Closet Organization

    Closet organization may not be your idea of a Saturday morning well spent, or any time of any day well spent, but the idea of being able to find exactly what you want, when you want it, without having to rummaging through piles of t-shirts or hunt through your disarray of hangers may make the work well worth your time. And what if there was a way to not only make that process of organizing your closet a lot easier, but also help the end result be a lot better? That idea of an easily organized closet was enough to have me driving to Chicago to pick the brain of Master Simplifier and Owner of the organization firm White Space, Cynthia Ivie. I got a professional's perspective on closet organization, which turned my closet right around, and I'm sure, with Cynthia's tips, yours can also be easily converted.

Find Your Organizational Style

    The first step in organizing your closet is getting to know your organizational style. "You have to stop to think about what's easy for you," Cynthia said. "The biggest mistake that people make is to try and create a closet like they might see in a magazine or a store, but it needs to be easy for you. For example, do you prefer to hang or fold your jeans, do you prefer to hang or fold your t-shirts. Those are two items that could go either way. Most people prefer to fold their knits, but people need to know in advance if the like to have things hung, folded, in closed containers or out on open shelves."

Purge

    After you've determined your organizational style, it's time to purge your closet of everything that doesn't fit your current lifestyle. I know it sounds painful, but donating old or out-of-date clothes can be therapeutic and give you a reason to buy new clothes that actually fit, physically and metaphorically speaking. "This is where you really get to make decisions about what continues to serve your sense of style," Cynthia explained. "You know what demonstrates your level of success in life, what demonstrates your creative flair and your fashion sense. You need to think bout your wardrobe as a tool in life, and what does it say about you, and then you go through your clothes and eliminate the things that no longer that substantiate that message, the shoes that are no longer comfortable that are worn out, clothing that is in disrepair and you end up with what's left to be organized into a space."
    If parting with some of your old clothes is too much to bear, it helps to have an outside, objective opinion during the process, someone who can give you perspective when you can't seem to let go of that 20-year-old jacket or those tired, old running shoes. Even a Master Simplifier needs some guidance when it comes to purging.         "You know, the first time I ever purged a closet with a friend she went to get rid of my favorite outfit," Cynthia related. "And I said, 'wait a second, that's my favorite,' and she said, 'would you like me to tell you what Mr. Russell,' who was my boss, 'thinks you look like when you wear it?' And it went."

Zone Your Closet

     After clearing out the extra clutter from your closet, you're ready to start putting it all back in. Don't start just chucking things back in wherever they fit. You'll just end up with the same problem you started with: not being able to find what you need when you need it. You must put things back into your closet by zones. What are zones you ask? They are areas designated for specific types of clothes, and within each zone, the clothes are sorted by color and pattern. For example, one zone should be for all hanging shirts, and they are grouped by sleeve length and neckline. Start on one end with long sleeves and progress to short sleeves and end up at sleeveless. Then within each group, say long sleeves for example, group straight necks together and "V" necks together. Then you order all the straight necks by color, from dark to light and solids before patterns.
    "It's not just about neatness," Cynthia said. "It makes it easy to get dressed. I can instantly select the sleeve length, the color, the neck line, the texture that I want to go with the outfit, to create the look that I want."