wardrobe organisation

-taff

Anything you have never worn and had over a year, get rid of.
Anything you havent worn for 2 years, get rid of.
Anything that is beyond repair, get rid of

For the rest, separate into winter and summer clothing.

Hang by clothing type, shirts together, skirts together, trousers together, suits together. Use one hanger per item.

Hang the scarves off one [or more if you have lots] hanger, and the hats and gloves.

Once you've separated them into types, hang by colour.


When you wash and dry things then, it's fairly easy to stick ti back on the hanger where it came from


Get a shoe organiser for either inside the wadrobe door, or by the front door or somewhere you regularly take your shoes off. Put your shoes in there.....


If you have space for 3 double wadrobes, I think you can find space for a laundry basket, even if it's inside one of yuor newly organised wadrobes

tori.k

This is a great trick re-hang all your clothes with the top of the hangers pointing in the same direction every time to wear/wash something replace the hanger in the opposite direction by the end of each season you will know what you wear and what you don't then get rid off the stuff you haven't warn, TBH if you haven't warn it that summer your unlikely to ever wear it again.

bossymoo

tori.k wrote: »

This is a great trick re-hang all your clothes with the top of the hangers pointing in the same direction every time to wear/wash something replace the hanger in the opposite direction by the end of each season you will know what you wear and what you don't then get rid off the stuff you haven't warn, TBH if you haven't warn it that summer your unlikely to ever wear it again.

^^^
This!

Or, since you have 3 wardrobes, remove everything from 1 and wipe out the inside. Maybe add a freshening sachet
Pick a clothes type you wear most ie work clothes if you are a full-timer, outdoors if that's where you spend most of your time.
Put the things of this type that you know you wear, in your newly cleaned cupboard.
As you wear stuff over the next 3 months from the other 2, put them back in the newly cleaned one.
Keep going until you can merge the other 2.
Repeat with a second wardrobe.
Whatever is left in the 3rd is what you don't wear...

I only have 2 as I have some in our spare room cupboard. But as seasons change, I squeeze everything into the spare, and as I wear it gets placed back into my own room. So after just a few weeks I can see what I wear.

Lastly - don't keep a range of sizes! I had smaller clothes I would "slim in to" and actually I am losing weight, but guess what? I want new (to me) stuff, not the tatty size 14 joggs that have been squished in a box since before I had kiddies!

maman

Hopefully, posters telling you what they do will help you get ideas.

I have a double wardrobe and drawers in my own room and then then similar in our guest room. When we put the fitted wardrobes in the spare room we built in some shelves as well that take these

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/departments/small_storage/10452/

Skubb storage cases from Ikea. They're like nylon boxes with zips.

Briefly, I keep clothes I wear regularly in my bedroom wardrobe that need hanging up so skirts, smart trousers, jackets, dresses etc In the drawers I have underwear, tee shirts, jeans, jumpers etc My shoes are in boxes at the bottom of the wardrobe. Plenty of room there, I just keep them to the left to leave some long hanging space for dresses. Shoes I wear all the time (like espadrilles and ballet pumps at the moment) tend to just get thrown in the space in front of the boxes.

In my spare room wardrobe are clothes I don't wear too often so coats, evening clothes, special occasion dresses. In the Ikea boxes are summer clothes that generally only come out for holidays abroad (but not this year!:D). I have another for big, heavy jumpers only used in coldest weather and outdoor events. Another for towels and bedding that I keep for the guest room to make sure I can always make up beds at the last minute.

I could go on.....

floss2

My organisation is very similar to Maman's.

However I have classic items / holiday wear not worn this summer (no races/posh do's/weddings & no holidays abroad) so the "if its not been worn for a year" thing won't work on me.

Also, I have smart office wear and also suits for more formal occasions, as well as casual/weekend stuff, walking stuff, allotment stuff, rugby shirts & going-out stuff.

I agree with the clear-out of what doesn't suit / you really dislike, and would recommend packing away distinct seasonal items like winter coats or lightweight holiday clothes until they are needed. This might give you a bit more room to see what you have too.

Birdie85

Good advice from everyone about how to cut down on your stuff so I don't need to add anything more about actually cutting back- but believe me it makes a massive difference to putting clothes away when you're not battling for space.

When I recently decluttered (making room for a baby!) I noticed that there was a lot of dead space in the bottom of my wardrobe so I bought a cheap plastic drawer unit and used that for extra storage, much better than having a pile of shoes and bags in a heap where they just got foisty because they were forgotten about! It only took up half the width of my wardrobe so I simply hang tops and skirts on that half and dresses on the other half where there's more space. I also put 3M Sticky Hooks on the wardrobe doors and on the inside 'walls' of the wardrobe (where there are a few spare inches between clothes and door!) which hold scarves, belts and bags. For my jewellery I got a cheap organiser (from Primark I think?) that has a coathanger sized hook so it can hang in the wardrobe- it has lots of different size clear pockets and it's double sided so holds loads. I use this for all of my costume jewellery and keep the fancier stuff in a nice little jewellery box in my bedroom. On the top of my wardrobe I have clear shoe boxes so I can see what's in them instead of having to root around for the shoes I need. All you have to do it identify the dead space in your set-up and make better use of it.

If you really want to get geeky about organisation, photograph all of your bags and shoes and keep a catalogue to hand and store them all in big boxes above the wardrobe (if there's room). This works for a few reasons, a) you don't forget what you have, b) whilst photographing them you may notice things that are really past their best and don't need to be kept c) you may realise that you don't actually need 4 black clutch bags so you might as well keep your favourite and sell/donate the rest.

Taranaman

If you want to reduce your stuff, google Project 333. Haven't managed to do it myself mind, but I love reading about people managing to live with just 33 items of clothing ( including shoes and accessories) for 3 months.

zippychick

As this has dropped down OS, I've moved it to Health and Beauty as there are loads of "capsule wardrobe" threads over here

Zip

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belfastgirl23

I've become a real fan of decluttering lately.

Some tips from me.

If you find it hard to get rid of old clothes, do you have a friend who is good at decluttering? Some people do find it really therapeutic and maybe you need someone to challenge you about what you keep and what you bin.

If you have clothes that are too big or small, or that you're not sure about getting rid of, pack up and put in a cupboard. If you don't need them within say three months, get rid without opening again. I really mean the without opening again bit!!

Anything stained or torn, just get rid.

Anything you wouldn't wear tomorrow, unless it's a real special occasion outfit or something you would wear tomorrow but only if the weather was different, get rid.

When you identify clothes to go, get rid of them immediately or at least bag them in a way that you can't really see them.

I also invested in hangers that are all the same which makes it look a lot smarter. Plastic ones from tesco so not expensive

I try to 'cycle' my wardrobe so at the start of the summer I put away my heavier winter skirts and jumpers in a box at the top of the wardrobe. Ikea do some good ones not too expensive. And take out my summer ones. Obviously vice versa in spring. Has the advantage of feeling like you have a whole new wardrobe twice a year

As for how it's laid out, a rail with most of my day to day clothes and underneath, boxes for underwear, a wardrobe with occasional wear clothes, top shelf for boxes, one with handbags and seasonal/special occasion shoes, one for seasonal clothes. And floor for boxes for gym stuff. This is between me and DH. And it would be a lot less but TBH he hasn't changed size since I've known him and he therefore only gets rid of clothes when they fall into holes

All I can say is that you do feel a huge amount better when you do it!

There is a decluttering thread on here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/62950609#Comment_62950609 that might be helpful to you

worriedtoo

hi All,

thanks to everyone for comments and input.

Fairyprincess- I like your idea of trying to understand where I keep going wrong- my first reaction was to think its all the points you mention, but I will take some time to work out which is the main problem (I think it the putting away clean clothes, though I often pull several things out trying to decide what to wear)

Pigpen- you are right about saving things for best- I was brought up with that ethos and its a hard habit to break-must try!!

MissMulberry & -taff- lack of organisation, hence the post on here, though you're right, somewhere for laundry needs to be sorted.

Hotchick- like the idea of keeping a charity bag to hand.

Bossymoo- I like this idea, a gradual process seems less daunting than trying to overhaul everything at once.

maman- please do!! this sounds do-able and more orderly

belfastgirl123- thanks- really helpful ideas on getting started.


I really appreciate everyones input