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Do you have a wardrobe over-spilling with clothes yet feel you have nothing to wear? Do you spend hours in front of your wardrobe getting ready and feeling guilty for not having lost the baby weight or for having never worn this beautiful and expensive dress?
Would you like a wardrobe that makes you feel energised and empowered? If yes, here are some tips on how to organise your wardrobe - and you'll be surprised at how much it helps your life!
Before you even start on organising wardrobe or emptying out your clothes, develop a good understanding of the clothes that fit your body shape and the colours that complement your skin, hair and eye colours. Be clear on your style preferences.
Gather all the clothes you own from all around your home. Pick one item at a time and assign it to a category. Categories could be clothes type or occasion. It doesn’t matter which categories you come up with provided they make sense to you.
1. Formal Clothes
"Hang your formal clothes by type, with blouses, skirts, dresses, pants and jackets on cascading hangers. Cascading hangers allow you to use the full height of the wardrobe rather than use the space below to stash other items. Also, arrange your clothes by colour within each category so you’ll keep combinations flexible." - Georgina Wong, CEO of Asian Professional Organisers.
2. Folded Clothes
"Undergarments, T-shirts, sportswear and socks should be neatly folded using drawer dividers or internal boxes to group like-items together." - Georgina Wong, CEO of Asian Professional Organisers.
The end of the walk-in features a glass-walled bathroom vanity that leads to the shower and WC. Interior design by Three-D Conceptwerke
3. Belts and Scarves
"Belts and scarves are best hung on suspended racks inside the wardrobe next to your clothes for easy matching and maximum ventilation. With Singapore’s humidity, rolled-up belts have a tendency to get sticky or crack more easily." - Georgina Wong, CEO of Asian Professional Organisers.
4. Handbags
"Similarly, handbags should be stuffed with tissue paper and stored upright, either on the top or bottom shelf with the handles straightened out and zips or clasps done up." - Georgina Wong, CEO of Asian Professional Organisers.
A patchwork of three bold-grained wood laminate panels on the wardrobe doors gives the bedroom an earthy, homely feel.
5. Jewellery
"To keep your jewellery tangle-free, use self-adhesive hooks on the inside of your wardrobe door to hang necklaces, with earrings hooked onto a mesh bag. The maxim is to use the maximum vertical space, so everything is visible." - Georgina Wong, CEO of Asian Professional Organisers.
6. Declutter unused clothes
Do you know that we use 20% of our clothes 80% of the time? The rest just hangs up there taking valuable space but also our energy. Declutter your wardrobe - go through each category and decide what to keep and what to discard. Set aside clothes that:
- Are not in good condition
- No longer fit you
- Are not comfortable wearing
- You no longer like or that do not make you feel good
- You have too many of
- You can’t pair with any other items in wardrobe.
Items that are not in good condition can be tossed, the rest donated to charities, given away to friends or family, altered or sold. Make also a list of items you need to complete your wardrobe. And whatever you decide to do, set a deadline to complete these actions!
Nathalie Ricaud, professional organiser and founder of Get Organised & Beyond
7. Dedicated space for each item
Every category or clothing item needs to have a dedicated spot so that you can easily remember where to put it away and to retrieve it. Frequency of use and ease of access should be the key drivers to organising your wardrobe space. Bearing in mind that we only use what we can see, reserve hanging space and shelves below eye level to the clothes you wear on a regular basis.
Deciding what to hang or fold depends on your wardrobe configuration, how much you own in each category but also your preferences.
8. Use thick hangers
Prefer thick plastic or wooden hangers over wire hangers that can't get easily entangled. Choosing hangers uniform in size and colour will make your closet look nice and orderly.
9. Fold in "filing" arrangement
When it comes to folding, consider “filing” cabinet style instead of “piling” your clothes in a pancake stack so that you can easily find what you want at one glance and maintain the space tidy.
At the end of the day, if your wardrobe looks nice and tidy, you'll be more inclined to shop your wardrobe instead of hitting the shop and also to maintain it organised.
The client gets to immerse in a world of her own with a walk-in-wardrobe which resembles a 'mini boutique' with its large accessories cabinet and shelves built for handbag storage.
10. Containers for smaller items
Containers are very helpful for keeping smaller items together. Use baskets, containers or boxes to store your scarves or belts, for example. Or use drawer dividers to separate different categories such as your bras, panties and socks.
11. Re-categorise again & again!
It’s not always possible to get the organising right first time. You may realise, for example, that the home you have allocated to your pants would be better used for your T-shirts. So make necessary changes until you are completely satisfied.
Regular maintenance is critical to keeping your wardrobe organised.
12. Custom built wardrobe systems
What to do if your wardrobe is bursting? Buy more storage boxes, bins, and drawers from IKEA and Daiso. No! If you simply go out and buy a new closet or shoe rack every time you run out of storage, you'll end up with a jumble of heights, sizes, and styles. Banish this unsightly jumble by investing in a new, wall-to-wall wardrobe storage system.
It's amazing how spacious and inviting your bedroom will look with a seamless wall of continuous, floor-to-ceiling closets. A reputable wardrobe specialist should offer free consultation sessions, so you might like to invite a couple of them to examine your storage problems and offer their proposals.
One of the main benefits of customising your wardrobe is that the specialists can design interior storage that suits your specific needs. For instance, well-ventilated shoe racks that suit different shoe styles i.e. big wire racks for sports shoes and narrow, tilted shelves for stilettos and office shoes. The shoes storage can be seamlessly integrated with your wardrobe, so the whole room will look bigger and neater while maximising every inch of space.
Part of this article was contributed by Nathalie Ricaud, professional organiser and founder of Get Organised & Beyond, The Finder.