Organizing clothes

[5ft Diva]

Does anyone have any good ideas for organizing a wardrobe year round?

[Dia Minha]

I hang up all the clothes, except the following; socks, underwear, PJs, and odds and ends like dance clothes and swimming suits. I find that by hanging everything up I can easily see what everyone has and what everyone needs done up. It is easier to match up items that go together. You can also pull them right out of the dryer and hang them up while still warm and not have to worry about pressing a fold into a hot shirt when you fold it.

I buy packages of clippies at Wal-mart that hook right on to a regular hanger so that I can hang outfits on the same hanger. This makes it real easy to keep track of clothes that are out of season, but that could possibly still fit when the next season rolls around. I simply just rotate the out of season clothes to the back of the closet. Of course sometimes then my boys end up in long sleeves when it is 100 degrees outside and shorts when its 40, but they are slowly learning. The good thing is that if we are headed out somewhere where the weather differs, (St. George in November, or Oregon Coast in July), I can very easily grab shorts or sweat shirts without having to go through a bunch of boxes.

The only time I pack away clothes is when it no longer fits and there is not another child close to fitting into it. These go into a laundry basket until end of the season and then I pack them up according to size and gender.

My husband refuses to let me hang is jeans and courderoys(sp?) so his drawers are a mess. For this reason I just lay his clothes out on the bed and he is responsible for putting them away. If I did it, I would feel the need to reorganize his drawers everytime I put something in it.

[Big_Sissy]

Great suggestion, and funny about the DH's drawers

[Erudite]

I rotate out the out of season and put it up high in the closet and move the new season down. I use shelves for most of my tops, but our dumb builder put the hanging bars and shelves so high in ALL the closets that my kids can't do the same, so they have drawers for everything except Sunday clothes.

Dia, I admire your fortitude. I re-arrange TRs closet about once a month because I can't stand the building piles of mismatched items. Short sleeve t's should all be in the same pile and the fold goes out...darn it.

Ok, this is going to sound really anal...but I have recently come up with a system for rotating the clothes day to day that keeps me from wearing the same thing too much and getting bored with the clothes. This in turn keeps me from spending more money on clothes. I pile everything by its type: short sleeve sweaters, long sleeve sweaters, short sleeve tees, long sleeve tees. Pants are hung below. Then depending on the weather, I choose a top from the BOTTOM of the pile. This is because if you choose from the middle, it messes up the pile and you can't keep pulling the same one from off the top. Clean ones go on the top of the pile too, thus you wear your entire wardrobe before getting back to a certain top. This makes the clothes last longer and makes the day to day choosing less of a pain...for me. Then you just choose the pants (which are almost always neutral and go with all the tops) and shoes that go with the top.

K, I know it's weird, but I have taken real pleasure in this system of mine and I'm glad to be able to share it!

[5ft Diva]

I was raised doing that. It doesn't sound weird but it's a personal preference thing.

Something I read or heard from somewhere if you're trying to figure out what to get rid of is to hang all of your clothes on the rod backwards. You know, you have to hook the hanger on the rod from behind. As you wear the clothes hang them back in the closet by hooking the hanger on the rod from the front. In six months, you'll be able to see which clothes you have worn and which ones you haven't. It sounds like a good idea but I've never tried it. I'm not sure why. I guess because about every six months I go through my clothes w/out a problem. Anyway, just a thought.