I recently took 3 hours to declutter and organize my entire master closet… here’s what I learned along the way and my best tips for how to organize a small closet, from my must-have organizers to the ONE thing that helped me the most on my closet organization journey!
True story – I was laying in bed watching a movie with my husband about a month ago, and we heard a loud bang come from our closet. I jumped out of bed to see what happened, and to my shock, one of our clothes hanging rods in our master closet had pulled out of the wall and crashed to the floor.
And by “our” clothes rod, I mean mine… because it was so burdened by the weight of way too many sweaters, jackets, and blouses that I hadn’t worn in at least a year and that desperately needed to be decluttered.
So you could say that having to patch the holes in the wall and re-hang our closet system was the final straw… or in our case, the final sheet rock anchor. Hey, at least I can joke about it now!
And I set out on a journey through Google, Pinterest, and all of the “hacks” that I could find to figure out how to organize a small closet and declutter clothes. Yes, I had to spend a bit of money on some new organizers – and the black velvet coat hangers were calling my name too – but the result is well worth the hundred bucks and few hours of my time.
If your master closet is in desperate need of a little TLC too, then here are my best tips and tricks and an easy how-to guide for organizing a small closet – even if you have a lot of clothes!
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Organizing the Closet Video
I recently started a new series on YouTube called “Do More Monday” in which I set a timer and tackle one small area of my home every Monday. You can watch me declutter and organize the hanging clothes on YouTube here:
A Few Notes about My Closet
Before I get started, I know that everyone has a different definition of “small”… Yes, our master closet is technically a walk-in, but it’s considerably smaller than other master closets that we have had, and it’s also smaller than most of my friends’ closets – by at least 50%!
In fact, it pretty much only has one wall of hanging rods, except for a very small side wall that I only use for a few longer hanging dresses.
The total square footage of our closet is about 40 square feet, and here are some “before” photos for reference:
*NOTE – This photo was taken with the 0.5 option on my iPhone so that I could get the floor and ceiling in the photo… my actual closet is smaller than it appears!
And another angle for the messy shoe rack:
However, what our closet lacks in actual square footage, it makes up for in vertical space – with 9 foot ceilings and perfectly planned top shelving, we actually have a good amount of storage space for large bins on the top shelf. More tips on how I utilize the top shelf storage of my closet down below!
Beauty vs Reality in Organizing
I’ll be the first to admit that scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest and ogling over the photos of perfectly color coordinated and organized closets can be inspiring, but let’s face it… nobody’s closet really looks like this:
In fact, this is a stock photo…. and if you’re taking your home cleaning and organizing advice from people that are posting pictures like this, then I urge you to reconsider.
I don’t know about you, but if that were my actual closet, then those half-empty shelves would be full of all sorts of storage bins and the shirts wouldn’t be all perfectly slanted and lined up by color with a good 3 inches of space in between each one.
Remember, most people post fiction online and lurking on the other side of the camera is the big pile of clutter that’s going right back in the closet after the perfect pic is snapped. So don’t feel bad about the look of your own home based on what someone else claims to be their “reality”. And in fact, if you want to see my actual master closet in all of its messy glory, and you want to follow along with me as I clean and organize my REAL space, you can join me on YouTube here!
My 3 Biggest Tips for Organizing Your Closet
After I tackled my own master closet, I picked up a few tips that I will carry with me to my next closet organization projects. Here are my top 3 suggestions:
Tip 1: Divide the closet into smaller “zones”
Because the master closet is probably the largest closet in your home (and the most cluttered!), I recommend breaking it up into smaller jobs… unless you’re feeling extra ambitious and you think you can get the entire closet done in just an hour or two.
For me, dividing the closet into three main zones works best. *I also recommend this method for cleaning other areas of your home, and that’s how I have divided up my weekly cleaning schedule.
Here are some ideas for creating closet cleaning zones:
- hanging closet rods – These include all hanging clothes, scarves, and coats… anything that hangs on a rod. You could even break the closet rods into small zones, like your husband’s hanging clothes and yours.
- the closet shelves – We have top and middle shelves, so I like to make those their own “zone”.
- shoe racks or shelves – If you have a ton of shoes, then you may want to devote a full hour to just organizing and cleaning your shoe rack.
- drawers – My closet doesn’t have drawers, but if it did, I’m sure that I would need to make those their own cleaning zone.
Tip 2: Set a one hour timer
Do you ever feel like you get more done when you’re up against a time limit? Like you’re racing the clock?
After organizing and decluttering my own closet, one of my biggest tips is to set a one hour timer when you start. Then, don’t work on anything else except for the closet for that one hour. No picking up your phone to check social media notifications, no flipping through the random magazine that you find, etc.
You’ll be amazed how much more you’ll accomplish when you’re working on a time clock!
Tip 3: Use Command Hooks for easy storage
The very first thing that I did when we first moved into our house was to buy some heavy duty 3M Command Hooks for our master closet. So creating some sort of closet hook organization system is one of my best hacks for organizing a small closet… and for me, it’s a MUST-HAVE!
Wall hooks are super handy for hanging items that you wear frequently – items like your favorite jeans that you may wear 3 days in a row, or your pajamas that you wear every night. Items like these would otherwise end up on the floor, because you’re unlikely to re-hang them on coat hangers after every wear.
Hooks are also handy for storing belts, hats, and other scarves. Or, if your closet is directly off your master bath, then the heavy-duty 3M command hooks are also great for hanging your bath robes or nighttime wear.
Tip 4: Organize the top shelf with storage bins
Of ALL of the different organization systems that I have started (from my medicine cabinet organization to my makeup drawers), this is the ONE that I have kept up with the best!
In fact, when I decluttered and organized my closet a few weeks ago, I didn’t even have to touch any of the items on the top shelf because I had organized everything on that shelf 2 years prior – and it still looked perfect!
I have an entire post on my top shelf closet organization system here, along with some free printable tags that you can use to label your fabric storage bins!
How to Organize a Small Closet
Step 1: Take everything out of the first “zone”
Decide which closet “zone” you will work on first, and remove everything from that area. Depending on the size of your closet and the available floor space, you may need to relocate all items to your bed or elsewhere to be able to sort through them.
Since I have so many clothes in my master closet that one of the closet rods literally fell off the wall from the weight, then I decided to start with my hanging clothes “zone”. Just take all of the hanging clothes off of the rack that you’re starting with, and add them to one large pile to sort through.
Step 2: Sort all items into piles
Next, go through the items from the first zone, and quickly sort them into three different piles:
- Things you definitely want to keep – This would be clothing, shoes, or accessories that you wear frequently, more expensive items that you may need for special occasions (like a wedding or graduation), or sentimental items (like your bridal shoes). Items in this pile should be easy “yes” items.
- Things you don’t want to keep – Like sweaters, jackets, or sandals that you haven’t worn in over a year or items that are in poor shape.
- Things you MIGHT want to keep – When you’re working against a time deadline (that’s why I recommend setting a timer!), then you don’t have time to ponder over each and every item that you’re not sure about. So when you come to something that’s a “maybe”, just add it to a separate pile. This will also include jeans, pants, or dresses that you’re not sure fit. Throw ’em in a pile to try on later.
Step 3: Clean the storage space
Once you’ve moved everything out of your cleaning zone, you’ll want to actually clean the empty space before putting things back away. This includes dusting the shelving and empty closet rods, vacuuming the floor in the space, wiping down the baseboards, etc.
It’s much easier to clean the storage area when it’s empty, and you definitely don’t want to put your nicely organized items back into a dirty space.
Step 4: Replace all items in color-coordinated order
Next, hang all of your “yes” items back in the closet, grouped by category and color. Here are my best tips for organizing and color-coordinating your closet:
Tips for Color Coordinating Clothes in Your Closet
- Color coordinate all items in each category, instead of all items together. For instance, group all of your sweaters together, and then organize all sweaters by color. Then, group all pants together, organized by color.
- Make the color order the same for each category. If you start organizing your sweaters with the blacks and darker colors on the left, then also hang your pants with the black pants on the left.
- Have the color order on the top and bottom closet rods match. You can tell from the picture below that the pants on the top rod match the color order of the sweatshirts on the bottom rod. So if my green pants hang in front of my pink pants, then my green sweatshirts also hang in front of my pink sweatshirts. This color order is less distracting on the eyes, and therefore, the closet looks less “busy” and cluttered.
- Pick the main focal point of the closet, and color-coordinate from there. For me, the focal point of the closet is the shoe rack, because that’s the center that you see first when you walk in. So for color coordinating my closet, I hung my black sweatshirts and pants closest to the shoe rack, and the colors lightened as your eye moves away from the shoe rack. I repeated the same on my husband’s side – so his black sweatshirts and pants were closest to the shoe rack. This system means that ALL of our darkest clothes are near the focal point, and the lighter colors fan out on either side. Here’s an example picture:
My Favorite Closet Organizers and Supplies
When it comes to organizing my master closet, I have three MUST-HAVE products that I absolutely recommend:
- velvet hangers – The slim black velvet hangers look SO much nicer than the white plastic tubular ones, and they take up less space on the closet rod. Just making this one swap, from old plastic and mismatched hangers to new black slim hangers, made such a HUGE difference in the overall look and cleanliness of my closet! *TIP – If you have a lighter colored closet organization system, then I recommend going with white or ivory velvet hangers.
- fabric storage bins with lids – I love my lidded storage bins SO much that I have bought them 4 different times to organize various areas of my home – everywhere from the top shelf of the master closet to the shelves of the playroom. Having bins with lids looks more neat and polished, and it keeps dust out of your bins. AND the fabric bins won’t scratch up your shelves as you’re sliding them on and off like wicker or wooden baskets will.
- command hooks – A must for me! The heavy duty hooks are great for hanging up items that you wear frequently like bath robes, pajamas, loungewear, or your favorite jeans. You can also use them on small blank walls to hang accessories like hats or belts.
I hope these tips help you to beautifully organize the clothes in your master closet! And be sure to come back next week for some tips on organizing your shoe rack!
And don’t forget to PIN this post for later:
