A walk-in closet space is different than a traditional closet. It’s usually like a small room you can walk into, and its purpose is to hold the clothing and shoes of at least one and often two people. This kind of closet is a great option for storage and can sometimes even contain more than your apparel when there’s enough room. The trick to having a walk-in closet you enjoy is to keep it clean and organized. If yours has you more stressed than happy, consider the following tips for making the most of a walk-in closet.
Clean and Purge
You can’t organize anything without a thorough cleaning and purging party. It’s true—to make space and reorganize, you must start over by emptying the closet. Here are a few helpful steps for cleaning out and purging your walk-in closet:
Empty the entire space and create piles for trash, donations, keeping, and selling.
Take care of the piles by running the donations to the place they belong, throwing out trash, placing items on a marketplace site, and neatly piling or folding what you’re keeping. Don’t put anything back in the closet yet.
Scrub the walls and shelves in the closet and vacuum out any dust bunnies. Clean the light fixture if you have one.
Now is a great time to consider downsizing your wardrobe. Consider a capsule wardrobe to make more use of less clothing as you decide what to keep and what to give away. With a capsule wardrobe, you only choose clothes that all work well together, giving you plenty of options with fewer unnecessary pieces. You can then build back up carefully from there.
Maximize the Space
Next, you must maximize the space with shelves, bins, and hooks. Keep any you have, but look around the closet for more space. Use the wall spaces up to the ceiling for additional shelving. Can you squeeze in another rod anywhere? Hooks don’t take up a lot of room and are great for hanging scarves, belts, and purses. You can also use corners, walls, and the floor to create more storage.
Gather any empty baskets, bins, and boxes around the house and use them on the shelves and the floor against the walls for organized storage.
Move Things Back In
Great—you did the tough cleaning, purging, and maximizing of the space. Now you can start to put back what is staying. With all your new boxes, bins, shelves, and hooks, consider these ideas to give everything a place:
Hang tops, dresses, jumpsuits, and pants.
Use hooks for scarves, purses, ties, and belts.
Use clear plastic shoe boxes to organize shoes.
Containers on the floor are great to stow away out-of-season clothes. Keep them pushed against the wall under your hanging clothes.
If you have a lot of space left, as well as bins, you can use the storage for memorabilia, gifts for upcoming holidays, photos, and anything you don’t use often.
Making the most of a walk-in closet is a great way to bring order to a messy space and relieve stress.
