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For some reason I've been in a big mood to organize our closets, so I thought we'd discuss — what are your biggest pain points when it comes to closet organization? What solutions have you found that you love? What are your best closet organization hacks?
Pictured, clockwise: hanging necklace organizer / sweater bins / modular bag organizer / anti-tarnish zip bag for silver jewelry
Closet Organization Hacks That Are Working For Me:
 Clear sweater bins galore — Not only do I use these vinyl sweater bins for my seasonal clothing review, but I use them to organize kids' clothes (particularly all of my eldest son's clothes that we'll hand down to my youngest son in a few years). I love that they're stackable, reusable, and clear — I usually try to stick a few cedar balls inside as well. |
 Velvet hangers — I'll be honest: I don't have these everywhere in my closet, but I did buy a few boxes of velvet hangers recently and they're the first ones I reach for. I have a new system of hanging cardigans on velvet hangers that seems to be working well enough that I'm considering hanging up my pullover sweaters as well. |
 Pictures on shoe boxes — I totally forget what shoes I have if I don't put the pictures on the boxes. I vastly prefer to store them in boxes since they're dust-free and stackable, then. (We just try to keep the boxes our shoes came in, but if you're on the hunt for clear shoe boxes, Staples has a good sale today — $.99 per shoe box.) |
Closet Organization Struggles (And What I May Try To Fix Them)
Psst: here are my latest favorite ways to store jewelry…
 Statement necklaces: I have way too many statement necklaces for my hanging jewelry organizer, and they don't always like to be dumped into a pocket. I can hang some of them on the acrylic necklace posts that I use, but part of my jewelry organization system is to use the clear necklace posts for “recent” jewelry and have the “permanent home” for jewelry be elsewhere. I just ordered this hanging closet organizer with an interesting loop-hanging system, and I'm hopeful it'll work — I like that it's double-sided, too. (Oooh: here's a hanging jewelry organizer with pockets on one side and loops on the other if you're just getting started.) |
 Silver jewelry: Years ago I bought a Jill Platner necklace at a sample sale and it came with a metallic gray Ziploc-type bag that said it was good for anti-tarnishing — I've proceeded to keep a LOT of my silver jewelry in that bag. The problem is that with it all bunched up into one tiny bag I tend to forget what I have. I've looked for years for a similar Ziploc bag and finally found some in various sizes on Amazon; these may be a great option to store in my other hanging jewelry organizer, particularly using my business card trick for necklaces. (There are also anti-tarnishing papers that you can use; most reviewers seemed to have more success using it with a sealed environment like a Ziploc rather than a general jewelry case though.) |
 Bags: I have a pretty large bag collection, and when I store them in their dust bags, I totally forget what I have. Plus, I haven't done a great job at “stuffing” the bags in between wears, so the bags are often stored in a kind of slouchy manner if I can't lay them flat or if they don't have enough structure to stand up by themselves. I've thought of keeping a picture of my bag collection in my closet, but that seems too insane even for me. I've been considering getting a modular bag organizer (like the one pictured), but I'm not sure that would solve my “I don't remember what I have” problem. (They also make these kinds of hanging organizers for bags.) I'd love to hear what you guys do to organize and store your bags! |
All right, ladies, let's hear it — what are your best closet organization hacks? What do you struggle with, and what solutions have you found for organizing your closet(s)?
APC
I really like those super thin velvet hangers. Took awhile but finally replaced all hangers in my 2BR apt with them. Everything fits much better together and looks cleaner than having a bunch of different types of hangers. Also got Martha Stewart “fabric drawers” – collapsible fabric boxes to organize items that need folding. I can’t wait to have a bigger closet to better store my bags though…
Idle question
If you’re wearing a long sleeve shirt that covers or reaches your wrist, do you wear your watch underneath or on top the shirt?
mascot
Underneath. I don’t like the look of the watch on top of the sleeve.
Emmy See
Oh man, I can’t stand having my watch over my sleeves. It’s way too bunchy for me and I think it looks weird.
Bonnie
I tried a hanging jewelry organizer for statement necklaces and it did not work for me. I recently mounted a necklace hanger to my closet door and now wear my necklaces much more frequently.
pugsnbourbon
I don’t have a ton of necklaces, so I put several of those small, clear Command hooks 0n some “dead” wall space between my clothes and the closet door. By staggering the hooks, I was able to get plenty of room.
Anonymous
I love the velvet hangars – that is all I use now. And I use metal shower hooks on the closet rod for hanging my bags – it keeps them up and out of the way, and I can see everything I have.
Sydney Bristow
I adopted the recommendation of people here and now store my necklaces hanging on push pins on a cork board. It is perfect because I can see all my options and customize it so it works for both my statement necklaces and the dainty ones.
anon anon armani
I used to be overwhelmed by finding tissue paper which is “archival quality” to put in/out of my handbags. And no way I could quickly grab and switch out a bag. I found these silver quilted inserts. They are the bomb.
http://www.containerstore.com/s/quilted-purse-shapers-by-innies/d?productId=10032637&q=handbags
DC Anon
This is amazing. Exactly what I need. Thanks for sharing.
CM
One hack that worked really well for me when I had a lot of scarves was hanging them on shower hooks, and then placing the shower hooks on a single triangle shaped thick plastic hanger. To keep them from sliding everywhere, I just put a small dot of hot glue (hello sorority crafting days!) on the hanger.
Ellen
My cleaning lady organizes all my closets for me, and label’s everything for me to find on a database in my MacBook Air. She is VERY organized and alway’s helps me find thing’s. I love my cleaneing lady, even if some thing’s go missing from time to time! Overall she is worth it! YAY!!!!!
Anonymous
I have a TINY closet and a big wardrobe, so I’m obsessed with my velvet hangers, but they shed black dust all over my closet.
Anonymous
Ellen: You have an amazing cleaning lady!