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Clothes Call

There are plenty of good reasons to organize your closet and give it a make-over. Most closets use only 40 per cent of available space. Poorly organized closets add stress to your life and cause you to wear the same things over and over – those pieces that are easily reached. Organized closets can actually add market value to your home.

You’ve decided to take the plunge and get organized. But where do you start?

Review. Decide what you want at your fingertips and what can be hidden away. Sort your closet into these must-wear-today winter woolies and will-wait-until-next-season summer casuals.

Check your wardrobe. Do you love it and wear it? Select those clothes that you wear on a regular basis and donate the rest. This may seem like an extreme solution, but it is the quickest way to make your closet manageable. A year is the most practical timeframe – if you haven’t worn in it the last 12 months, toss it.

Create storage. Add shelves, shoe racks and baskets to your closet. Use shelves for items that you use often. Baskets are a good place to stack handbags, belts and scarves. Shoe bags can be used for shoes or put to the test with other items. Try putting pantyhose and socks in shoe bags to eliminate the chance of them losing elasticity when they are bundled together.

Take photos. Take a picture of your shoes and glue it to the front of your shoebox. Now you don’t have to dig through every box to find the shoes you’re looking for. Store those you don’t wear often on a high shelf or the back of your closet.

Hire a professional. If you know there’s no way you’ll be able to part with the purple sweater Aunt Gertrude knitted you in fourth grade or you don’t even know where to start, hire someone who does. Professional organizers can be found in the Yellow Pages and on the internet.