Happy Sunday Everyone!! I am starting a new series on here which I am going to call Organize with Me where I will be sharing different organizing, decluttering, and cleaning tips! I will be showing you how I organize different aspects of my life whether that be my closet, my kitchen, my bathroom, my phone, lap-top, my planner, etc. I will be talking about a new aspect each month! For February, I will be showing you how I organize my closet!
Before I get into my closet organization, I want to tell you how this Organization Series is going to work! I am going to start off each post with my own personal organization strategy and show you pictures and tips that I use to organize a certain part of my home just to give you some ideas and inspiration. Then, the second part of the post will be a Organization Challenge that you can choose to do.
The challenges will be monthly and dependent on what aspect of the home we are organizing. For this week we are focusing on the closet, so this month’s challenge will relate to that. Each challenge will then be broken up into weekly mini challenges for you to complete! I hope that makes sense. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email or DM me on Insta!
With that, let’s kick off this Organization Series!
How I organize my clothes
Just a little note before I begin- The apartment that I live in happened to have two closets in my bedroom, so I will label each of them in the pictures below so you know which one I’m talking about. I didn’t want anyone to be confused by this!
Okay so let’s get into it!
Hanging Clothes
I organize all my hanging clothes by type (all my short sleeves are hung together, all my long sleeves are grouped together, cardigans, dresses, etc.) and then I organize them by color (light to dark from left to right)
This is just what works for me! There was no video or blog that I read that inspired me to organize my clothes this way, this is just what I feel has worked the best for me and the apartment I live in right now. Every time I move apartments I switch up the organization a bit, but for the most part this is how I have organized my closet for years!
Here is Closet 1
Closet 1: (From left to right) Pants, Work out tops, Camis, Short Sleeved Tops
On the top shelf, I just keep a few shoe boxes filled with sandals that aren’t in season, to the left of that are some t-shirts, then a few jerseys/sweatshirts, and on top of that my hats. The pink storage bin is filled with extra hangers.
Closet 2
Closet 2: (From left to right) Dresses/Jumpsuits/Rompers, Long Sleeved Tops, Half/Zips/Sweatshirts, Cardigans, Jackets
After my clothes are hung in these categories, I color coded them light to dark (in each category) from left to right in my closet.
You may notice that some of the categories have different colored hangers and I did that for a reason. Since I move apartments frequently, it’s easier to know where each item goes in my closet if the clothing type is all on the same color hanger. I still have some of my clothes back home in Milwaukee so when going between my apartment in Madison and my home in MKE I can easily find what I need.
My two biggest categories of clothing are short sleeve and long sleeve tops. So short sleeved tops are on light blue hangers and long sleeves are on pink. All the rest of my clothes are hung on white hangers.
By doing this, it makes it very easy for me to know exactly where each clothing item is located in my closet! If I am looking for a short sleeved green shirt, I know to look for the blue hangers and scan my clothes for the green shirts.
Once again this logic works for me! It is so easy for me to keep my closet clean and organized by doing this because when I wear a shirt, I’ll take it off the hanger, keep the hanger in the closet (exactly where it was), so that when I put the shirt back, it will go in the same exact place!
Folded Clothes
Sweaters
I fold any sweater that I don’t want to be stretched out in the sleeves by a hanger. So here is where I keep a few of them.
I organize mine in my tv stand and not on the shelf in my closet above my clothes because I’m too short to reach the shelf! I have a step stool that I use if I want to get anything up there, but I feel like if I stored them up there I would never wear them! So this is just easier and I think they look cute!
Originally they were organized from light colors on top to dark colors on the bottom, but now when I wear one I’ll fold it and put it on the top, just because it’s easier that way!
Remember! As nice as it is to have an aesthetically pleasing and organized closet, it is also important for it to be functional!
Bras/Sports Bras
These are stored in that top blue bin on the left. I fold my sports bras in half and line them up next to each other!
Athletic Shorts
These are in the second blue bin on the right! They are all folded, but in no particular order. Whichever ones I wear the most are usually on the top.
Pajamas
These are folded on the second shelf. I only have a few pj sets at my apartment, most of mine are at my home in MKE. The ones I do have here are folded in no particular order- just stacked on top of each other.
Extra Sweaters
I also have a few more sweaters that didn’t fit underneath my tv stand, folded and stored in this bookshelf.
Socks
On the bottom shelf, I have a black bin to store all of my socks in. I just put one sock inside of the other and fold it over so that the socks stay together and I don’t lose one!
Leggings
I fold my leggings because I wear them so much and it’s easier to fold all of them then hang them up. All of them are mainly black, with a few colored work out leggings thrown in there! And again these are not organized in a specific order, but instead by how often I wear them.
Underwear
I have all of my underwear in the top drawer of this four drawer-unit. They aren’t folded in any particular way because I don’t really see the point when I wear them so much! It’s just easier for me to put away if I don’t have to fold each one!
Shoes
Unfortunately, living in an apartment doesn’t give me the luxury of a ton of space. So, this is how I organize my in-season shoes. I use the bottom of my first closet to lay out all of the shoes that I am currently wearing. I make sure that I can see all of the shoes, because if I can’t see them, then I won’t wear them.
All of my summer shoes and shoes I don’t wear as often are stored underneath my bed in a storage container. Once the weather starts to warm up, I will swap out the shoes under my bed for some of my winter ones that are currently in my closet.
So that is how I have everything organized in my closet! I haven’t really had to do a mass closet clean out to get rid of old clothes because I regularly go through my closet and get rid of things that I don’t wear. I don’t get too attached to my clothes, so it’s easy for me to donate them if I feel like they don’t fit me anymore, they don’t fit my style, or because someone gave them to me as a gift.
If I see an item in my closet that I don’t like anymore, I get rid of it that moment! BUT, for any of you that need to do a deep cleaning of your closet and need to get rid of some clothes I have an organizing challenge for you to complete this month!
Closet Clean Out Challenge
Week 1 February 1st- Short Sleeved Shirts (including camis, tank tops, etc)
Take out all of your short sleeved shirts that are hanging in your closet and lay them all out on your bed. Try every single one on- and I mean every single short sleeved shirt that is in your closet! This is why I divided this challenge up by week! So that you have a whole week to go through the short-sleeved shirts that you have, get rid of the ones that don’t fit, you don’t like, or haven’t worn in a year, and are left with the ones that you absolutely love!
*I suggested just going through your short sleeved shirts to begin with because I can’t imagine taking every single item out of my closet at one time and trying to sort through it.
Focusing on organizing these shirts first will help you feel less stressed and not as overwhelmed as clearing out your entire closet at once. Picking one section at a time is more manageable and can be easier. You will feel a sense of accomplishment once this is done!
Week 2- Long Sleeve Shirts (sweatshirts, cardigans, anything with a long sleeve haha!)
Do the same exact thing that we did for the short sleeves! Once you have decided what items you are for sure keeping, figure out an organization technique that works for you. You can follow how I organized me long sleeve shirts, sweaters, cardigans, etc. or you can do what works best for you! There is no right way to organize! However, I would suggest keeping the same type of clothing together! Sweaters with sweaters, cardigans with cardigans, etc.
Once the clothing is organized by type then decide whether you want to hang or fold that type of clothing. Once you do that, decide if you want to color code them. Light to dark is how I do it, but if something works better for you do that!
Week 3- Bras, Underwear, Socks, Pajamas
These are the clothing items we forget about and all of a sudden have tons of old socks and underwear that we never wear. Take one day to focus on your underwear, one day for your socks, etc. If we’re starting with underwear, I suggest taking all of them out of your drawer and putting them on the floor. Go through each one and if you don’t like it anymore or it’s old throw it away. Do the same thing for all your other intimate items.
These should be fairly easy to organize and get rid and it shouldn’t take you that long to do!
Week 4 – Shoes, Purses, Accessories
I feel like shoe organization can be tough depending on how much storage you have to organize them. In my closet back home in Milwaukee, I have a tall built-in shelving unit that I can easily store all of my shoes and visibly see every one of them. Unfortunately, I do not have that luxury living in my Madison apartment. I actually don’t have any shelving unit to store my shoes, so as you saw before, I just use the bottom of my first closet to store my in-season shoes and an under bed storage container to store extra summer shoes and ones I don’t wear as often.
To begin organizing your shoes, I would first start by going through all of your summer sandals and getting rid of any that are old, don’t fit, or just not your style anymore. Then do the same thing for all you winter boots, flats, and heels, and any other shoes. Once you have the shoes that you are keeping, store all the out of season/summer pairs under your bed, in your basement, or in another storage area. You can stack them in a few bins, or use a flat underbed storage container to organize them.
For all of the in-season shoes that you are currently wearing, I recommend storing them in your closet where you can visibly see all or most of them. If you closet has built-in shelves use that to stack your shoes. If you don’t have a shelf, you can buy shoe storage units at Target for pretty cheap or you can get plastic or cloth bins to hold a few pairs! If you don’t want to go out and buy a storage shelf, you can just store your shoes on the floor if there is space!
Now that your shoes are done, move onto purses and accessories. Go through and get rid of items that you won’t use again or any that are getting old. Once you have the purses and accessories you are keeping, I would suggest using clear plastic bins to store these items if you don’t have a lot of space in your closet.
Using a clear bin will allow you to see your purses or accessories so that you know what you have!
By February 28 the goal is to have your closet completely organized!!
I hope this was helpful! If anyone has other organizing and closet clean out hacks I would love to know! I am obsessed with organizing so if you have any tips please share in the comments so we can all try them! 🙂
Happy Cleaning!!
XO
Cassie
