Fifteen-minute organizing projects are a great way to break tasks into smaller, manageable DIY projects that can fit into any part of your day. We have shared several of these 15-minute organizing tasks over the years. The closet organizing process, with all its areas, can also be broken down. Follow along and see how you can organize your closet by doing these 15-minute closet-organizing tasks.
If you don't know if your closet needs decluttering, please visit my post for guidance, "20 Signs A Closet Needs To Be Purged."
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How can I fit organizing my closet into my week?
Let me say organizing your closet without spending hours on your precious weekend is possible. Since a closet has several different sections, organizing each section in 15-minute increments will allow you to do a little each day for just a few weeks.
To help you navigate this complex area, I divided this closet organizing project into eleven 15-minute DIY projects. Read on to see how I did this.
Where to start when doing quick organizing projects in my closet?
Let’s start with the floor.
Spend 15 minutes clearing the floor and finding homes for the items left there. Hang items that were just thrown there. Then, fold items that need to be placed on shelves (Affiliate Link).
Now, let’s put away those clean clothes from the hamper.
Your laundry basket (Affiliate Link) should be empty of any clean clothing. It only takes 15 minutes to remove clean clothes from one full hamper.
Walk around the closet and pull out clothes you do not wear.
To find these items, they will probably have dust on the sleeves. Pants with a dust line on the folded part are probably OK to get rid of, too. Another type of item you can purge is sweaters that have been hung for a long time and have bumps on the shoulders because the hanger has damaged the material.
Now, let’s go through the shoes and get rid of ones not worn.
If you are a shoe lover, this may be tricky for you. Look for the items that are flattened because they are under other shoes (Affiliate Link). How about shoes (Affiliate Link) that were stuffed behind other shoes? Do you have shoes that were loved once but have seen better days? All these items can be given away or trashed. Check out Soles4Souls website to donate your unwanted shoes (Affiliate Link). Below are other posts for organizing shoes (Affiliate Link) that may help.
4 Easy Ways to Organize Shoes
Women own an average of 19-20 pairs of shoes. And, if there is a family of four, you can expect to have in your home between 76 to 80 pairs of shoes. If this is true, they take up a lot of space in your home. So, to combat this, we need to design creative
Unique Clutter Free Ways To Organize Shoes
Shoes can easily take over the home. Let's do the math. Say there are four people living in a house. If each family member has seven pairs of winter shoes and seven pairs of summer shoes, that could include snow boots, hiking boots, rubber boots, work boots, sandals, flats, slippers, flip-flops, sneakers, dressy shoes, and high
It’s time to visit your costume jewelry.
Flip through necklaces, bracelets, and earrings to eliminate dated ones. Those pieces with missing or broken gems can be removed, too. Are there necklaces you inherited but didn’t think you would wear because they are either too dressy or casual? Those items can go. Now that you have them all together, visit this post on places to donate jewelry you do not want. There are lots of things you can do with these unwanted items.
Now, it is time to purge and clear out the top shelves in your closet.
Every closet has top shelves. Those shelves (Affiliate Link) are most likely visited a few times each year and hold items like out-of-season clothing or bags for traveling, among other things. It’s time to take the items down, dust the shelves (Affiliate Link) off, and only return the items you want to keep.
Let’s move on to the belts, ties, and scarves!
For your next 15 minutes, flip through the belts, ties, and scarves and see which ones aren’t in style anymore. Are there ones that were very loved and need replacing? Are there items that are fraying? All these items need to be removed and either trashed or donated.
Look at the other non-clothing items that were left in the closet.
Now, it’s time to go through the items not supposed to be in this closet. They are unused and have been sitting there for years, maybe decades. These items may be behind other pieces of clothing, so dig deep into the corners of the closet.
Now, look in the drawers and visit the socks and undergarments.
Sort the socks (Affiliate Link) and undergarments. Purge unused pairs, items that are never worn, or things that have lost their elasticity. All these items will give you more space in any drawer. If this takes up much time, you can separate the socks (Affiliate Link) from the undergarments to make two 15-minute closet organizing tasks.
Revisit tops in your closet.
Now it is time to get detailed with your purging. We talked about doing a quick review of any dusty clothing earlier. Now it is time to visit the tops, including sweaters, shirts, sweatshirts, blouses, vests, and jackets, basically anything you would use as a top. If you have tons of these items, splitting them into 15-minute tasks, each works nicely as well, even though it will take you longer to finish the closet.
Look through the clothing bottoms in your closet
Now it is time to visit the bottoms you wear. From pants to skirts, examine each one and decide what you want to keep and get rid of. If you have a little extra time, you can even try them on. It does take longer if you try them on.
By taking 15 minutes each day and doing one of these tasks to organize your closet, you will be finished with the closet within eleven days! Are you ready to try these 15-minute closet-organizing tasks?
When you are ready to organize your closet, would you try this way or just organize the entire closet all in one day? Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
Below are some of our other 15-minute organizing tasks posts, feel free to check them out here.
TWELVE 15 MINUTE KITCHEN PROJECTS THAT WILL KEEP THE SPACE ORGANIZED ALWAYS
31 DAYS 15 MINUTE ORGANIZING LIST
15 ORGANIZING TASKS THAT TAKE 15 MINUTES EACH DAY
Additional Closet Organizing posts!
Liana George says
I love these tips! You made them less overwhelming and more time manageable! Can't wait to share 🙂
Phaedra Studt says
It takes me about 45 min to an hour to fold and put away all my clothes (though that could also be because I delay putting away laundry until I have acquired a large basket's worth). However, when I am pressed for time, I will take out all of one type of item to fold and put away.
These are all great tips and makes closet organizing less intimidating. Thank you for sharing!
Sheri Steed says
This is a great way to break down what for many is an overwhelming task into manageable chunks. Following your suggestions, a person can feel good about each individual accomplishment on the way to complete success.
Julie Bestry says
I love that you broke this project down into manageable, bite-sized tasks, and you're so right about the things that hide on the top/back of shelves. After almost a year of lockdown, during which time I merely rotated through the same handful of jeans and t-shirts (and now, sweaters), lots of beloved things don't get worn and do have that bit of dust settling on them. (I suppose I could wear my party dress to eat dinner, but that seems silly.) I think my next 15-minute slot will go toward reviewing those dressier business clothes I really don't need anymore.
Janet Schiesl says
I love how you break it down to small 15 minute tasks. That makes it so much more doable. I love organizing clothes closets. The visual reward is great.
Linda Samuels says
These are excellent and inspiring tips for making closet management so much more approachable. While my clothes are organized, and I edit twice a year with the change of seasons, I probably could do another edit. 2020 was an odd year in that many of the clothes I typically wear and I didn't really use. There were no parties, conferences, or meetings to attend. I'm not ready to release those because I think that I will wear them again at some point in the not too distant future. We'll see. But I think my sock and underwear drawers could use another look. I have more socks than I wear, and maybe it's time to do the "elastic" test. I have my favorites with underwear, and the others are just in the drawer "neatly," taking up space. I appreciate the nudge to review.
Sabrina Quairoli says
I think we all have areas of our closet that need organizing just a little bit more frequently than every six months. This post was intended to motivate readers to take those little thoughts of modification and do them. I'm glad you recognized the nudge. =)
Diane N Quintana says
I love breaking a project like organizing the closet down into its' segments. I like the way you explain each separate area and give suggestions of what to do with the things you no longer want to keep. The upper shelves are the places where things seem to disappear. Making a concerted effort to discover what's lurking up there and clean the space is a good idea to tackle at least once a year!
Ronni Eisenberg says
Sabrina,
Breaking any project down into small manageable parts takes the sting out of the project and makes it doable. Like you said, “Fifteen-minute organizing projects are a great way to break up the tasks into smaller, manageable DIY projects that can fit into any part of your day.”
I find it challenging to clean out a sizable closet in a day because there are so many elements and steps; from buying organizers, such as hangers, if needed, to re
sorting, refolding etc.
I really liked what you said about cleaning out the floor of the closet. Sometimes, it’s overlooked and the floor can really collect a myriad of odds and ends in a closet.
This is definitely the way to go!
Seana Turner says
What a helpful way to break down "organize the closet" into small, manageable tasks. Each one won't take so long. You might even find that after you start one you want to stay strong and do another! One thing I always need when working on closets is a stool. That top shelf is always beyond my reach!
Sabrina Quairoli says
Great suggestion! Thanks for sharing, Seana!