The Best Ways to Organize Your Wardrobe for Fall
Once you ‘ve put away your summer clothes and pulled out the hats, scarves, boots and coats for fall and winter, the closet where you store your outdoor gear will play a very important role. With all those outerwear, your closet can quickly become disorganized. Here’s how to keep things organized.
Rethink your storage philosophy
First, embrace a little chaos. By this I mean using the chaos method , which involves taking everything out of your closet and dumping it in the middle of the room, creating (temporary) chaos. Once all those coats, all those umbrellas, and all those shoes are in a big pile, start categorizing them, making smaller piles out of the big pile. The shoes are stacked in one pile. Scarves come in different colors. As you create these piles, get organized by using the five-second rule and giving yourself five seconds to make a decision on everything you pick up. You either throw it away, donate it, sell it, or keep it for yourself.
Once you’ve categorized all of your items, keep the principles of the organizational triangle in mind as you put them back in your closet. Namely, remember that all similar items should be stored together and everything needs a designated storage space.
Ideally this applies to containers. Using containers, partitions, and shelves to create boundaries for each category of similar items will help keep everything organized.
Wardrobe Organizers
To start, you’ll need to purchase above-the-door storage space with plenty of partitions. They are usually sold as shoe organizers and look like this:
I use them for all types of organization other than shoes. Extra straps for bags, belts, scarves, socks—these dividers are ideal for storing small items. If you have a lot of shoes, use this for this, but if you need space for small items, this is a good option. You can also purchase versions with different sized pockets and compartments , ideal for shoes or larger items, or hanging shoe organizers that attach to a rod in your closet next to the coats and clothes inside. In general, the more little compartments you have, the more granular you can get in the categories you organize, which helps you keep everything organized, so I like to take two or three of these compartments and put everything in them.
Adding extra shelves is also key. My hallway closet has one built-in shelf and a small clothes rail, so I added extra shelves underneath. Something simple like a three-tier shelf with two drawers at the bottom will work great here. I have one of these:
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention my all-time favorite organizing tool: the humble cube rack . I have cube shelves in all my closets, kitchen, bathroom and living room. They’re ideal for organization because they create clear boundaries for all of your categories and are easy to set up and clean. They come in a variety of configurations, so you can get one with three cubes, one with nine, one with different sized compartments—whatever suits your needs.
Finally, consider moving some items from your closet to outside of your closet. Storage furniture is functional, attractive and very useful. Why not a bench in the hallway with space for shoes or an attached coat rack ? Maintaining some separation between your items is key to keeping categories organized, so if your hallway closet is tight on space, you’ll have to get creative.