Organize Now! Week 3: Organize Your Bedroom Closet

Are you ready to organize your bedroom closet?  If it has been on your to do list, there is no better time than now.  Just do it, trust me you will feel a huge sense of accomplishment once you tackle it. 

If there is one thing I could change about my house it would be the bedroom.  The kids room, guest room, office and playroom are all decent sizes but the master bedroom did not receive much love when the house was built.  It isn’t terrribly small, and to some would be considered average or even large but we have been spoiled with larger bedrooms so this is smaller than what we are used to.  We compromised on a smaller master bedroom for an amazing property.  With a smaller bedroom comes a smaller en suite and smaller closets, so it took some adjusting on maximizing the space we had.

I probably spend to much time on Pinterest and Houzz admiring other master bedrooms, especially some amazing, in my dreams walk in closets that are more like another room.  Watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and seeing their closets doesn’t help either.  For the time being I have to deal with what I have, which is two average size closets that you would see on typical episode of House Hunters.  We have two closets in the master bedroom and instead of giving one closet to Mr. Mother Thyme and the other to myself,  I have them both.  Lucky me.  Mr. Mother Thyme has taken over the closet in the office.   The twins still share a bedroom.  I can’t seem to split them up yet.  They have one closet in their bedroom that they share, however most of their clothes are in their dressers, so their closet doesn’t not get utilized aside from storage and toys.

My focus this week in the Organize Now! Challenge was my closet along with Mr. Mother Thyme’s.  Here’s what I did-

- Remove everything from your closet.  In the book, Jen doesn’t recommend doing it that way.  She suggests narrowing down the mess first.  I decided to dive right in and start with a clean slate.  I know that seems extreme but it will give you a chance to evaluate everything you are putting back in your closet.  I always seem to hear Jen’s voice in my head saying “Do you love it”?  If you don’t love it, use it or haven’t worn it in a year, time for it to find a new home.

– Get huggable hangers.  Best. Thing. Ever. I started using them several years ago, but until I focused on this challenge I had an eclectic array of hangers in my closet including those.  I went out to my local wholsale store (BJ’s, Costco) and for $19.99 I grabbed 40 huggable, also known as velvet hangers that create so much space in your closet.  I have even spotted these hangers at Marshalls and TJMaxx for about $12.99 for about 10 hangers.  By using the these hangers, things hang well and don’t slip off.  They create so much more room then plastic hangers and everything looks so much nicer hanging in the closet.

– Hang everything with the hanger hung like a question mark.  Something I learned from Mothertime Marketplace selling the kids clothes.  Having all the clothes in the same direction makes it more organized.

– Color coordinate your clothes.  I have actually done this for years.  All the same color clothing stay in the same section;  whites with whites, blues with blues and so on.  You can even take it one step further and have it coordinated based on style whether it be dresses, shirts, sweaters, etc…

– Store seasonal clothing. Things like sundresses, shorts, tank tops that are not worn until summer time, place in storage bins and store.  No need to have them take up room in the closet if they are not being worn.  Same will go come summer, store sweaters, pants, scarves that won’t be utilized in warm weather.  Utilize the real estate under your bed for storing these items if you are limited in attic and basement storage.

Just by focusing on these five steps improved our closets drastically.  It created additional space, looks great and is easy to find what I am looking.

With the additional space I have with shelving in the closets I store scarves and purses, two things I am a little obsessed with. I have them placed in baskets on the upper shelves of my closets that I can easily grab. You could even use clear plastic containers to maximize your space. Clear containers make it easy to see what is in there and labeling the bins will help you locate items quicker.

Jen was on a local TV show earlier this week and shared some winter organizing tips. Take a look!

I absolutely loved her idea of the Little Black Dress Hanging Jewelry Organizer that you can find on Amazon and even at Bed Bath and Beyond that I had to run out to get.  It is a great way to store your jewelry and quickly find pieces you want to wear. I had a jewelry box that not only took up space but it would get cluttered with pieces of jewelry on top of each other. This LBD is so cute hanging in the closet and is perfect for keeping your jewelry organized.

Top 5 ideas from Organize Your Bedroom Closets-
-Keep a few dryer sheets in storage containers for seasonal clothing to keep clothes smelling fresh.  I even place dryer sheets or even fresh lavender sachets on a few hangers in the closet too.
-If you are unsure about certain items, hang them backwards on the rod with the hook facing the front of the rod.  If the hanger is still in that position after six months you don’t wear it often enough to keep it.
-Keep boots standing upright by placing a rolled up magazine inside the boots.
-Repeat this process yearly to give your closet a thorough cleaning.
-If you didn’t wear clothing this season be honest, you are not going to wearing it next year.  Time to sell or donate it.

Places I like to shop for stuff to Organize Your Bedroom Closet-
Marshalls, TJMaxx, Homegoods- Great for baskets, bins and you can even find the velvet, huggable hangers there too.
Craft Stores like AC Moore, JoAnn, Michaels, Hobby Lobby- great for baskets and bins.
Bed Bath and Beyond- Little Black Dress or other jewelry storage options, hangers, shoe racks and storage bins.
Pottery Barn- Great for baskets or at least inspiration for baskets you may want to try to find elsewhere.
The Container Store- a organizers dream store.

There are 9 more weeks still to go. The next 9 weeks we will be featuring the following:
Week 4- Routines
Week 5- Papers/Files
Week 6- Pantry
Week 7- Entryway
Week 8- Memorabilia
Week 9- Medicine Cabinet
Week 10- Refrigerator
Week 11- Books, CD’s, DVD’s
Week 12- Home Office

You can follow along in Jennifer Ford Berry’s book Organize Now!: A Week-by-Week Guide to Simplify Your Space and Your Life.

Other participates in the Organize Now! 12-week challenge:
Creating House of Grace
Tapas Lifestyle
The Dayton Time
Michelle McDermott Murphy