Imagine, you open your closet doors and all of your items are displayed neatly on shelves and hangers. You can see everything and simply select the items you want. This article contains three easy steps to help you get the closets of your dreams!
Step 1: Purge. Pull out everything you don?t love or find useful. In your wardrobe closet, if you are having a hard time figuring out what you love, flip your hangers around so that they are hanging on the rod backwards. As you wear each piece of clothing put it back with the hanger hanging correctly on the rod. At the end of a year you will know exactly what you have not worn because the hangers of those items will still be backwards. If you have not worn it in a year, you don?t love it or find it useful.
What to do with the clothes and items you have purged:
Have a Clothing Swap — Invite your friends to clean out their closets. You could forward them this article to help them get started. Set a date and time for every one to bring over their unwanted clothing and accessories and a dish to pass and/or beverage. You could also expand this swap party to include home furnishings, candles, beauty products or kitchen gadgets. Create the feeling of a ?store? in your living room featuring everyone’s items. Mingle, eat and shop - for FREE! You will get some new fun pieces to add to your wardrobe, get rid of all of your unwanted items that are cluttering up your closest and have a fun free party with your friends. Donate all of the left over items to charity.
Consign ? How about making some extra money? Some consignment stores will accept all seasons of clothing all year around which makes it easy to consign. A select few consignment stores pay upfront for clothing, although, those types of consignment stores are generally hard to find. One nation wide store that pays up front is Plato Closets. However, they only accept casual trendy clothing. I recommend that you first take your items to a consignment store. Any items the store does not take use for your Clothing Swap Party.
Consignment stores typically sell clothing on the same season schedule as regular retail stores. At the end of each retail season they will donate the items that did not sell for you and pay you a commission on your items that did sell. But you are usually in charge of knowing when a retail season ends and collecting your payment. Most stores do not automatically mail you a check. To make it easy, just put a note in your calendar on each of your deadline dates to call them so that you can pick up your check.
Step 2: Install a Closet System ? Most closets need more than a basic rod and pole. Installing a built in closet system of adjustable rods, shelves, drawers, hooks and accessories will usually double or even triples the amount of use-able space in your closet. Plus it makes it much easier to see and find your items. There are many great options available from inexpensive do-it-yourself systems to having a Professional Organizer / Closet Designer out to your home to design a system for you and have it built and installed for you. Closet systems range in price dramatically but many basic but effective systems are surprisingly inexpensive. A new well-designed closet system will make a big impact on your life.
Installing a Closet System is easy and will:
? Make your life easier by saving you time and money
? Double or even triple your closet space
? Make your home tidier because it?s easier to put things away
? Add value to your home
Step 3: This is the most fun step! Purchase matching hangers for your wardrobe and coat closets. They will give your closet a clean uniform look and will save space.
The best hangers to get are the sleek thin velvety soft hangers, usually known as Huggables. They come in a variety of colors. Your clothing “sticks” to the velvet so even tank tops and silky shirts won’t fall off the hanger. They have a thin space saving design and the best part is they prevent “shoulder bumps”. You can even hang sweaters and lightweight knit shirts on them.
In your non-wardrobe closets clear shoebox bins work well. Sort all of your miscellaneous items into categories (when there are more than one of the same type of item), such as, shoe shine supplies, first aid supplies, nail polishes, travel sized products and so on. Separate items into individual bins and label the fronts of the bins. This makes it easy to find what you need and put things away. You can label your bins by just using blank white labels from any office supply store and a permanent marker or with a label maker. Label makers make great household tools.
You could start by organizing one closet in your home every week or even every month. Before long, all of your closets will be perfectly organized!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Heidi DeCoux is the publisher of the Life Made Simple E-zine and is a speaker, author, and Professional Organizer in Minneapolis specializing in home organization and home office filing system. Heidi energizes her readers? lives by simplifying their homes and schedules. For more info, free home organization tips, and to receive her FREE e-Solutions Kit, Finally Revealed: The Fast & Easy Way to Get Organized and Stay Organized Forever, visit www.HeidiDeCoux.com and discover how to find what you want fast, end the frustration of endless searching, and have more fun!
