A closet can either be a recessed, built in area in a room, or it can be a free standing cabinet that your things can be stored in. Everybody uses their closets in a different way. Some closets are small, some are large, and, although most closets are intended for the storage of clothes, some closets are used for everything else but. When we get in the habit if throwing everything in a closet to get it out of sight, closets become unruly messes that need to be dealt with.



Ways of organizing your closets abound, but the first thing anyone must do is to sort through the closet and get rid of anything that is no longer needed. The smartest thing, once you have decided to dispose of something, is to bring it right to the dump, so neither you nor your family members will be tempted to drag anything back into the house again.

Complete closets systems are ideal for organizing your stuff once it has been purged. A closet system can be arranged in any way to suit your needs if you get a custom designed one, or you can use a pre designed one.

Use some basic storage tips to organize your closet is the best way possible:

Shoe racks are essential, since shoes scattered all over the closet floor are one of the worst causes of clutter. A flat shoe rack that can hold at least twelve pairs of shoes will fit on the floor of a small closet; more can be added if your closet space is larger. Flat shoe racks are the best, since shoes without heels will not stay in place on a slanted shoe rack.

Draw organizers can be added to the closet space to keep small items separate from each other. These organizers come in are plastic of different shapes so that different size and shape items such as socks can be stored and easily retrieved.

One of the most disruptive items in a closet is heavy outerwear. Hats, coats, jackets and scarves usually get thrown around the house if it is not easy to put them in a closet. The first thing to do is make sure all of the outerwear in the coat closet is in current use. If not, give it to charity. Make sure there are enough hangers for each of the coats that remain, since hanging a coat on top of another is time wasting and frustrating. Heavy hangers are the only kind that should be used in the coat closet. New hangers have been introduced that can hold up to 60 pounds of clothing but take up little room in the closet. If you don't have a built in closet, you can make a free standing closet for coats, and, if it is made of weather resistant wood, it can even be kept in an outer room such as a porch.

To really get the most use of your closet, consider installing additional shelving. There is a great deal of "dead" space between the top shelf of the closet and the ceiling, and infrequently used items can be stored there. Putting them in attractive boxes will keep everything neat.

To make clothing retrieval easier, put your out of season clothes in the back of the closet and move the in season ones to the front. This means that at the beginning of each season, you must sort through your clothes and put the wools and other warm clothing in back and move light weight clothes to the front.

Having organized closets in your home will save you a lot of time and give you peace of mind. Follow these tips, and you will be able to keep your closets organized all through the year.