Six Tips for Organizing Clothing | Family Economics

By Trisha

With a family of seven it doesn’t seem to take long for piles of clothes to somehow accumulate, causing overstuffed dresser drawers, messy closets and disorganization in the clothing department of my home.

Maybe you feel the same way. Whether you have one child or 10, we can all relate to the accumulation of out grown, unwanted, mismatched piles of clothes in our homes and often the experience of searching and digging for that article of clothing they are in need of wearing.

I have six must do’s for organizing clothing to help each of us tackle the piles before they accumulate into disorganization.

1. Outgrown/out-wanted box: Provide an outgrown/out-wanted box or re-useable shopping bag in a central location so that every family member can place their unwanted items. A good place for this is in your laundry room so that you can also fill it as you do your families laundry and come across items no longer needed, just make sure it is clearly marked.

2. Store seasonal clothing: Use large storage containers with lids to store seasonal clothing. Your family’s entire wardrobe of snow clothes, including all the accessories from socks, gloves, thermals and snow pants, can be placed in these bins and stored on closet shelves. Then when the snowstorm arrives the boxes are easily accessible. You can also place your children’s various sports clothing into a bin. Then when that sports season arrives you are prepared with your organized bin of sports clothing.

3. Hand-me-downs: If you have children whom you pass clothes down to, create a hand-me-down bin to be stored on the top shelf of the child’s closet. Once an older child out grows an article of clothing and is ready to pass it down, place it in this bin until the receiving child is ready to wear it.

4. Arrange by type of clothing: Arrange clothing in your closet by type. Sort all hanging clothes into short sleeve tops, long sleeve tops, sweat shirts, jackets, shorts, pants, dresses and formal wear.

5. Color coordinate: Color coordination is key when it comes to hanging clothes in their closets. This helps to quickly choose their daily outfits and makes it easy to find a specific item when needed. Place the hanging clothing on the closet rods from lightest to darkest colors. Keeping them sorted in the above groups (listed in step four).

6. Group accessories: Accessory grouping keeps you from digging and searching for a lost belt or hat when you are in need of it. Group all of the same type of accessories together from hats to belts and use either hanging storage solutions or storage containers that you can place on the shelves in your closet or into dresser drawers. I have also used laundry baskets to store purses, hats and accessories in and placed them on the floor of my closets when I did not have shelf space.

Share your must do clothing organization tip!