Home Life Magazine

MAY 2004

by Leslie McGilberry

CALMING CLOSET CHAOS

Imagine what you could accomplish with an extra half hour each day – that’s probably the time you could save by organizing your closets.

Baby-sitting for a friend one evening, I tucked her young daughter into bed and had just sunk down into the couch when I was interrupted with the proverbial “monsters in the closet” excuse.

"Have you seen that closet?"  I asked her.  "I know there can’t be a monster in there -- one could never fit!"

Does that describe your closet, too?  Many of us have closets that are serious time-wasters, if not downright health hazards.  How much time do you spend each morning hunting for your child’s left shoe or your favorite white camisole?  Imagine what you could accomplish with an extra half hour each day -- that’s probably the time you could save by organizing your closets.

EVERYTHING IN IT’S PLACE

"We have a finite amount of storage space in our closets," says Meg Connell, a professional organizer for 15 years (www.theorganizedone.com), so we have to attack the problem from two angles.  Trim down the amount of our possessions, and make the most use of the space we have.  Here are four steps to calming your closet chaos.  You might start with your bedroom closet, but the strategies apply to any closet in your home.

1.  Clean and Purge.  Open the closet and take out everything.  Make three piles: keep, throw away and donate/garage sale.  If it takes longer than 15 seconds for you to decide if you should keep an item, you shouldn’t; you don’t value it enough.  Don’t think about what you paid for something (in the business world that’s described as a sunk cost)  -- keeping things we never use only reminds us of poor purchasing decisions or smaller clothing sizes.

Label and store out-of-season items (clothing, sports equipment, toys, and so on) in clear plastic storage containers or infrequently used suitcases under beds, in basements or garages.

2.  Separate your stuff.  Put all your "throw away" items into garbage bags, and place them in the proper receptacle.  Put your "donate/garage sale" items into garbage bags, and place them in your car or garage (before you change your mind).  Then separate your "keep" pile into categories.  Use whatever system works for you -- by color, season, work/casual wear, frequency of use, and so on.

3.  Assign everything a place.  With everything out of the closet, you can see what space you have to work with (and do a little scrubbing while you're at it).  The key to organization is to assign everything a place.  Group like items together, and place more frequently used items toward the front of the closet; store less frequently used items in the back of the closet or on higher shelves.  You should also store items closest to where you'll use them: Keep coats near the front door, robes close to the bathtub, and so on.  Think about what works best for your family and your home.

4.  Make the most of your space.  Once you've named a place for everything, make the best use of your space.  Again, do what works for your specific situation.  These ideas may help you get started: 

• Create more hanging space by adding a second rod, Connell suggests.  This works best for men or for women who don't own many long dresses.  Alternatively, you could lower your one rod and add shelves above it.

• Use all plastic or wooden hangers, facing the same way and discard excess hangers.
• Purchase shelf dividers for stacking items such as sweaters, but keep the stacks small.
• Use clear containers or labeled boxes on the shelves and on the floor.
• Keep one container labeled "discard," and place clothing items in it as soon as they no longer fit, feel out-of-style, or are damaged beyond repair.  Once it's full, donate or discard.
• Install hooks (or a laundry arm, if the closet is deep enough) on the inside of your closet door for hanging bulky items such as robes that can take up as much space as four shirts, Connell suggests.
• Install cup hooks or nails for hanging accessories, Connell suggests.

MAINTAINING ORDER

Organizing your closets may seem like a daunting task -- Connell estimates that organizing a fully packed bedroom closet could take 4-8 hours -- but the rewards are worth the effort.  Just make sure you give yourself enough time to complete what you start; leaving it half done could be worse than never starting.  And since it's probably not on your top-10 list of ways to spend your day, you may need to schedule the time on your calendar and honor it as you would any other appointment.