Top Tips For Wardrobe Organisation

For those of us that have quite a lot of clothes or the problem of trying to fit your clothes into a smaller space I think it’s important to have a little bit of a routine with the organisation of your wardrobe and storage, otherwise things can get a bit overwhelming and pretty messy. I’m not saying that my wardrobe is always tidy or that it takes just one organisation session to keep it that way but I do a few key things with my clothes that I find really help to keep me on top of things.

Having lived in a few different places, I have had experience with transporting my clothes and storing them in different sized spaces. Keeping in mind a lot of this moving around happened when I was more of a fast fashion consumer and had a much bigger set of clothes to contend with. Every single place that I’ve lived in up until the current house I’m in, I’ve shared a room. I shared a room with my sister as a teenager, I shared a room with my boyfriend in 3 different house/flat shared in London. So this advice is not coming from just the person who now has a rather large wardrobe to store everything in but also one who dealt with half a wardrobe and a couple of drawers. 

These are some of the things I do to keep my wardrobe organised in a realistic way that I can manage day to day. The thought of colour coordinating my wardrobe or making all of the hangers I use match is my idea of a nightmare, I’m not entirely convinced that my tips would be Marie Kondo approved but they certainly work well for me. Hopefully at least one of these will inspire you to make a change to your wardrobe.

Wardrobe Organisation - Storage Boxes, Baskets and Shoes

Hang your Tees and Roll your jeans

I hang most of my t-shirts, dresses and shirts. Things that might need ironing should they be folded somewhere, this is purely about ease. Also if I have a handful of white tees with different prints on, having them hung up enables me to flick through them and find the print I’m after.

Jeans and trousers are rarely hung in my wardrobe, they are bulky and take up way too much of the room I am limited to. Most of mine are rolled up in a basket, I use plastic drawers and baskets in my wardrobe all the time to separate things. I also do this for my knitwear, it makes the pieces so easy to see in the wardrobe. 

In terms of how I organise what’s hanging, it’s literally sorted by the length of the item that’s hanging so I can see how much space I have below to store a basket. I don’t believe in sorting your wardrobe be colour or by a particular style. I like that I have to flick through a few hangers to find the shirt I’m looking for. I makes me look at my wardrobe more so I know what I have and what I wear regularly. Sometimes I spot the best colour and pattern combos from my tops being hung in any old order.

 Wardrobe Organisation - Jumper Storage

Cute Storage Solutions

One of my favourite things to have in the house to store extra bits that aren’t worn as much or might be more seasonal are vintage suitcases and vanity cases. They look pretty and can be used as decoration around the house.

In one of my flats I have a couple of vintage suitcases piled up with a long mirror balanced on top, it looked cute and it hid lots of bits I wanted to store. These are easy to keep under the bed if you don’t want them out and about.

Right now in my house I have one vintage suitcase beside my sofa, one under my TV stand (it’s full of old DVD’s this time though) and one sat under a cute basket I have in the living room. They look decorative and so you wouldn’t necessarily know they were full of my clutter.

 

Tidy Accessories

For accessories, I put tacks on the inside of my wardrobe door for more hanging room. I know this can be impossible if you rent a furnished place and the wardrobe isn’t yours so for that I used the bookshelf that I had in my rented space and added the tacks to one side of the shelf so I could hand all of my favourite necklaces!

Another trick I used when I didn’t have much space was to use a cheap cutlery tray for my hair accessories and necklaces and then push this under a wardrobe or set of drawers that don’t quite hit the floor – literally using as much space as possible. If you have more room I still use a cutlery organiser but in a spare drawer, you can even have it on top of a bunch of papers etc because the tray is so easy to lift in and out whenever you need to.

 

Wardrobe Organisation - Storage Boxes Below

One in One out

Then there is the one in one out rule, I am by no means the first to suggest this but it is worth highlighting. At a time where we consume so much and we can order products so easily we can make the mistake of ordering more than we need or actually even want. New trends come about, we see an Instagram snap of someone rocking a knitted vest and suddenly we’re ordering two colours – but is it really your style? For the one in one out rule for me, I try to do this per category rather than as an overall number. For example if I wanted a cute dress that I’ve been lusting after for ages or I have found the ultimate bargain of a skirt in a charity shop that just screams my style – if I buy I have to remove something from that category in my wardrobe. Otherwise you’re going to cheat yourself and swap a couple of new dresses for 2 old t-shirts you were probably going to get rid of in your next charity shop donation bag. It actually helps you with decision making when trying things on, do you love this dress more than some of the dresses in your wardrobe or do you just look cute in it? Could it see you through a few years or is it a trend just for now?

This is a general rule by no means do I stick to this 100% but being in that mind set helps with over consumption.

 

Quick Monthly Check Up

Spend half an hour tidying away a pile you’ve been avoiding. If you are all tidied away, still spend 15-30 minutes with your wardrobe, move things around, change up the order of your hangers, rearrange those rolled trousers. It will make you look at what you own, can you pick out 5 items you haven’t worn recently and move them to the middle of the wardrobe ready for next month? Try and do this before pay day because you often feel like you want to treat yourself to some new clothes on payday. Sometimes this is just a habit, browsing ASOS to see what you fancy. Look into your own wardrobe first and show it some love! It’s also a nice mindful activity, pop on a few of your favourite songs and get rearranging.

Wardrobe Organisation - Clashing Tops and shirts

Changing season

I love a finding new ways to style something so I’m not one to pack away tonnes of clothes at the end of a season (if I have the space).

When I do pack things away I vacuum pack bigger pieces to make more room. If you have pack things away in a suitcase or bag that isn’t see through then make sure it’s labelled clearly, it’s a nightmare hunting for that one piece among boxes and vacuum packs!

Is it a true summer piece or can it be layered in winter? Don’t pack away your summer dresses yet. I go through my summer dresses and only pack away bright coloured pieces that I feel would not look right with black tights, that is my main decision for picking dresses. You might like to wear any of you summer dresses with tights or leggings but I have a few skirts and dresses in a bright orange that I feel weird in when paired with a woolly tight. I’ve shared a couple of reels on my Instagram of ways to style summer pieces for Autumn. This step is done twice a year only for me which is why it’s my last tip.


As you can see from my photos, my space is not overly tidy but it is organised. It needs to be something that it manageable to maintain. Do you have any time saving tips for maintaining your tidy wardrobe? 

Chelsea Jade

x 

Comments

  1. Love these tips Chelsea. Nothing I love more than a good wardrobe tidy up!

    Lucy | www.lucy-cole.co.uk

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Lucy! It can be so therapeutic 😊 x

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