not my closet
I have no right, whatsoever to talk about closets. Mine is perpetually not tidy. But the problem isn’t my hanging clothes. I’ll tell you my biggest issue with my closet in another post. My hanging clothes actually look pretty good and I owe it to two tricks.
1. All of my clothes are hung on identical hangers {my husband has his own identical hangers} we use wooden hangers that I found on ebay, his are light wood mine are dark. If your hangers aren’t the same, your closet will still work just fine but, I couldn’t believe the difference it made visually when all of my clothes were hung on identical hangers. Everything hangs evenly and automatically looks neat.
2. Don’t hate me but….I rainbowize my clothes. Color coordinated clothes make your closet look organized and help you find what you need. I did this a few years back and it only takes 5 minutes. From there on out you just have to take an extra 2.5 seconds each time you hang up something to hang it with the right color. I promise, color coordinating my clothes was the simplest, smallest change that had a huge impact on my closets life. Trust me on this, go color code your clothes.
By the way, I had 3 times this amount of clothes until the yard sale. I realized I wasn’t wearing all that I had and decided to sell the stuff I didn’t love. Getting dressed is so much quicker and I can’t even remember anything I got rid of! I still have another side of the closet with little jackets and a few dresses and such but these are my hanging shirts.
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I have always wondered if color-coordinating was the way to go with my closet, and you may have just convinced me. Right now, all of my clothes are sorted by type….which works most, but not all, of the time.
I tried that but I always get confused on the colors that can be ambiguous. :) I organize mine by sleeve length and I think that works great, too! I love this series!!
We use the skinny hangers, and they work great! I lost 40 lbs this year, so I got rid of aaaaalll my clothes. I planned on slowly refilling my closet, but I haven’t gotten around to it. So right now my closet is very tidy, but only because it is so bare.
You are so brave to show pics of your closet! It looks great. My closet is my weakness–it is a disaster. I have too many “dry clean only” clothes, but I hate spending $$ to get them dry cleaned, so they sit in a pile in my closet. And the shoes….oh, the shoes. Hope there are more closet organizing posts to come, I need it!
I organized my closet this summer after finally getting rid of all maternity clothes. Makes life so much easier to walk into an organized closet. You DO get dressed faster and the day just starts a little better. I have to constantly remind myself to keep it clean but so far so good. I’m going to look @ my clothes and ponder the rainbow idea…
I need to show my hubby this post! My half of the closet is organized – I rainbow- ize! – and my hubby’s, not so much. Every few months I organize his clothes, but it doesn’t take him long to start haphazardly hanging them. Drives me crazy. How does he FIND anything?!
You are killing me. Perfection EVERYWHERE at your house? Gah. Feeling inferior. I don’t rainbow-ize or have matching hangers.
How dare you call my house parts perfect. you KNOW it is never perfect. ever. And I thought you were supposed to be my friend. I know this is just a trick so I will show you the skanky parts of my house. It worked.
Miss you friend.
I arrange my clothes in the closet according to colors and use the same hangers. When I had a larger closet, it was easier. Everything looked neat and tiday.
However, since we moved temporarily into a very small house, it’s been quite a challenge for me. Everything is so squished together and I’m having a hard time finding anything. Maybe I need to get rid of some of my clothes so I can find them?
Yeah I no longer feel like a complete odd ball! My closet is color coordinated and my hubs always made fun of me…now I know I am not alone!
I totally do the same rainbow coloring with my clothes too!! No hating going on over here. Can I just say I love love love the closet. I’m sure I have a little OCD somewhere in me and I’m proud of it :-)
And the hangers…perfect! I always ask when I get my hubby’s suits if I can have extra. I guess they figure if your laying out a chunk for a suit they’ll give you a few hangers.
Great post!
I have matching hangers, too, and I am so pleased I am not the only one who has clothes organized by color- ROYGBIV (my drawers are oganized that way, too- shh!!).
It’s okay… so is my bookcase. :)
I recently went to all one type of hanger. They are an off brand version of Huggable Hangers. As to organization, I go by size. Due to weight flucuations I own several sizes. Pants in particular are hard to tell apart, since I have a number of pairs of black ones that pretty much look alike hanging there, unless I dig for the size tag.
To try to make this a little simpler, I used card stock and made some little circles to hang on the rod to divide the sizes, much like the size dividers in stores. I labeled each with the appropriate size number, so now I can reach for what I need, rather than standing there thumbing through and looking at waistbands.
Love this tip – I actually did this a couple of months ago & it’s soooo much better now. I’m enjoying the 31 day project – thanks.
Totally agree about getting rid of the things you don’t wear. I don’t miss the items I gave away to a women’s shelter. I really like the wooden hangers. Thanks for sharing.
A friend of mine gave me a priceless closet tip a few years ago: all empty hangers go to one end of the rod. Once I take a garment off a hanger it zooms to it’s new home at the end of the rod. Now I have easy access to empty hangers and it’s all neater.
Thank God for separate closets is all I can say! Tell me you have a lot of shoes to show, so I can learn to organize mine better. Can you just please come over? I’ll bake…
Rainbowize made me smile.
Beautiful commas today.
why thank you my dear.
I think I might have enough clothes to fill half of one section of your closet! But your closet looks gorgeous. I think mine could use a bit of tidying up and you’ve given me some inspiration.
I use a combination of padded satin covered hangers and wooden hangers with clips for pants/skirts/jeans. The best thing I ever did was get rid of absolutely everything that didn’t work for me, though. You’d be surprised at how many outfits you can make, with very little clothing, when you can easily see each item and see how it works with other pieces. As I could I got rid of things that didn’t fit well, didn’t look “right”, had me constantly adjusting it, or otherwise made me think about my clothing all day rather than about living my life. I’m not saying I’m going to live with such minimal clothing the rest of my life (just this weekend I doubled the number of jeans I have, from two to FOUR!), but it’s been an eye opener to see how much I can do with relatively few clothing items to choose from.
In any case, it’s always good to have the start of your day made as easy as possible, and it’s much easier when you can quickly pull an outfit together from an organized closet-however it gets organized, as long as it works for you, is the right way to do it!
I love you even more now! I rainbowize my clothes too! It really helps! Plus, it makes my closet a colorful, happy place to go, even if the floor is a disaster!!
yes, and if anyone ever happens to see it they are so impressed and assume anyone with color coded clothes must be really organized. funny how a little change can make you feel better about your closet.
I “rainbow-ize” my closet too and it really does make finding things easier. I also use all the same hangers. I bought those really slim, velvet covered hangers and could.not.believe how much space they saved in my closet. After rehanging all of my clothes in my (formerly) jam-packed closet, I had almost two feet of space left over. More than enough to hang a shoe organizer, which has been another godsend. It’s amazing how much room thicker hangers waste!
hmmm, good point, skinny hangers save space~ I like that!
I wish i was that organized, i absolutely LOVE that you raninbowize your closet!
Color coding! Genius!
Can’t wait to try it.
I hang our clothes by item (shirts, pants, jackets, etc.) but not color, We also use only one kind of hanger but I prefer the thick plastic kind. I do use a few different hangers for skirts or hard to hang items. Scarf and belt hangers also help. We also have drawers in our closet which really helps out!
tina
My youngest daughter is naturally an organizer. She is always sneaking into our closet to color coordinate my husband’s shirts. The funny thing is, he is color blind :-) I can’t wait until daughter grows up a bit and organizes the whole house for us!
The caption to that first photo made me laugh. I wish that was my closet!!! We have a looong skinny closet, and it’s not a walk-in. There are clothes in the back that I have not seen in two years because they are so far back behind the door opening that I can’t even reach them. And also maybe my shoes are in the way. :s
I really love this series. You’re inspiring me to take another look at areas of my home (like my closet) that I had written off. ;) Thank you!
I do the color thing, too! It does help.
Would you consider doing a post about the garage? I just hate ours. It is dirty and unorganized. It is our primary entrance into the house and dumps us straight into the kitchen, no mudroom or anything. Grr. Consequently, I’m constantly picking up shoes that have been taken off by the door and have the kids’ hooks for backpacks and jackets in the kitchen. *gasp* Thanks, Nester!
yes, once I learn how to organize and keep a garage that way I will do one. Give me about 10 years.
Ok, I thought maybe I was the only one with a disaster for a garage!
I needed to hear the word rainbowize this morning. Put a smile on my face. Keep ‘em comin’!
girl- i am loving this series from you!!! rock on nester chick.
I love that I’m not the only one who arranges her closet according to the liking of ROY G. BIV. I’ve been made fun of for years over that, but it just makes.me.so.happy.
I too hang shirts by color! Then there is a section for dress pants, skirts and dresses. I do need to go through and purge though. I tell myself (not truthfully) that maybe I’ll want to wear that when I’m not pregnant anymore, or whatever. But I need to go see what I love and if not, get rid of it!
We have two different kinds of hangers, though that happened unintentionally. Hubby likes a certain kind for his dress shirts and pants and such. So I have the old ones. And I usually organize my clothes by type – pants, shirts, dresses, etc. And that within each of those categories they are organized by work clothes vs. every day clothes. But I bet rainbowizing them would make them prettier.
I too color order my clothes. I’ve been doing it since I moved out on my own 13 years ago and I’ll never go back! It’s quick, easy and if I think, “I need to wear a red shirt.” I know EXACTLY where it is! Easy Peasy!
Thanks for your series. I can’t wait to read more.
My closet is could get some attention, but I do love and insist on having matching wooden hangers! Each time I put something on and take it off, knowing I’ll probably not be wearing it again, anytime soon, I put it in the donation pile. As a result I have one slimmed down closet, but it’s fine, I usually end up wearing a few key pieces all the time anyway! Great series! Janell
I hang my clothes according to sleeve length (with a subcategory of casual to dressy, with another subcategory of summer to winter) because if the long sleeves are mixed in with the sleeveless, I don’t see the sleeveless.
From left to right, I have strappy tanks, wider strappy tanks, sleeveless tees, sleeveless dressy tops, sleeveless sweaters (aka sweater vests), short-sleeved no-collar tees, short-sleeved no-collar blouses, short-sleeved no-collar sweaters, short-sleeved collared shirts, short-sleeved collard sweaters (aka mock turtles and cowls), 3/4-length sleeved tees, blouses, sweaters (no-collar to collared), long sleeved tees, blouses and sweaters (no-collar to collared).
And then there are the shorts, capris, gauchos, slacks, pants, jeans, cover ups, dresses, skirts, coats, wraps, shawls, drapes, ponchos, and scarves.
But we won’t go there.
I rainbowize my clothes, too! Glad to know I’m not the only one. :)
Where is the paper behind your dishes from?
I also rainbowize my clothes. But I’ll rainbowize pretty much anything. It’s a sickness.
I rainbowize my closet first by type then by color. So I have dresses, skirts, pants, sweaters, cardigans, button downs, long sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, short sleeve, and sleeveless then all organized by color. It really helps me with the “wow, I forgot I even had this!” that I used to find myself saying sometimes. I do sometimes find myself irrationally annoyed when a shirt doesn’t fit nicely in my rainbow, though :)
Wooden hangers on Ebay?! Why didn’t I think of that! Off to bid away…
I use all the same wooden hangers too. It makes a tremendous difference on the look of your closet. I HATE WIRE HANGERS!!!
I love the felt covered slim profile hangers (we get ours from costco, and I see them at TJMaxx all the time in cute colors – I still use the nice wooden ones for suits, coats, etc, but I love the less bulky ones for our tiny closets. The felt hangers grip, too, so its easier for the kids to hang up their own stuff.
I would love to colorize my closet – white on one side, black on the other, jeans in the middle. Done. I have to get out more.
now I want those kind of hangers. Anyone want to buy a bunch of fat wooden hangers? :}
YES!!! I want them. They’re so pretty! We’re kinda’ broke, though… so I guess I’ll just wait ’till Christmas or something. My family is well acquainted with the weird high that I get from anything organizational. :)
Those sound like the hangers we have. One of their main pluses is that suff doesn’t fall off.
Stuff doesn’t fall off either.
I just cleaned out my closet, but yours has inspired me to go back and put my colors together!
I totally organize by color. It’s so easy to just go the color you want to find the exact shirt (or pants) you want to wear that day.
I’ve never thought to hanger them in the colors of the rainbow. LOL But I have always grouped colors together in my closet. And I hang short sleeves to longest sleeves within each color category. And I am completely OCD, so all my hangers match too. I just use white plastic ones, but they all have to match! And my daughter has caught the organization bug too! :)
I recently reorganized our kids closets. Kiana told me that it’s much easier to find things. I just love that the clothes are off the floor!
I believe the official term for that is rainbowetical order. ;) I do that, too, despite the mockery I receive from my husband.
Totally agree, rainbowetical order is the proper term. I stand corrected. I’m so using that today.
At long last, I find that I am not the only reasonably sane person to “rainbowize” my hanging clothing! (Love that term, btw.) If you could sense the vindication that I’m feeling at this moment – for you have just rocked my world. (And the hubby has a HUGE “I told you so” coming tonight…!) HA!
Love reading your blog- chalk full of great ideas! I design closets for a living, and have tons of tips for keeping clothing organized. (Wish I could always practice what I preach…ahh…someday.) But anyway, here’s a lil’ closet organizing tip for your readers to help them edit some items out: Hang up all clothing in your closet facing the same direction (backwards preferably), then when you wear something put it back facing the opposite direction (frontwards). At the end of the year all the items that are still facing backwards are the items to pitch. Now of course there’s always the special occasion items that don’t really count in this excersize, but for the everyday items it is a fabulous way to force yourself to get rid of the items that you think maybe you might wear someday (trust me you won’t) and make room for new items that you will wear!
Another rainbow-izer here. The rest of my closet may look like a tornado tore through Walmart the day after Christmas, but that little section of organized shirts looks great!
I have organized my clothes like that since I was a teenager. May I suggest also organizing them by sleeve length as well? I do both, since there are only four real categories of tops (sleeveless, short sleeved, 3/4 sleeve and long) it is really easy to “rainbowize” them within each category. Another bonus to organizing by color is that then you can see what colors you are drawn to, and maybe what you should purchase more/less of. Also, don’t get hung up on the “exact” color- just hang it with whatever color you think of it as (ex: I have a white shirt with yellow print, but I think of it as yellow, so it goes in the yellow short sleeve section) Don’t think I have a ton of clothes either! My husband is enlisted in the military and we live on post, but organizing by sleeve length AND color makes my heart sing. Happiness for free! BTW I am not OCD or extremely organized, just happy to have a workable closet system! Now for my poor shoes…