If opening up your child’s closet feels like an avalanche waiting to happen, then it’s probably time to act.
The start of a new school year presents a perfect opportunity to finally get their closet organised and make life a little easier when term 1 gets underway.
Let’s get started.
Before You Begin
There are a few things you need to take note of first.
Stock up on kids’ clothes hangers from department stores like Kmart or Big W. Even if you don’t use them, extra hangers never go astray.
Research different storage options. Have a good idea of what you want but don’t act just yet – once you start the project, you’ll know exactly how much you’ll need and what is going to work best for your space.
Hang or store items at lower levels if you can so your children are able to put things away themselves.
It may not look as neat but storage without lids is handy if you want the kids to put things away themselves – this way, it’s easier for them to see where something belongs.
Whether your child helps with this project is up to you. At the very least, talk your child through what you are doing so they understand where items need to go when they are putting their things away.
Pull Everything Out
This is a trick that the queen of home organisation, Marie Kondo, swears by.
Take absolutely everything out of the closet and put it on the floor and bed. This gives you a good chance to see how much space you have to work with and to give shelves and drawers a wipe down as well.
As you’re pulling items out, filter them into keep, throw or donate piles. Keep an eye out for:
Items that don’t fit anymore
Items that are really grubby and not even suitable to be worn to preschool any more.
Items with holes or tears in them that can’t be repaired.
Seeing the entire contents of the cupboard on the floor is definitely confronting but it really is the best way to take inventory and give the closet a fresh start.
Group Items Together
We’re not saying you have to colour coordinate here (or go for it, if you really want) but separate clothing into categories such as shirts, shorts etc.
Narrow your categories as much as you can – put play shirts separate from going out shirts for example. This will give you a few more options when you see where you’re at storage wise later in this project.
Everyone will do this part differently.
My 7-year-old nephew decided to sort his own closet recently – he grouped his clothes into outfits (a shirt and shorts that matched along with a pair of socks and a pair of underpants) instead of categories.
The jury is still out whether this is a genius or really terrible idea, but the point is to do what works for you.
Assess Your Available Storage
You need to put your thinking cap on here (if you can find it in your pile of clothes). If things don’t look like they’re going to fit or your items don’t line up with what storage options your closet has, there is usually a solution.
For example, if you have too many folded clothes for your drawers, one of these hanging organisers can be hung on a wardrobe rail and instantly give you more space. Consider the seasons, too. If it is the middle of spring and big jackets are overwhelming the closet, think about under-bed storage or somewhere else in the house you could keep them while they aren’t likely to be worn for the next 6 months.
Utilise space where you can.
These dividers will keep things separate on your top shelf if you have one and these drawer organisers (also from Kmart) do a great job of keeping things compartmentalised.
Over the door hooks can be a great place to keep miscellaneous items like bags, hats and scarves.
Shoe racks (either low lying or over the door) can help keep things neat while keeping potentially dirty shoes off the floor – Amazon has a great range.
Little people don’t need a lot of length when it comes to hanging space – these double hang closet rods double your hanging capacity in an instant.
Pop Everything Away
Now that you have the storage set up and clothes appropriately organised, putting things back will be a cinch.
As seasons change and the children grow, you will need to adapt your system but once you’ve done a massive closet task like this, you should only need to do maintenance cleans (updating clothing for seasons, checking through drawers for clothes they’ve grown out of etc) in the future.
