweight shirts (non-wrinkly fabrics)
bathing suits
pyjamas
undies
shorts
sweaters/knitwear/cardigans (mine)
sweatshirts (mine)

I hung up my and my husbands:
dress shirts
polo shirts
blazers/little jackets
dresses
dress pants
sweatershirts (his)
sweaters/knitwear that don’t stretch out

Group like wardrobe items together

This is where it gets fun. And pretty! Group things together in a way that makes sense to you. I decided to organize all my hanging clothing by colour. And not only does it look calmer and more organized, it has actually made getting dressed the last few days so much easier! I would have never thought it would actually help, but it did help me to find things so much more quickly…

Sweaters and shirts hung up with drawer underneath them.

There is a spot for jewelry in the closet.

I hung my husbands shirts by type and then by colour. So I grouped his short sleeve shirts together, organized by colour, and then his long sleeved/dress shirts together, also organized by colour…

Button down shirts hang in the closet.

An area for sweatshirt and pants.

Fold things and place them so you can see them!

This is a tip that I picked up reading the Marie Kondo book. By folding things in a way that takes up the depth of the drawer, you are able to place your clothing items so that you can see everything. Items are no longer buried under other items; so you don’t have to go rifling through your drawers looking for items and you also won’t forget to wear certain items. They are right there, in front of you!

I have to tell you that when I keep my drawers folded this way, my wardrobe becomes much more varied again. When things are buried in piles; I tend to grab what’s on top and repeat the same outfits!

A drawer filled with rolled up clothing items.

Shirts rolled up in a drawer.

Utilize ALL the space – look up!

Look up. Way, way up. Why not use that space at the top for items you don’t use or need very often? Or for the out of season clothing? We already owned these baskets from our previous closet “system”, so I’ve stuck with them. But I know that Ikea also sells larger storage bins that would work better in the PAX wardrobe and give us even more usable space. The most exciting part about reorganizing our clothes closet and purging our things, is that we went from 12 of these baskets originally down to six of them, now! Getting rid of half of our seldom used items is actually very freeing! It’s so nice to see empty space…

Baskets on the shelves up top above the clothes.

Organizing Jewelry & Accessories, Ties & Belts

We were lucky to have the option of selecting some amazing built-in features with our PAX units. Like these sliding storage bars that are great for tank tops, bras, scarves, jewelry, and ties.

Organizing the silk scarves in the closet.

Jewellery hanging from pegs in the closet.

There are brightly coloured beads.

My husband has one of these pull-out hangers on his side for his ties as well.

We also built our PAX with the optional drawers/trays and inserts for jewelry and accessories and belts…

Trays filled with earrings.

Bowls that contain jewellery items.

A space for belts in the closet.

If your closet system lacks some of these tools, then you could consider adding some hooks on the wall for items like tanks, bras, or scarves.

I’ve also seen some great hanging solutions that might be an alternative for you:

Last tip?

Keep it up!

I have to be honest. I hate putting away my clean laundry. I would leave it neatly stacked on my dresser for a few days until I finally tackled the task. And I hate having clutter out in my bedroom (as I discussed in my purging post)!

But in that past, I’ve hated doing this job because my drawers and closet were SO FULL that it was painful to try to jam my clean clothes into them. Once you’ve gotten your closet and dressers purged, organized, and back-in usable shape, the key is to stay on it. That doesn’t mean you need to devote a ton of time and energy to it; but being organized requires maintenance just like everything else in life. So when you put your clean clothes away after washing, fold them the “proper” way. And put them back in the right spot. Hang them neatly according to your system.

And when you go shopping; give you closet and drawers a quick once-over to see what items it might be time to part with. Keeping your wardrobe to a reasonable level will mean that you never overcrowd your closets, dressers, and bedroom again. Because we really don’t want to end up back where we started, do we? I know I don’t!

Did you see something in our closet that you loved?

Want to remember this?

This is awesome! Pin it to remember it!

7 Tips for organizing your closet graphic.

 

To check out the rest of the projects and ideas in this 10 week organizing series, head to my original challenge post:

Get Organized once and for all!! with this ten week plan for how to organize everything in your entire house!

 

Join the challenge!

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13 Comments

  1. I can’t even describe how great this looks! My closet literally looks like a dump site. Bagged clothes, shoes all over the place, and for some reason I have close that are pre-kids hanging that is not going to fit me anymore. I love these tips.

  2. This is AWESOME! Thank you for the tips. This is actually my problem, in organizing my closet, it is such a mess. I love the idea that you use some bowls for your drawer. It is so organized!

  3. Love your closet! Only thing I would mention is if you would buy the thin fuzzy hangers . They save you amazing space. They also save shoulders on knit items. You can buy them from QVC from the creator but there’s lots of imitators that work just as well. Home Goods is one of my favorite places to get them.

  4. I would like to know to know what were the dimensions of your closet just to get a rough idea if I can do something similar with mine. I share my closet with my husband too and in the similar situation where everything is messy . I feel we are not using lot of the space on the other side. dimensions would really help.

  5. Hi Krista! I wanted to let you know that I am using one photo with a link back to your blog from this post in a post I am writing to go live on Friday. I found your post through the round up friendly blogs search engine. Great post!

  6. Merveilleuse manière de procéder pour améliorer ce casse-tête à résoudre. C’est assez stimulant pour que mon conjoint prenne part à ce changement. Merci!

  7. Fantastic! Your closet is the same basic shape as mine (U-shape) and looks like the same size. Mine is completely a disaster…I so LOVE the new organization you implemented! Thank you so much for sharing this. I now have a great idea of what to do.

  8. This is something I really have to focus on soon, so the tips came at a great time. We recently moved; I purged clothes as I packed, yet we still have way too many. I absolutely love those brightly colored little bowls you have some of your jewlery stored in- where can I find them?

  9. I can’t even describe how great this looks! My closet literally looks like a dump site. Bagged clothes, shoes all over the place, and for some reason I have close that are pre-kids hanging that are not going to fit me anymore. Love these tips.

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