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I’m often asked what’s the best way to organise your clothes and let me tell you, there are fewer things more satisfying than looking inside your wardrobe and seeing a neatly organised array of clothes that you love!

In this blog I’m sharing some really simple tips to get your wardrobe ship shape and looking like a fancy shop floor.

My first tip is to have a good clear out*. There’s no point putting the effort into organising your clothes and then realizing that half of them don’t fit, don’t suit you or don’t make you look and feel good. The ironic thing about clearing out your clothes is that when you have fewer pieces, you’ll probably find that you actually have more to wear! When you can see what you have quickly and easily, you’ll find it easier to start trying new combinations.

So, once that’s done and you have only those clothes you enjoy wearing left in your wardrobe, it’s time to get things organised.

The benefits of a super-organised wardrobe.

There are SO many benefits of having a well laid out wardrobe.

1. When you have something in mind that you’d like to wear, you can locate it quickly and easily.
2. If you know you’d like to wear a *white top* with the skirt/trousers you’ve chosen to wear, you won’t automatically reach for your old favourite one. You’ll see all your other white tops hanging together and this might just make you choose a different (forgotten) one. You might just have found yourself a fabulous new outfit combination. This has the added bonus of bringing the cost per wear down of another one of your items. It goes without saying that this is immensely satisfying!
3. Your clothes will hang nicely, no more blouses half hanging off their hangers or even worse, lying on the wardrobe floor gathering dust. When each piece is hanging nicely, there’s no emergency ironing required and nothing gets hidden and forgotten.
4. It looks SO nice and satisfying!

It’s not difficult to organise a wardrobe. You just need to allow a bit of time. If you’ve already done a wardrobe edit, you’ll literally need 20 or 30 minutes.

Matching hangers

It’s a small thing that makes a HUGE difference to how things hang, how much you can get into your wardrobe and how beautiful it looks.

When we first moved into our current house, I had a purpose-built walk-in wardrobe made. It’s quite small but perfectly formed. To celebrate, I bought a TON of wooden hangers so that everything looked uniform and shop-like.

What I didn’t take into account is how much space these lovely hangers take up. I’ve gradually been replacing them with slimmer hangers which are working well . I like these from Zara home.

They aren’t the cheapest option but they are very good.  TK Max and Primark also have good ones. A slim hanger is always best if you have a lot of clothes (like me).

It goes without saying but in case you didn’t know…wire hangers from the dry cleaners are TERRIBLE for your clothes. If you are using them, I suggest you start to replace as soon as you can with something kinder.

How to organise your clothes

Firstly, you need to decide whether you’d like to have everything in together, or separated out into workwear, casual and occasion wear. (Or use your own categories if these aren’t relevant to you.)

Over the years, I’ve tried both ways but right now I prefer to have everything in together. I’m a big fan of mixing and matching smart and casual pieces so having everything in together makes this easier to do. It also means that I wear more of my ‘nicer’ things more often, which means I’m continuing to get that cost per wear down. And that is always the aim!

Whether you are separating your clothes by occasion or keeping them all together like I do, you now need to split them into items.

Hang all of the same type of clothing together for easy location. Work through your:

• Jackets
• Tops
• Trousers
• Skirts
• Dresses

Then, within each different section, arrange each piece by colour. Marie Kondo suggests hanging them from the lightest colours to the darkest from left to right and I think that works well (but it’s not essential). This would mean that all of your white, cream and neutral pieces are on the left of the section, gradually moving towards the darker shades such as navy and black at the right-hand side of each category. For patterned pieces, just see where they fit best. You can squint your eyes and see how dark or light the overall look is.

To hang or to fold?

I choose to fold jeans, jumpers, some t-shirts and tops that don’t crease easily and I hang everything else. I know that some people like to hang their jeans and that’s fine too if you have the space.

How to store shoes

Shoes can be placed in the bottom of your wardrobe, but I’d advise using a shoe rack to make the best use of your space. Alternatively, slim storage boxes on wheels are a good idea for storing under the bed space. Some of my clients keep their shoes in boxes, either the ones they came in or transparent ones so that they can see what’s inside. If you are using regular shoe boxes, it’s a good idea to have a photo of the shoes stuck to the box or at least a description written on the outside to save you having to rummage through the whole pile.

If you have shelves in your wardrobe, fill these with your handbags, folded clothes or out of season pieces.

Handy Tools

It’s a good idea to have a few tools on hand, perhaps in a little basket on a shelf. These are things that spruce up your clothes when needed. We’ve all been in that position of wanting to wear something then realizing it’s got a button missing or is covered in lint. This little box of tools means that last-minute surprises can be dealt with more easily.

• A cashmere comb and/or a de-bobbler– if your knitwear needs a quick de-fuzz.
• A lint roller to quickly remove hair from your shoulders (or pet hair from everywhere!)
• Safety pins
• A travel steamer for speedy crease elimination
• Boot shapers to keep your boots in good condition
• A clothes folder. One of my recent clients very kindly gave me one of these after I admired her AMAZINGLY tidy wardrobe. It’s SO MUCH FUN to use and helps to make your wardrobe look like a shop (if that kind of thing excites you?!).

And there you have it!

Wardrobe organisation made simple.

I’d love to see your before and after shots! Feel free to send them in to me and don’t forget to leave a comment here on the blog if you’ve found my tips useful.

*If you need some help clearing out your wardrobe and would like to know exactly what to keep and what should go, it might be time for you to call in professional help. Get in touch by clicking here and we can have a chat.