Having an organized closet system in place is key to making your wardrobe work for you. An organized closet will help you find what you’re looking for, make it easier for you to get ready day-to-day, and also helps free up some mental space if you’re borderline type A like I am. Let’s dive into how to organize your closet!

How to Organize Your Closet

STEP 1: Declutter your Closet

The first step to organizing is getting rid of the clutter. I have a full post here all about how to declutter your closet, so if you haven’t already taken those steps head there first before moving onto step two. I promise it’s that important!

Step 2: Organize by clothing type

It will be easier to find what you’re looking for if you group your clothing by type and hang all your tops, dresses, jeans, and coats together instead of mixing them in with each other.

This will also depend on your closet set up and how much space you have for longer dresses or cardigans to hang down, so utilize your closet space accordingly. Hang the items you reach for most in the space that’s the easiest for you to access them, and use deeper corner spaces for items you don’t reach for as often or if they’re out of season.

Step 3: Organize your clothing by color

I personally prefer the look and functionality of organizing your clothing by color. You may think it’s not something you can easily maintain, but I promise I’ve had a color-coordinated closet since college with multiple moves! I think it’s actually easier to maintain, once you do it once.

I typically organize my closet by color in this order: neutrals colors such as whites, creams, tans, browns, grays, blacks, then colors such as blush and pinks, blues, and greens. This depends on your personal style and the color palette you’re typically drawn to, of course! The color gradient doesn’t have to be perfect, as long as the main color is grouped together, you’re good!

Step 4: Organize within the colors by type

Within each color section and type of clothing, I recommend grouping together pieces that are similar in style. For example, group together tanks, short sleeve tops, and long sleeve blouses. I find it much easier to find pieces when there aren’t sleeveless tops getting lost behind longer sleeved tops. If I don’t see it, I won’t use it!

Depending on the size of your closet, you may need to switch it out seasonally to fit your winter coats. Organizing your closet should be an evolving process to fit your current lifestyle and the season you are in.

Closet Essentials

Here are some of my favorite closet essentials to help you with organizing your closet. These items will help keep your space organized, and also help maintain the pieces in your wardrobe.

hangers

If you’re on the fence about upgrading your plastic or wired hangers to velvet hangers, I can’t recommend it enough! Years ago I slowly made the switch, buying a few sets each time I came across them at home goods. Since then, I’ve switched to a lighter hanger and bought this bulk pack on Amazon. I also love these hanger clips to easily hang skirts in my closet, but they’re not strong enough to hold jeans and pants in my opinion.

Velvet hangers help to maximize your closet space and also prevent clothing from slipping off or misshaping like they would with regular plastic hangers. You can also double up your hanging space by using these hanger hooks, or recycle soda can caps if you’re in a pinch! I can be pretty type A, and find it very satisfying to have all the same hangers in a space. It keeps it looking more professional and clutter-free.

If you’re tight on hanging space, you can fold your jeans and slacks with this pant hanger to maximize your space. Another option is to fold them in a drawer, but I don’t recommend stacking them on vertically on top of one another. Instead, fold and stack them horizontally so you can see each pair in your drawer (see a tutorial here).

shoe organization

Depending on how many shoes you have and the size of your closet, you can put a variety of shoe shelves inside your closet to help keep them neat and organized. I personally stack these white shoe shelves at the bottom of my closet and it helps maximize my floor space in our small closet. It also helps prevent your shoes from misshaping since they don’t end up thrown on the group stacked on one another.

bag organization

Due to the variety of shapes and sizes of my handbags, I’ve had to get creative with my bag organization in the closet. Handbags I don’t reach for as often get stored in my closet, where as my favorite designer handbags go on a shelf in my office for display. If you have enough hanging space, I love these bag hangers to help keep your straps in shape and prevent sagging!

I recommend keeping your handbags stuffed to keep them from getting misshapen. A little pro tip is to keep extra shipping box packaging to re-use inside your bags! You can also purchase bag stuffers if they’re in your budget.

I recommend organizing your clutches together by placing them side by side versus stacking them on top of each other. It’s much easier to find them this way! You can browse Home Goods to find a wider envelop organizer, or I’ve linked some options below:

shelf organization

I like to have at least one shelf organization system in my closet to organize sweaters that need to be folded. Even though velvet hangers are curved and help reduce denting your sweaters around the shoulder, hanging them up is still not ideal for long term storage. Over time the weight of the fabric will cause your sweaters to stretch and lengthen, so I recommend folding them when you can! You can stack up multiple sweaters on a shelf and again, keep them organized by color. I have both a hanging shelf and a cubed shelf in my closet to store my sweaters.

jewelry organization

Over the years I’ve learned that if I don’t see it, I won’t use it! This white jewelry organizer has been the perfect solution to my jewelry organization. Now I can see and easily reach for all my favorite pieces. You can see how I organize my jewelry collection in this post.

steamer

If you just do some light steaming week to week, I recommend this handheld steamer. It doesn’t leak and is very powerful for it’s size. If you do a lot of steaming week to week, I recommend this larger steamer with a bigger tank so you don’t have to constantly refill the water tank when steaming.

Between a steamer and an iron, I much prefer a steamer. If you’re torn between the two, consider the type of fabrics in your wardrobe. An iron is best suited for pressing dress shirts and trousers – basically anything that needs a sharp, professional crease. A steamer is a quick and easy way to remove wrinkles from clothing and doesn’t require getting out an ironing board. It uses hot steam to relax wrinkles in clothing.

fabric shaver

I swear by this affordable fabric shaver! It safely removes signs of wear and tear, such as pilling, from areas of friction on your clothing. What looks like a worn down sweater or coat can look good as new after running a fabric shaver over it. I also use it often on furniture, too!

I shared a before and after using this fabric shaver in this fashion hacks post!

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I hope this post has you ready to tackle your closet and create a system that works for you. If you’re looking for more ways to build a wardrobe you love, browse more from the series on the blog here.

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