Nine Steps to Organize Your Clothes Closet

Raise your hand if you open your closet each morning and serenely retrieve the very garment you had in mind. (Martha Stewart, put your hand down.) For the rest of us, this doesn’t have to be a fantasy. An organized, user-friendly closet is well within reach—and your clothing will be too, when you’re finished with this checklist. All you’ll need to make this dream come true are a few uninterrupted hours and a supply of gritty determination. It may help to invite a friend in as referee.

1. Shovel it out. Unless you’re lucky enough to own a cavernous walk-in closet, you need all the space you can get. Find another place for your tennis racquet, the ugly lamp, the rolls of wrapping paper, and anything else you were storing in your closet until you could figure out what to do with it. If you can’t find homes, or uses, for these articles, put them in a box to donate to charity.

2. Be ruthless. Toss or donate anything you haven’t worn in two years. Wedding dresses are excepted. Salmon pink dyed-to-match bridesmaid shoes are not.

3. Be brave. Try on the clothing you intend to keep. This is a tedious and occasionally depressing chore. But if you don’t like what you see in the mirror when you’re wearing those pants, why keep looking at them hanging in your closet? Ask a good friend to help you judge.

4. Arrange by category. Group like items, hanging shirts with shirts, slacks and pants all together, and so on. If you have room, store your out-of-season clothes and rarely worn items like formal wear separately. If not, put them in the least accessible part of the closet.

5. Sort by color. Now arrange the groups of similar items by color, from lightest to darkest shades. When one glance at your closet tells you what clothes go well together, you’ll dress with far more speed and style. You’ll also become aware of colors you’ve overstocked, those you may need to buy more of, and any colors that stand out like a sore thumb (usually a fashion error warning sign).

6. Save steps. Store your socks right in the closet so you can see them as you select the slacks and shoes you’ll wear. Several rolled pairs fit nicely in a shoebox and the boxes can be stacked to accommodate an infinite number of socks (or stockings). Make selection quick and easy by labeling them (“Browns,” “Blacks,” “Blues,” etc.) or purchase acrylic boxes you can see through.

7. Be nice to your sweaters. Store your sweaters gently in the folded position and they’ll repay you by looking splendid year after year. Suspend them cruelly from hangers and they’ll take revenge by developing funny-looking shoulders and drooping to outlandish lengths. If you have space, keep the folded sweaters in clear acrylic stacking boxes on the floor or on shelves in your closet. Protect them by tossing in moth-repellent herbal sachets.

8. Discipline your shoes. A shoe rack or two will transform that unruly mob of footwear on your closet floor into ranks of neatly paired shoes.

9. Accessorize decisively. Purchase an assortment of those inexpensive and convenient hangers designed especially for ties, belts, or scarves. When your ties are near your shirts, belts next to pants, and scarves right next to blouses, you’ll be perfectly coordinated before you even have your first cup of coffee