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Color Coding?

cheryl

Veteran

I recently moved back to the house I lived in with my mom. It doesn't have any walk in closets but it has nice roomy closets. Some with shelves, some with just a long hanging rod.

I am starting from scratch at trying to decide how I want to store and organize my things. I have a ton of things in a ton of different colors.

What is everyone's favorite way to organize your closet? For those of you that color code how do you go about it. All like colors together regardless of item or each item type organized by color? Do you organize light to dark? I need a color list to go by lol. I would like my closet to look visually appealing.

All ideas and input appreciated.

Dressing

16 replies

Latest reply was from Laura (rhubarbgirl)

Anonymous

I organize by category first, and then by color going from light to dark.

Rambling Ann

(website)

Veteran

Color-coded. I try to sort within one color by type, but that falls apart because DH just hangs stuff up (not complaining!) I think about what I'm going to wear by color, so it works for me.

cheryl

Veteran

Thank you bettycrocker and Rambling Ann.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I organize by type first, then color. My tops, however, are numerous enough that I organize those into subsets. For example: All my tops are together on one closet rod -- long sleeved tops, then short sleeve/sleeveless. Within long and short sleeved subsets, they're further organized into knits/tees and then woven blouses/shirts, and then by color -- neutrals first, then following ROYGBIV, but in my cases it's more like RGBIV. It sounds like a lot, but I have a lot of tops.

Jackets/blazers/toppers are all together, lined up by color (again, neutrals, then ROYGBIV. In theory, dresses and skirts are organized like this too, but I don't have enough of them to really look like they're in any sort of order. Living in denim.

ETA two pics to show my system. 1 is the tops, 2 is jackets/toppers, which are hung on the rack above my tops.

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Liz A.

Veteran

I do the same as Betty.

cheryl

Veteran

Janet, thanks for the visual, it really helps

Liz A, that is seeming like my best option

Joy

Veteran

I put lots of this on Angie's blog this morning, but, after trying different ways, I group first by color, mostly light to dark. Then within the color I group by item type. Exceptions are that I hang black in the center of the closet as my most used neutral this time of year and I am careful not to hang navy next to black because they are too hard to tell apart in low light.
Colors. First are all my bright whites, then ivory, bone and other off whites, then . Sleeveless, short sleeved, long sleeved, cardigans, jackets, pants, skirts, dresses. Next I do greys, then black, then yellow/orange, greens, pink/red, blues from light through navy, Browns from tan through chocolate. This works very well for me and helps me quickly find what I need.

celia

Veteran

I have to rotate my closet according to season because it is a small closet and I like the trill of seeing clothes that I hadn't seen for some time.
For me it depends on the mood but for practical purposes I always try to put white/ creams with colors and fabrics that won't dirty or stain them.

Ginger

Veteran

I do something very similar to Janet, except not quite as many categories for tops. Mostly everything-except-sweaters, and then sweaters. Plus another section for light toppers, mostly cardigans.

I also separate out skirts, pants, and dresses. And all in spectrum order, with white at the front and black at the end. These are pictures from 2013 and things have changed a bit (mostly neater!), but the principle is the same.

#1 - tops. #2 - skirts. #3 - cardigans and sweaters. #4 - dresses and handbags.

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rachylou

Veteran

I do like Janet - capsule, style/subcapsule, colour... Colour according to the rainbow. I also rotate out seasonal items.

rabbit

Veteran

I organize just by color: whites, light grays, medium grays, black, greens, lighter blues, darker blues, purples/burgundies, pinks/oranges/red, and multi-colored patterns. Off to the side I have scarves hanging and at the end a few long mid-summer dresses. (Coats and jackets are in a different closet). I have organized by type in the past but it's easiest for me to search by color fast and fix any items out of place.

I organize my jeans/pants drawer by color too.

Anonymous

I have this dream of color coding but since I have a dresser AND a closet, I don't really. My closet is set up like this: on the rack, I have my skirts, pants/leggings, dresses, sweaters, and then tops from back to front. I try to keep those as closely color coded as possible. The shoes are on the floor in whatever order they fit.
My dresser is set up like this: top drawer has jeans, pedal-pushers, shorts, etc. Next drawer is all my t-shirts and bulky sweaters that I don't want to hang up. Next drawer is pj's, and the final drawer is underclothes, socks, etc. The dresser isn't color coded but everything is pretty well separated so I can find stuff.

I would say color code if you have enough stuff to do that or do by season.

cheryl

Veteran

Thanks so much everyone for all the replies. I am looking forward to getting everything organized and pretty. I am so tired of hunting for things.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

First by item type and then by color from light to dark. My categories are: jackets and blazers, long and 3qtr sleeve shirts/blouses, short sleeve and sleeveless shirts/blouses, dresses, trousers, and skirts. My jeans and casual pants are now on multiple-item pant hangers by type of leg (skinny, straight etc.) - I used to keep them in drawers until recently.

My knit tops, sweaters, and all the ancillary stuff - PJs, underthings, workout gear - are all folded in drawers.

cheryl

Veteran

Laura, do you like your pants hanging? I am still debating whether i'm going to hang or fold my pants in a drawer.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

Hanging takes more space, but seems to make them more visible and sort-through-able. I found that I wasn't wearing all my jeans, just the ones at the top of the drawer. Plus with jeans you can't always tell which exact ones they are when they're folded, so I'd have to pull a bunch of them out to find the exact cut and color I was looking for.

So I decided to shift to those multiple-pant hangers, which had the added bonus that I could sort into categories, and not play guessing games about which ones were the black skinnies and which ones were the black straight legs.

This isn't the exact one I have, but you get the idea: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.co.....hanger/324

Tl;dr: I'd say if you have the space, try hanging them and see if you like it better. But if you only have a few pair or not much space it probably isn't a big difference.