How to Organize a Small Closet

Discover ways to manage a small closet with some easy instruments to maximise area and retailer your entire garments neatly!

In case you’ve been round this weblog for very lengthy, you already know that our home is just not big. We dwell in a 3 bed room townhouse, and whereas we adore it, we additionally need to be very intentional about how we use our area. I attempt to consider this as a constructive factor as a result of it just about forces us to cut back muddle and be picky about what we let into our residence.

One space I’ve at all times felt like we may enhance is our major closet. There’s just one, Donnie and I share it, and it isn’t the most important factor ever. It had the everyday builder-grade single shelf + rail combo, and I knew there needed to be a greater means of organizing a closet than that, so we got down to improve it!

I realized a number of issues throughout this course of, so I assumed I’d share them in case you all have been coping with small closets too.

Organizing a Small Closet Step by Step

1. Declutter as a lot as potential.

Oh how I like to declutter! Just a few weeks in the past I went by means of all of my garments and eliminate the whole lot that didn’t match or was out of fashion. (Apparently the garments I wore 10-15 years in the past in highschool and faculty are not “in” anymore. Who knew?! 😉 )

Once I was completed going by means of the whole lot, I guess I had gotten rid of over half of the garments I owned.

That’s plenty of empty hangers! Simply this primary step was so gratifying, and have you learnt what I realized? It’s simpler to dress when you have got much less garments. It’s true.

It was so useful to take away all the items I by no means wore as a result of solely the “good things” remained. The one decisions I had left have been garments that I favored and that match. Win!

Like I do many occasions after I’m attempting to arrange an area, I popped over to Pinterest to see a few of the issues that others had accomplished. I oooh-ed and aaaaah-ed over all the attractive organized closets. However I noticed that the homeowners of these closets had totally different wants and areas than I did. So what I had to do was determine what we wanted our closet to do for us.

After wanting over our “stuff,” I knew there needed to be area for pants, shirts, and sneakers. I wanted room for some attire and longer gadgets. I had some sweaters and sweatshirts that I most popular to stack reasonably than dangle, and we maintain just a few board video games and small items of baggage on this closet as nicely. It was a tall order for such a small area, however I knew we may make it work, so I went off seeking the proper items to make it occur.

Actually, after we began down this closet organizing street, I assumed we might most likely hack up an present bookshelf or construct one thing ourselves, however after we found the ALGOT system at IKEA, we determined to rethink our authentic plan. (This isn’t a sponsored put up for IKEA, btw. We simply actually love this closet system!)

[FYI… IKEA recently discontinued their ALGOT system and replaced it with BOAXEL, which is very similar.]

It met all the necessities for issues we wanted, and it was actually inexpensive. I’m unsure we may have bought the wooden and provides we wanted to construct one thing ourselves for a lot lower than what we paid for this technique that we simply needed to put collectively.

In true IKEA style, you select every shelf and rail individually, so we may fully customise our closet to satisfy our wants. Actual supplies will differ based mostly on the scale of the closet.

Want extra particulars about measure for an IKEA ALGOT/BOAXEL closet system? See this put up.

3. Repair damaged methods.

This area had plenty of damaged methods. Sneakers have been piled up on the ground, getting combined up and gathering mud. My sweaters have been up so excessive that I needed to seize a step stool to achieve them. There have been so many hangers squished into one row that we may barely discover what we wanted. We positively needed to repair all of this stuff with the brand new closet.

One of many different damaged methods I needed to ensure I corrected was my scarf storage. For years I’ve been utilizing that tip that we’ve all seen on Pinterest the place you’re taking bathe curtain rings and put them on a hanger to carry your scarves…

…besides it didn’t work. The scarves would at all times slide to at least one finish as a substitute of staying properly balanced on the hanger. #pinterestfail

As an alternative, I discovered an previous pants hanger that we have been not utilizing:

And it labored like a attraction!

No extra lopsided scarves! (It truly is the little issues… 🙂 )

4. Make the most of the entire area.

The most important drawback with our previous closet association was that there was a lot wasted area. After we have been choosing items for the brand new system, then, we actually tried to make the most of each inch potential.

It was a bit of tough attempting to determine precisely what we wanted and the way it might all match collectively, however we have been in a position to look at plenty of the choices on IKEA’s website to see what we favored, what we didn’t, and what items would greatest match our wants. As soon as we had selected our plan of motion, we bought our items, introduced them residence, and put in them.

We put up all of those vertical strips first, after which we had plenty of totally different choices of what we may placed on them. We knew we needed a prime shelf, so we began with that. Then, conserving our wants in thoughts, we did some maneuvering and rearranging and rethinking and finally settled on our closing association. Right here’s what we got here up with:

There are cabinets, shoe racks, and pants hangers! There’s room for lengthy attire and a spot to place sweaters and even retailer gadgets like baggage and video games! Woohoo! I used to be tremendous enthusiastic about it after I noticed it empty, however as soon as I put all of our stuff in, I used to be fully in love.

Since, admittedly, I have a tendency to hold onto extra garments than Donnie does, he received the smaller aspect of the closet. He nonetheless had loads of room for his pants, shirts, fits, and ties, and even had room left over to retailer some video games and a small piece of baggage. (Hey, I gave him 1/4 of the shoe rack for his sneakers. That was good of me, proper? 😉 )

My attire, longer sweaters and scarves dangle within the again, longer part on my aspect of the closet, and there are shorter areas for my shirts and pants as nicely. Proper now I simply have my sweaters stacked on the shelf (one I can truly attain!), however I could get a bit of basket or bin to carry them finally.

And the sneakers– so neat and arranged! They’re not in a messy pile on the ground of the closet. Hooray!

I’m so thrilled that after 6 years of dwelling right here, now we have lastly discovered a closet system that works for us! We nonetheless need to put up the brand new doorways, in fact, and add a bit of bit extra trim work, however it’s completely practical proper now, and we’re loving it!

What to Do If You Have Too Many Garments for Your Small Closet

Typically with small areas, we will declutter like loopy and nonetheless really feel like we don’t have sufficient room for our gadgets. If this finally ends up being the case in your own home, listed below are just a few concepts to attempt:

Small areas can positively be tough, however they’re not unimaginable to arrange! I hope this put up has given you some concepts of profit from your individual small closet!

[Psssttt… Organize every room of your house with our 100 best home organization tips!]

Hope you’re having a beautiful day!