How to organize a closet

A closet gets crowded for two reasons. Too much goes in, and nothing has a place, so everything gets pushed in wherever there is a gap. A method that holds has to deal with both. It starts with a full sort, gives every kind of thing a fixed place, and ends with a habit small enough to keep up. This guide goes through it in that order, then covers the seasonal swap, which is where most closets fail and where moths do their damage.

Set aside a morning, or two short sessions. The sort goes faster than people expect once the clothes are out of the closet and in front of you.

Empty it completely

Take everything out, including the shoes and the boxes on the shelf. Lay clothes on the bed in groups: tops, bottoms, dresses, coats, knits, everything else. A closet you can see through is easier to clean and easier to plan, and a pile of one kind of thing shows you how many you own.

While the closet is empty, clean it. UC IPM, the University of California’s pest management program, advises removing everything stored in a closet, then vacuuming and washing the interior, especially the cracks, before clean items go back. It also advises vacuuming along baseboards, in cracks and in closets. That advice is written for clothes moths, but it works as a general rule: dust and lint in the corners are what pests and smells feed on.

Sort into four piles

Pick up each item and put it in one of four places.

1. Keep and wear. You have worn it in the last year of seasons, it fits, and you like it. Try it on if you are not sure. Anything you have to think about for more than a few seconds goes to the next pile.
2. Keep, but not now. Out-of-season clothes, formal wear and anything you wear on a fixed occasion. These go into storage, not back into the daily closet.
3. Mend or alter. A missing button, a split seam, a hem that needs taking up. Put these in one bag and give the bag a date. If it has not been dealt with by then, they move to the last pile.
4. Let go. Anything that does not fit, is worn out, or that you keep only because you feel you should.

Be strict with the last pile. Clothes you keep out of guilt take up the space that makes the rest hard to find. If you cannot decide on an item, put it in a box, tape it shut and write a date six months ahead on the lid. If you have not opened the box by then, give it away without looking inside.

Decide what hangs and what folds

Hang the things that wrinkle or that fall into shape on a hanger: shirts, blouses, dresses, trousers, jackets and coats. Fold the things that stretch: heavy sweaters, and anything knitted that would hang down at the shoulders.

The reasoning comes from textile care. Woolmark’s care pages say that drying a knitted garment on a hanger can stretch it, and that wire hangers are particularly bad for this. That advice is about wet sweaters, but the sensible reading is that a heavy knit left on a hanger for months is pulled by its own weight at the shoulders. UGA Cooperative Extension’s advice on keeping heirloom textiles makes a related point: if hanging causes too much strain on a garment, move it to flat storage.

Use one kind of hanger. Matching hangers hang at the same height, so the rail looks tidy, and slim ones fit more in. Avoid thin wire hangers, which Woolmark names as particularly bad for knitted garments.

Give each thing a fixed place

Group by kind first, then by length or color inside each group. Put shirts together, then trousers, then dresses. Within the shirts, light colors to dark, or short sleeves to long, whichever you will keep up.

Match the position to how often you reach for something:

• Eye level and arm’s reach: what you wear every week.
• Higher shelves: bags, hats, the spare blanket and anything seasonal that is out of use.
• Floor and low shelf: shoes in pairs, and the laundry basket if the closet has room.
• Bins and baskets: belts, scarves, gloves and the small things that otherwise fall off shelves. Label the bin so anyone can put things back.

A rail that is packed tight does not work. Leave enough room that you can slide one hanger along without moving all the others. If you cannot, you own more than the closet holds, and the answer is fewer clothes, not a better hanger.

The seasonal swap

Twice a year, at the start of the cold season and at the start of the warm season, move the off-season clothes out and the in-season clothes in. The swap is also the moment moths decide whether you have a problem, so how you pack matters more than where.

1. Wash or dry clean everything first. UGA Cooperative Extension says that if soiled textiles are stored, the chances of insect, mold or mildew problems increase. UC IPM adds that stained fabrics are more vulnerable to clothes moths, and Virginia Cooperative Extension says that items stained with food or body oils are particularly attractive to the caterpillars. A shirt that looks clean after one wearing can still carry sweat and skin oils.
2. Dry completely. Do not pack anything that is damp.
3. Pack in tight containers. UC IPM advises storing only clean, pest-free items in airtight containers, and Virginia Cooperative Extension suggests a tight-fitting chest or an airtight plastic container for wool. A cardboard box with loose flaps is not a barrier.
4. Choose where you store them with care. UGA Cooperative Extension, writing about heirloom textiles, advises against attics, basements and other spaces without winter heat or summer cooling, and says to keep stored textiles away from light.
5. Label the lid with what is inside and the date you packed it.

The sources do not agree on one point, and the page should say so. UC IPM and Virginia Cooperative Extension advise airtight containers for moth protection. UGA Cooperative Extension, writing about heirloom textiles, says never to wrap textiles in plastic, because plastic blocks airflow, which can lead to mold. The way through is to pack only items that are clean and fully dry, to use tight containers for wool and other animal fibers, and to follow the UGA advice for anything precious or very old, or for anything that is not wool.

If the clothes you store are wool, read the guide on how to wash wool without shrinking it first, because a sweater that has been shrunk in the wash is not worth packing.

Mothballs and cedar

UC IPM warns that mothballs, flakes and crystals made with paradichlorobenzene are toxic and must be kept away from children and pets, that they leave an odor on fabric, and that they only kill insects when the container is airtight. UC IPM calls cedar debatable and says a tight chest matters more than the wood. Virginia Cooperative Extension adds that cedar oil kills small larvae but not full-grown ones, and only until the oil dissipates, and that you should not apply cedar oil directly to clothes because it may stain them.

Look once during the season

Virginia Cooperative Extension advises cleaning all wool clothing and other woolen items at least once a year and inspecting other vulnerable items yearly. The signs UC IPM lists are silken tubes or mats that contain fibers and droppings, grazing on the surface, and holes, and the damage is often hidden under collars and cuffs. UC IPM also says pheromone traps are very useful for detecting an infestation. If you find signs, the guide on how to get rid of clothes moths covers what to do next.

What to let go, and where it goes

Let go of anything that does not fit and is not going to, anything stained or torn beyond mending, and duplicates you do not reach for. Keep the things you wear, not the things you might wear.

For where clothes go:

• Wearable and clean: donate, resell or hand it on to someone you know.
• Worn out: look for a textile recycling drop-off in your area. Not every charity can take clothes that are too worn to wear.
• Not the trash, if you can avoid it. The US EPA reports that in 2018 the United States generated 17.03 million tons of textiles, of which 11.3 million tons went to landfills and 2.51 million tons were recycled, and that the recycling rate for textiles in clothing and footwear was 13 percent. Clothes put into a donation or recycling stream have a chance of a second life. Clothes in the trash do not.

If you plan to claim a donation on your taxes, the IRS says only qualified organizations are eligible to receive tax deductible contributions, and that for any single contribution of $250 or more you must obtain and keep a written acknowledgment from the organization. This guide is general information and not tax advice, so check the rules for your situation with the IRS or a tax professional.

Keeping it organized

The closet slides back into chaos at the point where the system takes more effort than the mess. Keep it light.

• One in, one out. When something new goes in, something goes out. It keeps the count steady without a purge.
• A place for the almost-dirty. A hook or a chair is better than the closet floor, where worn clothes go back among clean ones.
• A weekly reset. Five minutes: hangers straight, shoes paired, laundry out.
• Turn the hangers. At the start of a season, hang everything with the hook facing backward. When you wear something and return it, hang it the normal way. At the end of the season, whatever is still backward is the next candidate for the let-go pile.

Closets are only one of the places that fill up. The same sort-and-place method works on the next job, the dresser and its drawers, and on the linen closet.