What is the best way to organise your wardrobe?

Create more space with replacement wardrobe doors from DIY Homefit

At last it feels as though summer is finally here. Schools have broken up for their summer holidays, the days are sunny and the evenings are still light. And Covid restrictions have been lifted so we can start getting out and about a bit more again.

Which is all wonderful, but does bring a long-forgotten issue to the surface. Your summer wardrobe.

Many of us have separate sets of clothes for winter and summer. There may also be a core of clothes that we can use for all seasons, by adding or removing layers. But at this time of year, we are likely to be getting out all those summer clothes from wherever we stashed them away last autumn. 

Getting out your summer clothes can be quite a revelation! There will be some things that you love, and it is a welcome surprise to rediscover them again. But there will also probably be quite a few that you wonder why on earth you kept, some that no longer fit well due to weight change, and others that are old favourites but really have had their day.

And unless these clothes have been stored really well, they are likely to need a good iron, which you never seem to have time to do. Chances are, many of them will go straight back into storage without ever having been worn. You will forget all about them again, until this time next year!

Being honest, perhaps it’s time for an overhaul of your wardrobe? Wouldn’t it be great if you could organise all your clothes so that you can immediately find what you want, and be confident that it will be clean, fresh and ready to wear? Even better if you could access everything easily, and be able to see items that would go together to create exciting new combinations?

Here are our Top Three Tips for organising your wardrobe:

Tip 1: Declutter your clothes

You knew this was coming! We were just talking about the fact that most of us probably don’t use most of our summer clothes. The same applies to winter clothes too. So why let them take up space? Space that you could use to store the rest of your clothes in a much better way.

Go on, be ruthless! One technique that works really well is to fill rubbish bags with absolutely everything you think you don’t want. This includes pretty much anything you’ve not worn for the last couple of years (normally we’d say a year, but these have been strange times where we have not been out and about as much as we usually would). 

Get rid of everything into the bags then stow them away somewhere for, say, a month. A stay of execution. That’s long enough for you to realise if there is something in there that you really do want. But after a month, do get rid of the stuff otherwise it will still be there, taking up space. You may be able to sell some of the items either on online sites or locally, but everything else can be given to charity shops.

Tip 2 : Reconfigure your wardrobe

Before you start organising your remaining clothes, it’s a good idea to give your wardrobe itself a bit of an reconfiguration. Look at the overall space you have and decide whether it meets your needs. If not, you could then change this in one of three ways. Either incorporate additional storage within your existing wardrobe, extend your wardrobe or change your wardrobe doors.

Wardrobe storage solutions

For example, if you have a lot of hanging space but few shelves, you may want to look at different ways of adding some extra shelving. See our example below left.

Extending your wardrobe

Or conversely if you are short of hanging space, why not get hold of one or more additional hanging rails to extend what is already there. See our example above right.

If in the process of doing this you may realise that you need to maximise the space inside your wardrobe? Or perhaps that there is dead space next to the wardrobe that could be used to extend the wardrobe? 

Whatever the shape of this space, DIY Homefit can supply a custom built wardrobe to fit it. So you can use every inch of additional space. And we can also help with matching wardrobe doors for your existing and new sections of wardrobe.

Changing your wardrobe doors

Here are another two ways that DIY Homefit can help! Our sliding wardrobe doors can make a huge difference to the space available inside your wardrobe, as they remove the space needed for hinged wardrobe doors. 

They can also open up your bedroom by releasing more space in front of your wardrobe. And if you choose a mirrored style of door, not only does this make your bedroom look bigger but also gives you plenty of opportunity to check out how good your outfits are looking.

Tip 3 : Organise your remaining clothes

It’s now time to repopulate your wardrobe with the clothes you definitely want to keep. How you do this is entirely up to you, but here are three ideas that may help:

• Organise by type of clothing

Many people find it logical to hang similar items together. So in part of your wardrobe you may have jackets, then shirts, trousers, skirts, dresses etc. You then know exactly where to go if you are looking for a particular type of item.

• Organise by colour

Others prefer to organise by colour. This can be useful if you tend to be inspired by colour, so for example may wake up one morning in the mood to wear blue. If your wardrobe is organised by colour you can see exactly what options are available to you. Organising by colour means that no item gets overlooked.

• Roll non-creasing items

For items such as T-shirts and underwear, it can be more effective to roll them than either fold or just stuff. This tends to make them less susceptible to creasing and also enables you to fit more items into a shelf or drawer whilst still being able to see what is in there. It’s a great way to maximise storage space and keep your clothes in good condition.

We would also strongly suggest that when you are putting anything into your newly organised wardrobe, make sure that it is clean and fully functional. Don’t be tempted to put something in there with a missing button or frayed hem, thinking that you will remember to fix it before you actually wear it. Chances are that you won’t remember, and will end up rushing to find a different outfit at the last minute.

So ideally sort things out straight away. But if not, have a separate pile for mending so that you don’t forget it needs doing. And if the item is still in the pile after several months, it’s a clear indication that you don’t really like it or need it. So out it goes.

We hope that the above tips help you to sort out your clothes and organise your wardrobe. Once your wardrobe looks good and is well organised, it will make your life much easier and you will start to enjoy getting dressed in the morning again.

So why not take a browse through our gallery of bedroom pictures to get some ideas for how good our wardrobes look, and the kinds of wardrobe doors that would make the perfect finishing touch to your clothes collection.

Remember to check back here soon for more lifestyle tips from DIY Homefit.