Are you tired of digging through your wardrobe, only to feel like you have “nothing to wear”? A well-organised wardrobe can turn your daily routine into a breeze while looking for your favourite pieces, putting together outfits with ease, and having a better sense of control over your space.
Of course, a well-organised wardrobe isn’t just about looking good; it’s about devising a workable system that will save you some time, keep your clothes in their proper condition, and maximise the space you happen to have. Whether one is working with a walk-in wardrobe or a small wardrobe, these organisation tips will help one make every inch count.
At Worth Its Weight, we know what an organised lifestyle is worth, and how much it puts one’s mind at ease. That being said, in this article, we’re going to take you through some easy, simple steps on how to declutter, optimise storage, and then personalise your wardrobe to suit your space and style.
1. Declutter First to Set a Solid Foundation
Decluttering is the foundation of an organised wardrobe. This helps you get rid of everything that you don’t need and makes room for the clothes that you love and wear most. Follow these methods to ensure that you keep only what truly serves you.
The One-Year Rule
Go through your wardrobe using the “one-year rule.” If you do not think that you have worn something in the past year, then get rid of it, especially seasonal items that can only be worn for a short amount of time per year. This can be useful for a number of reasons, including:
- Seasonality: Items which you haven’t worn over the last year are probably out of season or no longer trendy.
- Emotional Attachment: Sometimes people hang onto items because of sentimental value. The one-year rule gives you a blanket way of looking objectively at items to decide if they are worth holding on to.
- Space Management: By forcing yourself to allow in your wardrobe only items you actually have worn, you create room for today’s favourites.
Start by taking everything out of your wardrobe and arranging your clothes into piles : keep, donate, discard. Judge each item truthfully on its utility and joy factor.
The Hanger Test
It works like this: you reverse all your hangers at the beginning of the season. Every time you wear something, you put the hanger back in the normal position. After a few months, everything still facing backward is something you don’t wear and should give away or sell.
- Visual Queue: The direction of your hanger is a pretty clear-cut indication of whether you have worn something recently.
- Low time and energy: This test takes so little time and energy that it is easy to incorporate.
- Sustainable maintenance: It encourages frequent cleaning rather than one big clean.
You’ll end the season knowing a lot more about which clothes actually make up your regular rotation.
Sorting into Piles
Prepare piles for keeps, donations, and discards. This breaks down the decluttering process to be less overwhelming, and it also keeps it organised.
- Keep Pile: These are for things that you love and wear often.
- Donate Pile: Clothing that has been gently used and remains in good condition can be donated to others to minimise waste.
- Discarding pile: everything that has worn out, stained, or otherwise got damaged beyond repair should be disposed of responsibly.
This categorisation allows you to make conscious decisions, and your wardrobe will remain functional and clutter-free.
2. Organise by Category for Ease of Access
Grouping similar items together allows for a structured, easy-to-navigate wardrobe. Here’s how to make a simple but effective layout.
Categorise Clothing by Type
Separate your items to begin with into types: shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, etc. By keeping similar items together, you’ll make the process of picking out outfits much easier and much more visually pleasing.
- Functional Layout: Categorisation allows you to know at once what you have in your inventory. This saves time when searching for something.
- More Visibility: When similar items of clothes are together, you can tell what is missing in your wardrobe to help you make informed decisions on what to purchase next.
- Easier Maintenance: Separation by categories makes maintenance easier by preventing intermingling of different types of clothing.
Use labelled bins or dividers to keep each category separate and manageable.
Arrange Items of the Same Type by Colour
Arrange items of the same type by colour. Colour coding helps to enhance visual appeal and may be helpful in locating certain pieces.
- Visual Appeal: A colour-coordinated wardrobe is not only nice-looking but gives a sense of organisation.
- Efficient Choice: Choices are easier since the colours in each category are readily seen.
- Improvement of Mood: A beautiful-looking wardrobe has an added benefit of raising your mood to influence your choice of clothes every day.
Make a gradient by placing colours from lightest to darkest or vice versa for continuity and for ease of access.
Create a "Frequent Use" Area
Dedicate one area for the most frequently used items, like work outfits or daily essential items. This should be placed in the most accessible area of your wardrobe, which saves a lot of time every day.
- Easy Access: Items that you are using every day are easily accessible; thus, it reduces the amount of time wasted looking around for them.
- Clutter Reduced: By keeping the most-used items in one single place, you avoid the entire wardrobe from disorganisation.
- Simplified Routine: Knowing exactly where your go-to items are can simply minimise the morning routine and any stress associated with it.
Hang these items on the most accessible shelves or hanging rods so that the first things you see once you open your wardrobe are these items.
3. Make the Most of Small Wardrobe Spaces with Clever Storage Solutions
If you’re working with not much space, it is important that you make the most of every inch. The following will help you achieve more in a limited wardrobe space.
Conserve Space with Tiered Hangers
Tiered or cascading hangers allow you to hang multiple pieces vertically so that horizontal space can be conserved. They are ideal for pants, skirts, and scarves since they give more room for other essentials.
- Space Efficiency: A single hanger is able to hold multiple garments, freeing up plenty of wardrobe space.
- Visual Order: Clothes remain visible and accessible, presented in well-organised rows without overlap or tangling.
- Versatility: Such hangers are good for casual wear and formal wear alike.
Invest in good-quality tiered hangers that will not bend or break under the weight of the clothes on them.
Add Shelf Dividers for Neat Stacks
Shelf dividers are perfect for folded items like jumpers and jeans. They keep your stacks neat by preventing things from toppling over and make it easy to pull out pieces without disrupting the rest.
- Vertical Organisation: Dividers will help in forming distinct sections on your shelves for better visibility and access.
- Kept Orderly: Garments will remain upright and separated, resulting in fewer chances of disorganisation of items.
- Custom Setup: Adjustable dividers can be moved around according to your changing storage needs.
You could choose adjustable dividers to fit various kinds and sizes of garments to give flexibility in your storing mechanism.
Install Over-the-Door Organisers
Make the most out of wardrobe doors with the installation of an over-the-door organiser. It’s excellent in storing shoes, accessories, and out-of-season things and space that would go to waste otherwise.
- Further Storage: Over-the-door organisers provide for further storage without sacrificing valuable shelf and hanger space.
- Easy Installation: Most of the organisers are tool-free to mount, hence becoming very quick and inexpensive to solve the problem.
- Versatility of Usage: The organisers are presented in different styles and sizes for various types of items: shoes, belts, scarves, etc.
Opt for the ones with clear pockets or labels for clear identification and easy access.
Make Use of Wall Hooks for Accessories
Hang hooks on the wall of your wardrobe for belts, bags, hats, or other accessories. Wall hooks will keep the accessories within reach but off of shelves and racks.
- Accessible Storage: Hooks provide a convenient place to hang frequently used accessories, keeping them within reach.
- Clutter-Free: By taking advantage of the wall space, hooks can be used to eliminate clutter in your wardrobe.
- Decorative Element: Stylish hooks can add a decorative touch to your wardrobe, enhancing its overall appearance.
Optimise for multi-hook racks or hook sets, adjustable to accommodate a wide array of various accessory sizes and types.
4. Storage Organisers for Keeping Everything in its Place
Small Item Drawer Dividers
Having appropriate organisers makes the task of keeping your wardrobe clutter-free quite easy. A few things you should get include the following.
Drawer dividers come in small pockets or cubbies that hold small items, such as socks, underwear, and accessories. These prevent further bunching and juggling of items in a bid to keep them from moving around, thus allowing you easily to find what you’re looking for without fumbling.
- Efficient Organisation: Dividers ensure the items remain nicely segregated, making clutter elimination within drawers possible.
- Time Saver: You will always find what you’re looking for right away and won’t have to dig around.
- Customisable Layout: Dividers are adjustable to fit various drawer sizes and quantities of items.
Choose dividers that are easy to install and easy to remove, so if your needs change, it will be easy to adjust your storage.
Visible Storage Bins For Seasonal Pieces
Use clear plastic storage bins for items that are less frequently used. Store seasonal clothes in them so that it will keep them visible and free up your super valuable wardrobe space.
- Visibility: The clear bin allows you to see its contents without opening each one of them, thus making it easier to find an item.
- Protection: These bins protect your clothes from dust, moisture, and pests, which helps keep them in good shape.
- Space-Saving: Stackable clear bins maximise vertical space, making the most of small wardrobe areas.
Label each bin with its contents or season to facilitate ease when rotating your wardrobe.
Shelf Risers for Extra Storage Layers
Risers give you the ability to create additional layers on top of shelves, putting good space usage to work. They become very helpful in instances where you need to store folded
clothes and shoes.
- Vertical Expansion: Shelf risers increase the storage capabilities by creating numerous levels within a single shelf space.
- Improved Visibility: The risers will raise your items to levels that can be seen easily. This means you do not have to dig through piles of clothes to get what you want.
- Neat Display: The risers will keep your folded clothes and shoes in their places without toppling over; this makes for a clutter-free look.
Opt for heavy-duty risers that are capable of holding up the weight of your items and, at the same time, can be easily attached to your shelves without causing any damage.
Hanging Shelf Organisers for Folded Clothes
If you don’t have enough drawer space, use hanging shelf organisers. They provide good visibility and access to folded items, and they can be moved should other items need to have a home.
- Flexible Storage: Hanging shelf organisers can be easily moved around and adjusted based on a number of different storage needs, wardrobe layouts, etc.
- Space Efficiency: These organisers will help you take advantage of the vertical space that your hanging items take up, and free up the shelves and drawers for other things.
- Various types of usage: They can store folded shirts, jumpers, and even shoes all in one place and organised.
Ensure to find durable fabric organisers that will hold up the weight of your clothes without sagging or tearing.
5. Rotate by Season for a Streamlined Wardrobe
A seasonal rotation ensures that you have to be clutter-free and focused on precisely what you will wear. Here’s how to manage your wardrobe throughout the year with ease.
Store Bulky Items in Vacuum-Sealed Bags
Vacuum-sealed bags are perfect to store items you might need in a different season, an example being winter coats. They can save space and protect your clothes from dust and moisture.
- Save Space: These bags shrink items with bulky dimensions down to a fraction of their original size, freeing up wardrobes for currently in-use items.
- Protection: Vacuum sealing is done to protect clothes from moisture, pests, and dust during storage.
- Easy Access: See-through vacuum-sealed bags can make identifying and retrieving items even easier when the next season comes.
Invest in good vacuum-sealed bags that are not only durable but also easy to use, so that your clothes can be protected for a longer period.
Assign Space to Each Season
Create spaces in your wardrobe for each type of season: fall, summer, winter, or spring. This allows rotating these items in and out with ease at any given weather, instead of having to scramble in your wardrobe for a specific season.
- Rotating in Order: It is easier to replace seasonal items with each other when they are stored in separate sections.
- Maximum Utilisation of Space: Giving a separate space to each season keeps it clutter-free, and your overall wardrobe organised for the whole year.
- Easy Accessibility: Separate sections help you in identifying and reaching the clothes that you need for the time of the year.
Use labels or colour-coded sections so that each area is well-marked, and rotation can be smoothly and trouble-free.
Label Seasonal Storage Bins
Clear labelling on the bins regarding the season or contents, such as “Summer Tops”, allows for easy access when the time comes to replace clothes.
- Easy Identification: The labels make it easy for you to identify the correct bins without necessarily having to open them up; this saves time and effort.
- Smooth: The labelled bins make it easier to rotate them with the changing seasons and nothing is forgotten
- Uniform Organisation: Labels will keep the system set for organising your clothes, making it easier to maintain your wardrobe throughout the year.
The labels used should be heavy-duty ones, which will not fade or peel with time. This ensures that they remain visible to serve their purpose.
6. Small wardrobe Hacks for Big Impact
Follow these functional, easy-to-apply hacks that create enormous impacts on small wardrobes. These ideas are for anyone out there looking to optimise their small space without sacrificing style.
Installing a Mirror on the wardrobe Door
This attachment of a mirror to the wardrobe door will save space and avail to you a quick spot for checking your outfits without occupying the floor space.
- Space-saving: A door mirror could solve the purpose of a full-length mirror, which means it saves space in your room.
- Convenience: It allows seeing your outfit quickly before leaving the house, which adds convenience to your daily routine.
- Aesthetic look: These mirrors make your wardrobe look good and appear larger and brighter.
Choose a good-quality mirror fitted for your door size and blending with your wardrobe’s decoration to create a perfect continuity.
Use Pull-Out Hanging Rods
Pull-out rods are excellent temporary hangings added for laying out outfits or hanging items, such as jackets or dresses, that take some time to air out after wear.
- Extra Storage: It offers extra hanging space but does not require taking up real estate in your wardrobe permanently.
- Versatility: The pull-out rods hang everything from outfits to light items that need airflow for complete drying.
- Easy Installation: Most pull-out rods are easy to install and can be adjusted for various configurations in the wardrobe.
You want strong, smoothly operating rods that can support the weight of your clothes without sagging or sticking.
Add an Accessory Rolling Cart
It serves as storage for shoes, jewellery, or small bags that you would just roll in and out with ease with no dislocation issue. A rolling cart saves space for you and keeps the things you use on a daily basis handy.
- Mobility: The introduction of a rolling cart allows one to make mobile usage of the wardrobe space.
- Organised Storage: They have different specialised compartments to store various accessories hence in an organised and accessible way.
- Space-Saving: This allows you to save the remainder of your shelves and hanging space for other purposes, as accessories will be present on the cart.
Get a compact and fashionably sleek cart that would fit well inside your wardrobe and complement the rest of your interior even more.
Make a Pegboard for Your Jewellery
Pegboards can be one of the most creative manners of displaying your jewellery or any other accessory. Get it attuned with hooks and a shelf so that it may hold necklaces, bracelets, and even sunglasses.
- Customisable: Many pegboards are available with configurations that work for displaying jewellery the way you might want it.
- Visual Display: They make your accessories into some form of a decorative display, lending fashion to your wardrobe while keeping your items organised
- Easy Access: With the hooks and shelves, it will be easy to view and reach your jewels without having to dig through drawers or boxes.
Get a good, solid pegboard and some decent hooks that won’t bend or break under the weight of your accessories.
7. Add Personality with Style and Decor
The more personal your wardrobe is, the more you’ll enjoy using it-and it might even brighten up your mood. Now, let’s talk about adding a little style to your wardrobe space.
Employ Decorative Storage Baskets
For smaller items, take advantage of decorative baskets or containers that reflect your taste and style. They add character to the room and also serve as decor.
- Stylish Appeal: Fashion baskets add style to your wardrobe and make it friendlier, putting things in order.
- Functional Storage: They are highly functional in storing items like scarves and belts or small accessories, and they will keep them contained.
- Versatility: Since these baskets are decorative, they are easy to move around and reuse as needs for storage change.
Select baskets that will coordinate with the colour and design of your wardrobe for continuity and fashion.
Invest in Matching Velvet Hangers
Matching hangers make for a clean and consistent look. Velvet hangers are space-saving, saving your clothes from falling off, adding that touch of luxury to the wardrobe.
- Uniform Look: The same type of hanger helps with neatness and organisation in the wardrobe.
- Space-Saving: Velvet hangers are thin as opposed to their bulky plastic or wood counterparts, allowing more clothes to be fitted into your wardrobe.
- Clothing Protection: The non-slip surface of velvet hangers prevents clothes from falling off, which cuts down on wrinkles and helps protect the garments.
Choose a colour that fits your style: black, white, or whatever matches the colour of your wardrobe.
Add Ambiance with wardrobe Lighting
Lighting really brings a big difference to your wardrobe. Use LED strip lights or push lights to shed some light on your shelves and bring an upscale, boutique-like flair inside.
- Better Visibility: Enough lighting helps you to see all your clothes very clearly, making the selection of outfits and keeping order in your wardrobe pretty easy.
- Visual Appeal: Good lighting highlights your clothes and accessories, further beautifying your wardrobe.
- Practical Benefits: It lessens the chances of misplacing any item because everything falls under proper light, hence keeping your wardrobe organised.
Energy-efficient LED lighting should be provided to an extent that it is easily operable with any switch or remote for convenience and flexibility.
Highlight a Few of Your Favourite Items
The organisation of a wardrobe is not necessarily time-consuming. These tips will make it easy for you to maintain it so that your wardrobe remains organised throughout the year.
Show off special pieces, like one gorgeous bag or a hat that reflects your personality and taste. This tiny styling trick gives the wardrobe a sense of feeling and looking edited but personalised.
- Personal Expression: Displaying favourite items shows off your personal style and characterises your wardrobe.
- Visual Interest: The few highlighted pieces create focal points, making it all the more interesting to look at.
- Encouragement to Use: The more beautiful or meaningful an item is, the more you are likely to use it.
Use dedicated display shelves or hooks to feature your favourite pieces without cluttering your overall storage system.
8. Tips to Maintain a wardrobe All Year Round
The organisation of a wardrobe is not necessarily time-consuming. These tips will make it easy for you to maintain it so that your wardrobe remains organised throughout the year.
One Goes In, One Goes Out
Every time you purchase something new, know that an old item should be removed. This is a good rule to keep your wardrobe balanced and stops it from slowly getting more full over time.
- Mindful shopping: it really makes you think about what you are buying and keeps you away from acquiring unnecessary things
- Continuous cleaning: your wardrobe won’t clog up because the amount of newer things coming in will balance with the old ones leaving.
- Financial Benefits: It will keep you financially savvy to save money from useless purchases and invest that money in higher quality, well-loved pieces.
Develop the habit of going through your wardrobe on a regular basis and follow this rule for an effortlessly organised wardrobe.
Schedule Monthly Clean-Up Sessions
Set aside a few minutes each month to get your wardrobe in order: refold items, straighten things up, and take notice of what you don’t need any more.
- Ruthless Organisation: Since cleaning up a few extra minutes each month is doable, it’s never the case that your wardrobe is an out-of-control disaster.
- Easy Maintenance: Small sessions of tidying here and there are less intimidating than the bigger and less frequent clean-ups.
- Ongoing Refinement: The regular reassessment of your organisational system will help you change according to the changing needs and wardrobe.
Set a recurring reminder on your calendar to spend a few minutes each month with your wardrobe maintenance.
Freshen Up with Scented Sachets
Add sachets or blocks of cedar for a fresh, nice smell and to keep the moths away. Lavender sachets are quite popular for this purpose; their calm fragrance is undeniably effective.
- Natural Freshness: Scented sachets create a soft, pleasant smell and avoid the harshness of chemical air fresheners.
- Pest Protection: Certain scents, like lavender and cedar, inherently help to repel moths and other pests that can destroy your clothes.
- Aesthetic Addition: Sachets and blocks of cedar are so aesthetically appealing, they beautify your wardrobe.
Select sachets in your favourite fragrances and switch them out with the seasons for a fresh change in scent.
How is Worth Its Weight Supporting Smarter Wardrobe Management?
At Worth Its Weight, we are dedicated to helping you declutter your wardrobe in an environmentally friendly way while making the most of your space. Our Cash for Clothes service offers a hassle-free way to part with unwanted items in bulk and pay cash in return.
After your clothes are dropped off, we sort them carefully to make sure they find a new purpose. From supporting global communities in need, to reducing textile waste in landfills, we give every item a second chance to make an impact.Begin your journey to a more organised wardrobe and a greener planet. Find your nearest drop-off location today!
