Closet Organization Tips?

velvetychocolate

What do you *do* with your belts, scarves and such? I bought a couple of hangers that are meant to hold four pairs of dress slacks, with little swing out arms for the scarves...but the belts are still a conundrum.

Do you keep the scarves in with your outerwear or in your bedroom closet?

And how about your handbags? I don't have that many, but there's enough to be annoying. Do you just shove them on the top shelf or something? Right now mine are jammed into a bankers box, and not very well - kind of crammed in there.

I'd love to hear your closet organization tips.

Thanks

16 years ago

Body Type

11 replies

Latest reply was from velvetychocolate

JewelryGirl

Active Member

I use the little 3M plastic hooks & just line up about 15-20 in a row in my closet. Then, all of my skinny belts are on these. I have a few on the other side of my closet for purses as well. I don't have many purses though. I also have a little basket on a shelf for my other belts I don't wear as often. Scarves - I haven't found a system I like just yet but I don't have many outfit type scarves. I'm accumulating a good selection of winter scarves & gloves so I keep them on top of a crate that I had my hubby attach to the wall that serves as a couple of shelves in my closet now. I'd love to hear other idea's though. I so enjoy closet organization tips!

16 years ago

Kristen

(website)

Veteran

My belts are on a built-in rack on the wall of the closet.

Smaller carves are in a small top drawer in a bureau, and the long ones are knotted and hung on two hangers in the closet.

I used to cram all my handbags onto a shelf, but it was creasing them terribly and they were losing their shape. I bought a couple of hanging contraptions of fabric and velcro that I put on the back of the bedroom door. Now they all hang by their handles and keep their shapes intact.

These are a couple of blogs posts I've held onto that inspired me to organize my closet better:

http://www.diggingouttogether......200810.htm

http://kittyscreations.wordpre.....inventory/

http://kittyscreations.wordpre.....-you-have/

http://www.insideoutstyleblog......-your.html

16 years ago

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

I don't have any room in my closet for hooks, so I currently have belt and scarves in a drawer.

16 years ago

fathenry

Veteran

You can also take the 3M adhesive hooks and stick them to the back of your door. Then you can hang your handbags up and down the back of your door on the hooks.

16 years ago

shiny

Veteran

After much trial-and-error, the best system I've found for scarves is to keep them in a wire roll-out cart in my closet. I have two of those carts you can get at wal-mart or target, I think they're for storing root vegetables in your kitchen. Each cart has three baskets, and wheels. I have used them for years to hold folded sweaters. So right now I've got 4 baskets holding sweaters, one holding camis, and one holding scarves, which are folded. You can see everything, you can't stack too high, air circulates, and you can wheel them in and out.

As for belts, I keep them in a dresser drawer. I only have a few belts. They are in the same drawer along with my bathing suits.

Handbags are the big challenge, since I've been adding new ones lately, I need a new system. This weekend I got rid of a laundry basket in the bottom of my closet that never holds laundry - it has become a catch-all for junk. That made room for me to bring out my boots from the boxes on the top shelf, and have them all lined up and easy to reach. Which leaves the top shelf free; I'm hoping to line up all my handbags on the shelf so I can see them easier. I will keep them in their dust bags though. Clutches will go in a plastic tub.

If you have the space, another trick for scarves and belts is to get one of those shoe organizers that hang on the back of a closet door. I have them on the back of every closet door in our house! My own closet has two doors, so two of them, for 24 pairs of shoes. But the kids, who also each have two doors, don't have as many shoes, so one of these shoe organizers is used to hold other stuff - school supplies along with belts and scarves too. The organizer on the back of our hall closet is used to keep umbrellas, gloves, winter hats, my running gear, and DH's scarves. You can just roll the scarves up and put them into the shoe pocket. Get the kind of organizer that is plastic, and you can see everything.

16 years ago

Sarah

(website)

Veteran

I need help in my closet. It's tiny, and I share it with my husband. The set up is very strange

______ ___ _______
| ----- |
-----
-----

Two L shape racks (so the corner area is completely useless since hangers jam into each other from the different angles) and four plastic/wire shelves in the middle. My husband has one side, and I have the other. My handbags are crammed onto the bottom shelf, and my jeans are on the third shelf, sweaters on the second, and his jeans on the top.
My bras, belts, AND necklaces hang on a tie rack. It's not very easy to see what I have at all.
Scarves and camis are stuffed into a basket together that's stored on top of the hanging rack along with t-shirts and shorts.
Bryan and I share one small/medium size dresser, so it's crammed if you can imagine.
I have two other closets in the house that are not used for anything. But I'm afraid if I store clothes in there I won't ever wear them.

When I was single living in my parents townhouse, I had a HUGE walk in closet all to myself. Sigh.

I'm sorry to hijack your topic, VC, but I'm really frustrated too.

16 years ago

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Sarah- I have to share a tiny closet with my husband, too. We got a relatively inexpensive organizer at a home store. It gave us a small row of shelves down the center and some extra hanginf space.
Girl- why not take over one of the other closets and make it into your "dressing room"?

16 years ago

Sarah

(website)

Veteran

The "office" is directly behind our room, specifically our closet. When I moved in, I asked my husband if we could take down the wall separating them so I could have the office as my closet and dressing room. He laughed.

16 years ago

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

My daughter's room is in the same location- behind our closet. I have the same plan for her room when she moves out! Actually, I want to make it a walk in closet. OK, she's only 10, so I have a while to wait LOL

16 years ago

velvetychocolate

Veteran

Sarah - your closet sounds a lot like mine. It's very annoying. My husband and I share the closet, and it's really not very big at all - and like you, we have just one small dresser that we share as well.

Shiny - I love that idea for the wire rolling cart - excellent! I think I'll try that. Now, if I can get the 'too many shoes' out of the bottom of the closet and into some semblance of order, then I might have room for a rolling cart or two. I do like the idea of just pulling out a drawer and seeing scarves and maybe even belts all in there, and accessible. The two fancy slacks hangers I bought with swing out arms - thinking they'd be good for scarves are actually more hassle than it might seem. I bought a couple of hangers meant for belts - but what happens is that this specialty hanger gets all tangled up amongst the other hangers.

fathenry - I don't currently have a door on my closet (we're in the middle of renovations), and the door that's going back in place is a sliding type of door, not one that opens. That said, you've given me an idea - I might put some of those hooks on the inside of the front hall closet - that'll at least deal with the winter/outerwear type scarves. Thanks

Kristen - I looked at the blog postings you've linked, and I think I need to go back and do even more editing. Stuff like necklaces, earrings, scarves and belts. Get rid of the things I don't use anymore.

I recently went through my closet and took out everything that was obviously too big, and things I don't like or things that were just worn out.

Consequently - my 'other' closet - the entire closet in the guest bedroom is now filled with too big clothes. I've got a huge box of jeans/pants that I need to ship out to an online friend, and that's been sitting in the front hall closet - need to get that out of here. But - I still have a huge pile of 'stuff' to deal with in the guest room now. I still need to go through the front hall coat closet - nothing in there actually fits me anymore.

I really do need to work up the nerve to post some pics, because I could use some help in determining if something's too big or not. Plus, I have a few new items that I feel like might be too small.

I am making a lot of mistakes in my limited clothes buying lately. Have a huge bag of stuff to go back to Kohl's. That first dress from Macy's that I asked about in my very first post here - nice shape, but the colours are no good - that has to go back too. Oh, and a couple of other things going back to JC Penney.

I need some clothes so desperately - and yet, I end up making mistakes. I get home and it's "What was I thinking? I don't even like this..." etc.

Sigh....

I'll keep at it!

Thanks again for the closet advice - I'm going to try some of these suggestions.

16 years ago

velvetychocolate

Veteran

Sarah - I think you should take over one of the 'other' closets in your home. If my 'other' closet wasn't jammed with stuff I need to get rid of, I'd consider using that as my dressing area. I'd keep my PJ's. loungewear and such in my bedroom, and the laundry hamper. I'd be willing to go downstairs and get 'dressed' in the spare bedroom.

What do you think of this idea?

16 years ago

Category