Organizing A Closet By uaezarb on Mar 31, 2010 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

Most of us are guilty of cramming our closets full of stuff just to get it out of the way for the time being. It doesn't take long before the closet becomes cluttered and cramped and you have nowhere else to put anything. If your closet is bulging at the seams, it's time to declutter and organize!

First you will want to remove all items and dust and sweep the closet. Then decide if your closet could become more organized if you added some extra shelving, shoe racks or more rods. These items will help to keep the closet organized in the future. Baskets and covered storage boxes can also keep clutter in its place. The vacuum-sealed bags are great for seasonal items that will keep things clean and also compact to minimize the amount of space those items can take up.

Clothes are usually the major source of closet clutter. You will want to go through each item and decide if it is an article of clothing you want to keep, donate or throw away. Try to narrow down the keep pile as much as possible.

A very good tip for possibly narrowing down the amount of keep articles is to put all the clothes your keeping back in the closet with the hangers turned the opposite way. When you wear a particular item, turn the hanger around to the normal position. After three to six months any hangers still turned around will indicate the items that haven't been worn and will probably not be worn, so they can be removed.

Non-clothing type items that were stored in the closet need to also be put in piles to keep, donate or thrown away. Also, determine if the items would be better stored in another area of the home with like items, such as sports items in the garage. Keeping items together will help you find them the next time they are needed.

Within a few hours, you will have a clean organized closet that should be easier to keep in order if you make sure to put things away in their proper home.