How to Organize Your Closet in 30 Minutes

Sometimes you only have 30 minutes and you think, "Self,what could I do in 30 minutes?" I'm here to tell you that you can organize your closet in 30 minutes. You won't organize the entire closet, but you will make a serious dent in clutter and a complete a flourish of closet organization.

The other night I spent 30 minutes organizing my clothes and it felt good. Here's how to organize your closet in 30 minutes:

1. Pull out all of the empty hangers.

For some reason, I had a ton of empty hangers in the farthest corners of my closet, so I grouped them together and put them in an easier-to-reach spot flush on the right side of the closet. I'm right handed so this will make the process of hanging my laundry a lot easier.

I did not sort by exact color; but, I did line up darks with darks and lights with lights and grouped clothing by type: pants with pants, skirts with skirts, shirts with shirts, dresses with dresses, etc.
2. Re-group pants/skirts/dresses/shirts together.I also rooted out and tossed all of the wire hangers I'd collected from the dry cleaners. I try to bring in all of my clothing on my own hangers so I don't get wire hangers back (they are bad for your clothing, as are those plastic bags they drape over your clothing. Why? because they trap the dry cleaning chemicals close to the fabric far after the cleaning process is done.) but sometimes, in a rush, I forget.

An even easier way to do this is to group bottoms and tops, and then a separate section for dresses.

3. Store odds and ends.

I extracted anything I won't be wearing for the next 6 months. In the summer this would be wool sweater dresses, turtle-necked cashmere, etc. In the fall and winter this will be t-shirts, shorts, etc.

I went through my super easy clothing storage process and put them into a plastic storage container.

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4. Quickly rearrange accessories.

I moved the ones I am using often right now to the "prime real estate" areas--the places that are easiest to reach, typically between your shoulders and knees--and moved the bags and shoes I am not wearing too often to the back of the closet.

This is really the essence of organizing a closet: move your everyday items to the front and the lesser-worns to the back.

5. Know when to say "when".

Cross my heart, this process only took me 30 minutes in total and still gave me that happy sense-of-accomplishment we all crave--the same effect the complete closet overhaulgives you, but in much less time.

it is very, very important to work on this for a defined amount of time -- 30, 40, 45 minutes, or even an hour -- and not get too caught up in the small details. I have started a quick closet makeunder like this on a weeknight and ended up sitting on the floor of my bedroom surrounded by every piece of clothing I owned crying tears of frustration.

Save the complete closet organization for a weekend project when you have the time to do it right. This 30 minute closet organization should make you feel refreshed - not overwhelmed.