Are you struggling to organize the small closet in your bedroom? Learn the five steps you need to take to maximize space in a reach-in wardrobe.
Do you feel like you’re playing a dangerous game of Jenga with your small closet every morning? You gingerly remove something, hoping all the while that everything else doesn’t come crashing down.
Not everyone is blessed with a huge walk-in closet. If you’re sick of feeling like you just don’t have enough room in your tiny reach-in wardrobe to store all your clothes, shoes etc. and you’re in desperate need of small closet storage ideas, then you’re in luck, my friend.
Yes, a small closet can be incredibly frustrating to organize, but don’t stress. In this post, I’ll share the best organization tips so you maximize the space you have available in your closet.
Make sure you set aside plenty of time to do this. Don’t start an hour before bedtime or right before your kids come home from school ravenous. Once you get started, it’s better to complete this in one go.
5 Simple Steps To Small Closet Organization
1. Gather Your Supplies
Go ahead and grab everything you’ll need to organize your small closet. It’ll save you time later having to stop what you’re doing to go find something you need.
Here’s a list of items you’ll use:
- Pen/ Sharpie
- Notepad
- Tape
- Trash bags
- Empty boxes/ laundry basket
- Microfiber cloth
- Duster with extension pole
- Vacuum cleaner
- Step stool
- Tape measure
2. create labels
Creating labels will make the next step so much easier. Spoiler alert — coming up next is when you take everything out of the closet and sort them. Don’t freak out yet. I’m going to share a strategy to make it much easier.
Grab your notepad and pen. Create some labels so, at a glance, you can easily see what needs to go where.
Write the following labels:
- Keep
- Toss
- Donate or Sell
Attach the “Toss” and “Donate or Sell” labels to trash bags and/or boxes so you’re packing stuff away while removing it from the closet.
There are a couple other labels you might consider making, depending on how disorganized your closet is. One is “Belongs Elsewhere”. As you sort through the storage space and find items that should be placed in other ares of the home, stash them in that pile. Attach this label, if using, to a box or the laundry basket.
Secondly, if you live in a climate where you experience different seasons, you may want to add another category called “Seasonal”. As you come across items that belong to a season you don’t need right now, put it in that pile.
Discover the best way to organize seasonal clothes.
3. Remove Everything
It’s always easier to organize a space when you’ve got a clean slate. So, I’m going to tell you to do the thing you really don’t want to hear — take everything out of that small closet.
Yes, it’s going to feel like a huge task removing everything and then having to put it all back. Yes, it’s probably going to look worse before it gets better. But, I promise you, it’ll be so much easier to organize everything in the closet when you can clearly see the space.
Of course, there’s a method to this madness. We’re working smarter, not harder here so you’ll be organizing as you take things out of the closet.
As you pare down your wardrobe, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I like this item and wear it regularly?
- Is it stained or ripped beyond repair?
If something no longer fits or is out of style, donate or sell it. If it’s poorly made or damaged beyond repair, throw it out.
Sort the items that you’re keeping into sub-categories that make sense to you e.g. sleepwear, short sleeve tops, long sleeve tops, jeans etc. When you do this, it’s easy to see what exactly you need to store and the quantity of items in each category. This will help you to determine whether you’ll need more shelf space, hanging rods etc.
4. Clean and Measure Your Small Closet
What better time to get rid of dust bunnies than when a space is completely empty? You won’t have to shift stuff around and you’ll be done in no time.
Start from the top and work your way down. Use the step stool for hard to reach areas. Dust the walls. Wipe shelves and surfaces with a damp cloth. Vacuum the floor and inside drawers.
Once you’re done cleaning, grab a tape measure, the notepad and a pen. Write down the length, width and height of the closet, shelves, rods, plus the depth of drawers so you know just how much space you have.
See how to take closet measurements.
5. Put Everything Back
If you’ve been wondering, “how do I add more space to my closet”, these tips will help.
Maximize the vertical storage space available in your small closet by doing the following:
- Add a second closet rod, if there’s only one
- Install a shelf or two above the top closet rod
- Stack bins, use hanging shelves to make the most of your vertical space
- Attach narrow shelves and hooks to the walls
- Hang a closet door organizer
To maximize the other spaces in your closet, try these:
- Use velvet hangers — they’re thin so they take up less space and prevent clothes from slipping to the floor
- Utilize floor space by adding a shoe rack, stackable bins or baskets
Add a laundry hamper and even a folding step stool so you can easily reach items up high, when necessary.
These small closet organization tips will ensure you maximize the space you have available and eliminate the frustration of a lack of storage.
Check out these tips to organize your small walk-in closet.