How to Declutter and Curate Your Closet… Like a Professional Organizer and Certified KonMari Consultant | PART 2: Storing Clothes Like a Pro
Welcome back to our series on decluttering and curating your closet like a professional organizer and certified KonMari Consultant. This post will focus on storage, so if you have not started your declutter yet, here is Part 1: The Declutter.
Never skip the declutter!
We know how satisfying it feels to finish creating the perfect storage solution for your stuff. In this post, we’ll focus on:
How you know you’re ready to make a storage system
Best practices for storing clothes and accessories
How to account for your specific space and furniture
PART ONE: If you can check off the following items, you’re ready for finding the perfect storage system
You have decluttered all the subcategories (in this case, clothes, accessories, etc.)
You have cleared the items you do not want out of your space (recycled and taken donations to the thrift store of your choice)
Everything you are left with to put away is either an item that you love, an item that you treasure, or an item that is acting as a placeholder.
Decluttering and physically removing your discarded items is important to do before making a storage system. If you still have items you’ve discarded in your home, there is a possibility that they could end up back in the rotation–which is fine–but a clean break makes the reset feel more official. Storing only the things we care about is important, because those items will be treated well and last longer.
PART TWO: Best practices for storing clothes and accessories
Before Marie Kondo was a Netflix phenomenon (and a verb, for that matter), if you wanted to use her tidying philosophies, you had to read her books. In Spark Joy, Chapter Three: Everything you need to know about storing joyfully, she discusses some of her storing methods. We will touch on these here, however you can find more detail in her book.
Marie Kondo’s Four Principles of Storage: “Fold it, stand it upright, store in one spot, and divide storage spaces into square compartments.”
The following are OUR notes as professional organizers on these principles:
#1 Fold it
Not sure how to fold your clothes? Check out our YouTube channel for folding tutorials (that are not great cinematically but show you step-by-step how to fold many types of clothing items.
A few notes on folding:
Folding (even quickly and haphazardly) is often better for the lifespan of your clothes in the long term.
Folded clothes do not stretch at the shoulders from gravity
Folded clothes kept in a drawer are safer from dust
To fold or to hang? If you are anti-folding, try it out with some of the easier categories like T-shirts, jeans, or sweaters.
Items that do better when hung:
Blouses + button-ups (especially silk or satin-like, which slump when folded, or other dress shirts that wrinkle easily)
Skirts
-Dresses ( use their locker loops/hanging straps for support)
-Scarves
Bulky coats and jackets
Pro-Tips about hangers:
Using uniform hangers makes your closet appear more aesthetic.
-Set a limit on how many hangers you have based on how many clothes fit comfortably in your space (empty hangers take up prime real-estate!)
We love velvet hangers, because things don’t slip off easily (but we get it–not everyone’s cup of tea!)
Use stronger hangers or even double up hangers for heavy items like wool coats!
#2 Stand your folded clothes Upright
For this principle, think of libraries: libraries and other information archives must use the most efficient means of storage to quickly locate and access materials.
Our favorite pros of standing clothes upright in your drawer:
Easily see every item you own.
Nothing gets lost in the bottom pile of a drawer
Maintains the slot where that item belongs so it is easy to return and see when it’s missing.
Bonus: graphic tees can show the image
Organize your clothes by type and color for a beautiful spectrum.
-If you have several items the same color, store them together –you will quickly learn to tell the slight difference between your items by texture, touch, and other subtleties.
#3 Store In One Spot
Storing like items together is a great organizing system, here’s why:
When you keep items together in one place (take sleeveless tops, for example), you won’t need to check multiple areas, which saves time.
You are able to keep track of the volume of your subcategories at a glance
You will easily know when you have enough items (no, you probably don’t need another pair of leggings!)
You will know when to add something to your shopping list.
#4 Divide Your Drawer Into Compartments
Marie Kondo advises to “pack drawers like a Japanese bento box,” AKA use “subcompartments” inside of larger spaces. (Picture using empty shoe boxes as inserts in drawers to make clear divisions between subcategories).
Our experience with subcompartment organizing:
Using subcompartments helps ensure your items have structure and can stay upright even if the drawer isn’t full
Things stay organized when you are adding or removing items
You are able to assign more specific homes to your categories (such as pajama tops in the front left section).
You can rearrange your drawers quickly and easily. For example: Instead of moving a “clump” of socks to a new space, if they’re all in a small shoebox within your drawer, they move very easily if you’d like to relocate them.
Subcompartments make “switching out seasons” a smooth and simple process
Those are Marie Kondo’s major storage principles. Most professional organizers also abide by a few aesthetic guidelines as well, such as:
Store by a larger category first (ex: keeping all your tees in one place)
Store by sub-subcategory next (ex: keep your long-sleeve tees to the left, your short sleeve solid tees in the middle, and your graphic tees to the right)
Store by color within your final subcategory (ex: Keep all darker tees in the back and colorful or light tees in the front–make the rainbow, if that’s your style!)
These are just a few helpful additional guidelines when storing. However, if keeping up such specifically-designed and curated areas is not your forte (or you simply don’t have time):
Simply put things away so you can see everything clearly!
In this case, done = perfect.
PART THREE: How to account for your specific space and furniture
Next, it’s time to assess what kinds of large storage options you already have. Many people will have some combination of the following:
Closet (note how large is your closet, how much extra storage space does it offer such as shelving, hanging space, and space for other storage items)
Dresser (how deep are the drawers? Do you often misplace items because the dresser is too big, or can you barely fit things because the drawers are too small? Hopefully you have just the right size for you!)
Shelves, racks and hooks (do you have assigned homes for accessory items like shoes, hats, belts and scarves? If so, great! Use what you already have)
Small boxes (Great for storing small accessories like watches and jewelry)
Medium boxes or plastic storage bins (Great for larger items like sweaters, costumes, or other categories that aren’t used as often. These can be stored on upper shelves.)
Under-the-bed boxes or secondary storage area (such as a guest closet if you have one) can be helpful if your storage space is limited, (or your collection is larger!) In these cases, you may want to implement a seasonal rotation system. A word of caution, though: secondary storage areas make it more likely you’ll forget about it!
Once you know what you already have to help with storage, it’s time to put everything away. If everything was in a place that made sense to you before–awesome: go ahead and stick with that system, but perhaps incorporate some of Marie Kondo’s storage principles. Hopefully, you’ll also have a little extra space from the decluttering phase! If you do not think your system made sense beforehand, then use the storage principles as best as you can to establish new systems.
Do you suddenly realize you need extra supplies?
We’ve got you–Organized For Good has a curated list of closet items that we use all the time with clients. Shop our top choices on Amazon here! Don’t forget to measure before you buy!
BONUS PART FOUR: Maintenance!
Living organized requires more than decluttering and creating new organizing systems — you must maintain the system you built. Something that you’ll want to keep in mind is how much bandwidth you have to keep up the system you establish. Reflect on how much effort you want to put into maintaining this system. Which of the following sounds like you?
I do not like spending time on sorting/folding/putting things away:
Avoid perfectionism
Use spaces to group your subcategories loosely (focus on labeling drawers and being able to consistently store like items, rather than focusing on always folding and putting them back perfectly)
I will maintain my wardrobe and make sure things are folded in the proper place:
Practice Marie Kondo’s method of folding clothes every time you’re done with laundry.
Sort things by color for a nice visual aesthetic
I know myself, and I will only be happy if my closet looks perfect and I will spend time making sure this is so:
Fold everything according to the KonMari method.
Make sure everything is visually appealing by storing things vertically in drawers and also using small bins and boxes to create divisions of subcategories within these spaces.
I’m not sure how much time I am willing to spend on maintaining my new organizing systems:
Start with the system we described above and do your best to maintain it. If after a few loads of laundry you’re over it, adjust your system to meet your needs. No guilt required.
Time to take a break!
We say it all the time, but we’ll keep saying it: treat yourself! If you’ve put in an hour (or four) of work getting your closet (or any part of your house) in order, give yourself a break. Take a little walk, rest with a cup of tea, make a treat, play dress up for a while if you like! Enjoy the joy of a job well-done, and give yourself a pat on the back.
Feeling stuck organizing your closet? Call in the professionals!
We offer a free consultation call to assess your needs and make an organizing plan OR you can book an organizing session directly without any delay. Also, we haul away that unwanted clothing right after your appointment, so your space clears out even faster and takes one extra thing off your long to-do list! Please, please don’t drive around with your donations in your trunk for weeks.
>Help me finish my closet!<
Whether you’re on a roll and see the end of the tunnel with your closet organization project, or you want some extra hands, we are here cheering you on! You got this!
