ask stylebook: organizing my closet?
Alli: Is there a better way to organize my closet? By color? By type? How do you recommend doing it?
Cathy, Style Speaks: Just like everyone has their own personal style, everyone has their own personal organizational style. Some trial and error may be involved to determine the best system for you. You’ll know you’ve hit on a good system when finding things in your closet feels pretty effortless and your system feels, relatively, easy to maintain. If you’re not sure where to begin, I recommend organizing your closet by type of item (e.g. skirts, pants, short sleeve tops, etc.) and then by color within each category. Depending on what works best for you and the size of your wardrobe, you can keep categories to a minimum or create sub-categories; for example, break down long sleeve tops into heavy sweaters, fine knit sweaters and blouses (see Sweaters: To Hang, or Not to Hang for more specific organizational tips).
I also recommend separating out anything that you can’t wear today, at this size, this shape, for this lifestyle, in this season, and then, either purge or use closet dividers to create different categories in your closet. You could create categories of items that are too big or too small but that you still want to hang on to, items that need to be tailored or out of season items. This leaves you with a section of your closet that consists only of your wearable wardrobe and makes getting dressed so much easier!
