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4 Areas of an Organized Closet Made Simple

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How well-organized is your closet? Making an organized closet takes different areas all working together to allow you to access all your clothes quickly. If one of these areas is omitted, you will be short of space for your items and need to find alternative storage places, like a chest of drawers outside of the closet, to hold the rest. To help you make this closet work better for you, I created four areas of organized closet guidelines below to help you figure out what areas you are missing in your closet.

Whether your closet is small or large, all these areas should be included for a more functional space.

Step-by-Step Tips for a Well-Organized Closet

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What should be stored on shelves in closets? 

You can store several items in the shelving (affiliate) area: Shoes (affiliate), Boots, Sweaters and knit items, T-shirts, and more. Below, I am discussing and sharing each closet organizer in detail. Feel free to check them out.

Ways to organize shoes in a closet

You can lay the pair of shoes (affiliate) with one shoe toe facing you and the other facing away from you. This nests the pair of shoes closer together, saving about 2 inches per pair of shoes (affiliate) per shelf. Visit our other posts about shoe organization (affiliate) below. They are very extensive, and shoes (affiliate) need their own posts.

4 Easy Ways to Organize Shoes

Women own an average of 19-20 pairs of shoes. If you have a family of four, you can expect to have between 76 and 80 pairs of shoes in your home. If this is true, they take up a lot of space in your home.

Read more

Unique Ways To Organize Shoes

Shoes can easily take over the home. Let's do the math. Say four people are living in a house.  

Read more

The Best Ways to Organize Shoes in Your Home

Piles and piles of shoes can be hazardous. The more shoes, the more mess. Today, I will share the best way to organize many shoes. It has been an area that I have done for my own home and several clients.

Read more

My favorite Shoe Organizers

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Boot Organizers - have boots in boot boxes (affiliate) stacked on top of each other, or use the boot holders. Purchase extra-long shoe boxes (affiliate) to avoid damaging the boots. Here are exciting products to hold up the boots that can fit on the shelves (affiliate). (affiliate from Amazon (affiliate)). Below are some I found that will help you organize your boots in your closet (affiliate).

My Favorite Boot Organizers

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How to Organize Tops in a Closet?

Sweaters and knit items - Make sure the stacked things don't get too high.  Three or four sweaters high work nicely. You find dividers for shelves (affiliate) to help keep these piles in order and prevent them from toppling over when you store them.

My Favorite for wood shelf

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T-shirts - Check out my How to Organize Sportswear DIY post to learn how to fold t-shirts.

How to Organize Sportswear on a Shelf

I have several workout clothes and sportswear, depending on the occasion. Some are from summer, when the weather is warm, and others are for winter, when I need an extra lining because of the frigid temperatures. But organizing them on a shelf has been tricky.

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My favorite when folding thin shirts

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You can also use bins and fold the T-shirts neatly inside them. Try the Marie Kondo folding clothes method.

Other things are organized on shelves in the closet.

Memorabilia - Use boxes (affiliate) to hold memorabilia, to keep it organized and protected from dust. Keeping these things in the closet is very common. Ensure that you always have these items in a dust-free closed bin to protect them.

Bags: You can add all the bags to the largest bag by nesting them from largest to smallest. Another option is using clear soft plastic bags so you can see into them easily to find the bag you want.

My Favorite Pocket Book Organizer

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Hats (affiliate) - Every guy and lady has at least a few baseball caps or other sunhats in their closet. Having a place for these items is super helpful and protects the hats (affiliate) when they are unused. Stack the hats (affiliate) from smallest to largest in a hat box. This will protect them from getting smashed. If you have a lot of hats (affiliate) and want to store them on shelves (affiliate), I found these on Amazon (affiliate) that may help you keep them organized.

My Favorite Hat Organizer

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Jewelry (affiliate) - A place to put your everyday jewelry (affiliate) or a mirror for you to put on makeup is helpful on a shelf. Feel free to click through and make a purchase on Amazon (affiliate). 

My Favorite Jewelry Organizers

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Visit our 6 AMAZING WAYS TO ORGANIZE YOUR JEWELRY for more tips on organizing jewelry (affiliate) in a closet.

Workout gear - Use a basket with a low front that will hold summer workout clothes, and place them on the shelf. They don't need to be perfectly pressed, so putting them on a shelf in a basket works fine. I like standing them upright on their side so I can easily access the stuff inside. If you wish to purchase this, you can do so by clicking below and buying from Amazon (affiliate).  

My Favorite Organizer for Workout Gear

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Or you can try this method I used for my own workout sportswear clothing: HOW TO ORGANIZE SPORTSWEAR ON A SHELF!

If there are other items you want to store on the shelves (affiliate), it's helpful to store them in containers with lids so you can stack them up. It also reduces dust in the closet and removes things off the floor when you go vertical with bins.

What to hang on hangers in closets?

People ask me this all the time.  There are lots of things you can hang in a closet.  Here are just some of them.

Dress pants - you can store them over the pants hanger or store them upside down on a pants hanger.  If you wear them often or don't have a lot of tall space to hang them, you can hang them on the bottom part of a regular sturdy hanger.  If you do not wear them often, you can use a pants hanger like these below. This will reduce the fold lines on the pants.  To do this, clip the pants from the bottom and let them hang down.

If you are short on hanging space, be sure to buy hangers that are space-saving options or thin ones to maximize the things you can hang.

Great hangers for dresses

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Blouses/Dresses/Jackets/Blazers - I like puffy hangers (padded hangers (affiliate)) that look like these. They keep the item on the hanger. Below are some hangers that work well for these items.

Great hangers for lighter clothing

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Suits - I like these suit hangers.  It keeps the jacket and pants together. Suit hangers have wider ends to keep jackets in place. If you do not wear suits often, consider buying some plastic shoulder covers.  They will protect the shoulders of the jackets from getting dusty.

Great Hangers for Suits

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Outer jackets and trench coats - I like to keep these items near the door if possible. But, if I need to keep them in the closet, I like to use hangers. They are more sturdy than plastic or thinner hangers. Usually, they are made of wood and may have thicker parts for the shoulders of the jacket. Below are images from Amazon (affiliate), if you click through and buy something, I will receive a referral commission. Thank you.

Great Hangers for Jackets and Coats

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Here's one more tip for the hanging area. When setting up your hanging area, measure your longest item and move the rod up so that the item doesn't drag on the floor or over another hanging rod.

What to place in drawers in a closet?

Not everyone has drawers in their closet but this needs to be said.  If you do not have built-ins in your closet, you may want to add a chest of drawers to help organize undergarments and other smaller items. Here are some types of items that can be stored in the drawers.

Socks (affiliate) - you can either fold socks (affiliate) or wrap socks (affiliate). Either way, having a space in the drawer designated for socks (affiliate) is helpful when you need to grab a matching pair in the morning. These sock organizer (affiliate) images are from Amazon (affiliate).

My Favorite Sock Organizer

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Visit our HOW TO ORGANIZE SOCKS ONCE AND FOR ALL {SOCK ORGANIZATION OPTIONS} post with lots of information and tips on organizing socks (affiliate).

Undergarments - This would include bras, underwear, and other items for under your clothes.  If you have a lot of a particular item, try to weed it down. Only keep what actually fits you well. The image below is an affiliate link from Amazon.

My Favorite for Undergarments

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Jewelry (affiliate) - In drawers, you can also place jewelry (affiliate) to hide them from other people who may be in your closet. Drawer organizers for jewelry (affiliate) are great if you have extra drawer space. To protect your fine jewelry, you can install a locked drawer.

Other small items, like sunglasses and perfume, can be stored in a bin. Shallow bins work better because you can see everything.

The last place in the closet is your hooks section. This area is usually a catch-all area and helps you keep those small items organized.

Should I have a hook in my closet?

Use a hook for your daily outfit prep area - this can be a sturdy hook mounted to the wall that can hold some weight. Place the pieces you plan on wearing tomorrow on the hook. I like to use a hanger and place the necklace or scarf around the hanger. Then, I have it all together, and no thinking is necessary for the morning.

What to Place on Hooks?

Hooks can be used throughout the closet for smaller items that need a home. Here are a few I like to hang on hooks.

Belts - you can find many decorative hooks that you can attach to the door or to the walls to store belts. You can even buy some 3M Command Strip Hooks and use them as a belt rack (affiliate).

Favorite Belt Organizer

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Necklaces/Scarves - I like to use a jewelry organizer and hang it on an unused wall. When working with a client, we found it worked well in her small space where she had an unusable wall.

Great for hanging necklaces and scarves

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4 areas of an organized closet tips
Areas of an Organized Closet infographic

After you have organized each area, labeling is key (affiliate) to keeping it organized.  I know you are all brilliant and can remember everything, but this is one area you really don't need to remember.  Labeling will eliminate any doubt about where things go.  It will also help other people who may use the closet to know where the items go.

If you are organizing the closet for someone else, be sure to review the storage layout with that person.  And, mention to them that the labels (affiliate) are there if they forget where something goes.

I hope this gives you many tips and inspiration to organize your closet. Now, it's your turn.  Did I miss anything that you may have in your closet? Do you have any tips you want to share? Please leave a comment.

Please note these are affiliate links through Amazon, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn affiliate fees if you decide to make a purchase.

Read more about organizing closets from our collection of posts.

Visit our clothing organization posts below.

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4 Areas of an Organized Closet Made Simple - featured image
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More Closet Organization Tips

About Sabrina Quairoli

I love sharing my passion for organizing life and home. I hope you get inspired when visiting my home organizing tips, quick weeknight recipes, party planning ideas, and DIY organizing projects. Visit the About Me page to read my story.

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  1. Janet Schiesl says

    I prefer sweaters and workout clothes on my shelf. I'm short and it's a challenge getting stacked shoe boxes off the shelf for me. One example of how it can be personal. I also have a bunch of hooks holding necklaces inside the closet. Since they are right up front I wear them more often.

    Reply

  2. Linda Samuels says

    There's nothing quite as satisfying as an organized closet. I like your chart with the quadrants. A product I really like for those piles of shirts or sweaters on shelves are the shelf dividers. They slip easily onto a shelf to create sections and also help the piles from falling over. Here's a link to one example: http://www.kitchensource.com/laundry/ci-shd.htm

    Reply

    • Sabrina Quairoli says

      I love those shelf dividers. Thanks for sharing, Linda.

      Reply

  3. Ken Dowell says

    Wow! My closet needs a lot of work. Thanks for some good ideas.

    Reply

  4. Janet Barclay says

    My wardrobe is also pretty simple now that I work from home, but you've helped me to see that I'm not using my closet's full potential!

    Reply

  5. Seana Turner says

    I like the idea of a basket for either workout clothes! Workout clothes are notoriously difficult to fold, so don't bother - just keep it easy!

    Reply

  6. Julie Stobbe says

    Great ideas for organzing a closet with a really helpful infomatic to summarize. If you have extra pant hangers you can use them to hang up boots instead of buying the specialized boot hanging clips.

    Reply

  7. RoseMary Griffith says

    Wish I'd had this blog when I was working in corporate and had to wear suits, owned multiple pairs of shoes, etc. Would have been very helpful!

    Life is easier now when dress clothes are in the back of the closet, casual clothes and hiking shoes are up front. I like the simplicity.

    Reply