17 Easy Tips : How to Organize a Small Closet if You Have Lots of Clothes

Many of us have lots of clothes but only small spaces in which to store them. So the question arises, how to organize a small closet, and create an impression of spaciousness, especially if you have lots of clothes and shoes!

If you want to maximise wardrobe space in a small closet, no matter how tiny your closet space, read on!

Best Ways to Organize your Clothes in a Small Closet and Maximise Wardrobe Space

As the seasons change your wardrobe needs to adapt, and you really need to organise your clothes effectively. Some wardrobe planning is the name of the game.

Otherwise you’ll either be telling yourself you have absolutely nothing to wear (rubbish!) or you won’t be able to find the clothes you do want to wear because they are hidden at the back of your closet or under a pile of clothes on a chair somewhere!

You get the picture? I know I do!

The floaty skirts and summer dresses are of no use to you as fall approaches, and the thick sweaters are just cluttering up your wardrobe space once the spring sunshine makes an appearance. 

It can be tiresome rifling through piles of clothing to find the items you need if they’re all stacked in a small space. 

Finding storage solutions that work for you and your lifestyle can help you to get your bedroom closet in order, and shorten the time it takes you to get dressed each day.

In this blog post we’ll be looking at really easy tips to help you quickly maximise the space you have in your closet.

We’ll look at storage solutions for out of season clothes, how to conduct a wardrobe audit, and some fabulously handy products you can buy to create more space.

After reading this post your tiny closet should feel as if it has as much space as a large closet!

Certainly as much as you need to give you easy access to all your seasonal items without cramming lots of clothes you hardly ever wear into a small space.

You’ll be able to find what you want, when you want it, and look fabulous all year round!

How to Organise a Small Closet with Lots of Clothes

When it comes to organizing your closet, you are looking to reduce the number of items that are directly on hand. 

You want the things you are going to be using regularly over the next couple of months to be stored in easy to see and easy to access ways. 

Everything else needs to be sorted and tidied in sensible storage, kept safely out of the way for now. 

A tsunami of sweaters, scarves, and sandals as you open the doors of your closet doesn’t make for a great start to the day. 

When it comes to our peace of mind, there is something to be said for an organized closet, and knowing you have effective storage solutions sorted can make for a sense of personal satisfaction.

A tidy closet can mean a tidy mind and assist with better time management.

So we’re going to look at sorting, tidying and storing and I’ll share some of my favorite tips for an organized closet.

Simple Products to Buy to Help Organize Your Clothes

First of all the perfect solution for having an organized closet might be to pop to a hardware store and buy some inexpensive additions!

BUY The Best Storage Solutions

A good option for making effective use of the space you have is to get really crafty and buy some new best friends in the form of handy storage solutions!

Here are some good ideas at great prices you can buy on Amazon:-

Hanging shoe organizer

Shoe Rack for Closet – Check out a selection of handy stackable shoe rack organisers.

Over the Door Hanging Hooks – An inexpensive way to get more hanging space.

Closet Rods – Increase your hanging space.

Tension Rods – Add an extra hanging rail with no drilling required.

Drawer Dividers for clothes – A great way to organize your drawers.

Clear plastic containers – Help you store your out of season clothes and see what you’ve got!

Shoe storage containers – Check out this selection of handy containers in which to store your shoes.

Coat Rack/Hat Stand – For more vertical space add a coat rack cum hat stand in the corner of your room – this will give you more space to hang hats and jackets. 

Clothes rack on wheels – if all your cupboards are full, buy a free hanging rail to put in the spare room to free up space in your bedroom closet.

How to Organize Your Clothing Effectively

Tip 1: Think about Relevance

The first step is to think about what you are wearing now. For instance, which garments do you like to wear in summer?

Can you put away those bulky thick coats and snuggly sweaters for the next few months? (You might like this post Tips for an organized winter wardrobe and this one How to Update Your Wardrobe (for a new stage of life)

A good analogy for the system you’re aiming for comes from the world of the grocery store. 

Stores practice regular stock rotation of their products – so that new items are not just added without some sort of sorting and managing of older items. 

It’s all about relevance and desirability.

Tip 2: This is How to Stock Rotate Your Closet

In a supermarket, items are laid out on shelves with shelf dividers to help shoppers navigate their way through the store simply and without fuss. Aisles are left with sufficient space for shoppers to comfortably browse. 

And the biggest trick?

Items that are the big sellers are placed at the eye line of consumers, so they are easy to see, simple to grab and make for a fuss-free purchase.

Just like a supermarket, your clothes need to rotate around shelves and hanging space.

The overall thing to remember if you’re wondering how to organize a small closet is that you should stack the clothes in your wardrobe with your most popular garments readily accessible!

Tip 3: How to Make Sure all Your Clothes are Visible.

If you rotate your clothes seasonally, you will be in a much better position to make sure that all the clothes you need for that season are visible.

You want to be able to clearly see what you have on hangers without having to shove them all up to one end in a crush to get to a garment you want to pull out of the wardrobe to wear.

You want to have garments stacked on shelves, neatly folded so that you can see each item, rather than having to throw a heap of clothes onto the floor to see what’s what!

Closet Organization Ideas

If you want to be smart, then your ideal closet storage system shares much in common with the world of grocery stores. 

Shelves are helpful within a closet as they allow for the sorting and classifying of items. 

Yes, you want space for hanging clothes too. 

But if you don’t yet have any shelving, it’s worth considering adding some. Extra shelving will make sure you get rid of any unusued space, or really dark dead space in your wardrobe such as under hanging shirts, or short dresses.

Shelving will also get any casually dumped clothes off of the closet floor, and give you extra storage space for bulky items like sweaters.

Just as with grocery stores, you too are looking to rotate items according to the seasons. 

The last thing you want to be doing is stuffing a beautiful new item, your favourite pieces, and your latest expensive purchases into drawers, or stuffing them into an already crowded hanging space without clearing the way for easy access. 

Tip 4: Get Adequate Shelving

If you don’t already have shelves in your closet, then get some built in.

Your Organized Closet

Tip 5: Decide On The Clothes You’ll Have Close to Hand

In order to organize your wardrobe effectively, iIems that are staples for this season should be placed close to hand, with things that are out of season stored on a harder to reach top shelf (or stored away completely).

You are looking to create enough space in your hanging area for you to navigate your closet easily – with the ability to move hanging items to one side so you can clearly see individual items and find what you are after. 

Tip 6: Conduct a Wardrobe Audit

For a no-nonsense closet storage solution, you’re going to need to begin with an audit of your current wardrobe. 

I’m sorry to have to tell you this! I know, nobody really wants to do the hard yards!

You might have wondered how to organize a small closet and thought I’d give you some magic tips that will just sort things out immediately!

Sadly not so!

If you don’t know what you’ve got lurking at the back of the cupboard, on the floor of your closet, or hiding up high on those seldom used shelves, then you are not going to wear the item – and may fall foul to that expensive habit of buying a similar item to one you already own (but have forgotten about). 

Speaking from experience, I seem to have a soft spot for blue lightweight showerproof jackets – in that, without realizing it, I now have 3 of them in my closet! Don’t make this mistake by knowing what you have before you buy more. The planet, as well as your bank balance, will thank you for that.

How to Take an Audit of Your Closet 

The best way to get started is to declutter your wardrobe and do an audit of everything you have in your wardrobe as this will give you a blank state to get started.

It will give you some outfit inspo and ways to organise your closet that perhaps you hadn’t thought about.

If you are wondering, how many clothes do I need, it might be fewer than you imagine! So do read this highlighted post first to see what other women (Lifestyle Fifty readers) have in their wardrobes.

Now for the interesting bit – and you’ll be surprised just how good you’ll feel for having done it, so read on!

Best Tips To Help You Declutter Your Closet Quickly!

• Take every item you own out of the closet and drawers. 
• Check for any damage, and decide if any repairs are needed. 
• Now is a good time to also spot which items might need taking to the dry cleaners. Place these to one side to be cleaned and dealt with later. 
• Also, pull-out items that you know can be donated to a thrift or charity store. Apply the one-year rule – If you haven’t worn the garment in over a year, it’s unlikely you will any time soon. In which case, do consider donating or passing the item on to a good home. Place these items in separate piles to be dealt with as needed.
• Take out items that don’t fit. Sell them or give them away. 
• For everything else that you are keeping, sort into categories – winter sweaters, T-Shirts, lightweight trousers, work suits, casual jeans, underwear, nightwear etc. the list can go on. 
• Look at what you own and decide how to style clothes you already own. There might be items you need to purchase to make your now, new-looking, seasonal capsule wardrobe work perfectly.
• Get rid of sentimental items that you only ever look at but never wear. Great Grandmother’s fur stole is probably one of them!
• Are there clothes that are threadbare or tatty? When I recently did an audit, I noted that most of my jeans were now looking really tired. It was the perfect time to look to purchase a couple more pairs to replace my worn jeans.

Tip 7: How to Sort Out Your Knitwear

Fold sweaters, tracksuit tops, fleecey tops and anything that doesn’t crease, and place them on shelves rather than hanging them up. They take up a lot of space on hangers, and will retain their shape better if folded.

How to Sort and Separate your Clothes

Now you have a sense of what you own, you are looking to separate your clothes into summer, winter and all-year-round categories. 

Tip 8: Easy Ways to Sort Clothes by Season.

Some items are staples regardless of the season – smaller items such as belts, accessory scarves, or socks, for example. 

Lay things out so you can really see the different piles and easily sort your way through.

Next, depending on the current season, you will begin to restock the cleared out available space in your closet with the items that are just right for this season. 

Hang items in such a way that they are also sorted by garment type. For example, place your work jackets all together, separate from your casual shirts and dresses.

Tip 9: How to Pile, Fold and Stack the Marie Kondo way

When it comes to placing items into drawers, consider using the Marie Kondo method. 

Rather than piling up items in a top to bottom pile, fold and then stack from front to back. 

The beauty of this method for storing your clothing is that it allows you to easily spot the item you are after and select it without toppling the whole pile. 

Tip 10 – Have you Considered Drawer Dividers?

A pro tip is to get some drawer dividers which will efficiently organise your drawer space. You can easily separate pants, socks and bras this way.

Tip 11 – Best Way to Keep Your Shoes Organized, Sorted, and Visible

Consider shoes too. If you’re anything like me you have far too many! In a recent Lifestyle Fifty we asked How Many Shoes should I Own? You might find the results are surprising!

Anyway, you are only looking to place back into the closet the shoes that are right for this season.  You don’t want to throw all your shoes, boots and sandals back into a heap!

A great place to store shoes is on a wire shoe rack. Buy a two, or three, tier shoe rack to help you organise your shoes.

If you are moving into fall and winter, then there is no need to have sandals and thongs close by. 

The shoes you want to have on display, and easy to access, are the ones you are going to be wearing over the next few months. 

How to Organise your Clothes by Color 

Once you have completed your clothes audit and have only seasonal clothes hanging or stored in your closet it’s time to look at colors.

Tip 12 – This is How to Colour Code your Hanging Clothes

Hang all your white items together, black garments together, and so on.

When it comes to prints then group them altogether, unless the print is very specifically mostly one colour.

You can go even further and group your garments; for instance group work jackets, jeans, smart pants, shirts and then sort the groups into color order – the blue shirts separate from the white ones etc.

This way you’ll be able to either match tops and bottoms together, or you’ll be able to more easily find the perfect combination of clothes to make an outfit work.

Tip 13 – A Handy Hack About Complete Outfits

One thing to consider though – if an outfit is a ‘set’ and looks great together, then you may not want to break it up. Rather keep your complete outfits together in their own separate section.

For instance I have a pair of bell-bottom pants which go perfectly with a rust coloured shirt I bought specifically to go with them. It’s very hard to match up the colours, so I keep this outfit on it’s own because the top and bottom work so well together.

Clear Out of Season Items Out of the Way. 

Now you can turn your attention to the remaining piles of out of season clothes and get them stored efficiently ready for the next season.

Tip 14 – Remove all Out of Season Garments

An easy way to free up valuable space and clear up a chaotic mess is to get out of season garments out of your wardrobe.

These need to be boxed or basketed up and labelled to be stored away ready for stock rotation when the seasons change. 

Tip 15 – A Note about Containers

Storage containers need to be sturdy, with lids so that dust and debris is kept away from clothing. 

You are looking for boxes and baskets with the ability to clearly label them to allow you to see what category of item is within. 

Ideally, you want boxes or containers that are stackable, so you can easily and safely store the items out of the way.

Shoe boxes or, better still, clear plastic tubs with lids are great for placing all your our out of season pairs of shoes in – you can see each pair at a glance, and the boxes can be neatly stacked in a tower formation in a spare room closet, or maybe the garage!

Tip 16 – Why Shelving is Important

We’ve mentioned shelving previously, but it’s an important way to be organised.

Shelving is helpful for placing smaller baskets and containers on – you may find you have a selection of smaller storage boxes with belts, or scarves, for example. 

These can be high up shelves – after all, you are only going to be accessing these baskets every other season. 

So, with a bit of thought and an afternoon set aside for a good old sort, tidy and clear out, you and your wardrobe are ready and waiting for the next season!

Tip 17 – Enjoy Your New Organized Closet!

Storing loads of clothes in a small closet is not going to help you find things to wear and look great on a daily basis. But getting organised and only keeping out what you need for the current season is!

Having what you need to hand for each season will give you a much better chance of finding what you what, when you want it, and you’ll never be caught out saying, “But I have absolutely nothing to wear!” ever again!

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