Labels for LifeLabels for Life will give tips for organizing your life, home and office.

Fall’s here.  It’s the ideal time to take a good look at your closet.  Is it bursting at the seams?  Could it do with a makeover?  Let’s take a page from the experts.

All essentially spring clothes can be stored away to make room for the heavier sweaters of fall.  This is a good time to inspect all your clothes.  Do you need to pare them down?

Anything that doesn’t fit right, needs severe repair, doesn’t do much for you or your figure could summarily be dismissed to the Discard pile.  Good clothes that will be used through fall can be assigned to the Keep pile.  Closet makeover experts, Jesse Garza and Joe Lupo of Visual Therapy recommend an Archive pile.  This could be your storage pile plus any outfits of merely sentimental value.  You may never wear them but can’t bring yourself to throw.  These may include things like baby clothes, your wedding dress, your grandma’s gorgeous skirts from the home country.  The Archive pile has no place in your closet.  It needs to be relegated with other stored stuff to a little used room, a cool dry place in your basement or attic.

Jesse’s philosophy is we must “learn how to let things go back out into the universe. It’s the circle of life.”  Once the piles are made come the hard decisions.  From the Discard pile is there something someone else can use, should they be donated to the needy or tossed in the nearest garbage bag.  The archival pile and how they should be stored will be discussed in a later blog.  Now we need to deal with the Keep pile.

Double rods double up space for your clothes.  If you’re not very handy with a power drill or don’t know someone who is, you can opt for inexpensive hanging rods that hook onto the existing rods in your closet.

Now for the shelves above your rods:  Hopefully you have one or two of those.  This is where you can store three handy tools to corral your favorite slips, lingerie, trinkets, handbags, wallets etc.

Clear shoe boxes are excellent for storing rolled up slips, camisoles etc.  This keeps them from taking up hanging space and slipping off the hangers as they are wont to.  Square wicker or rush baskets or trays provide great storage for handbags, clutches, your gloves, wallets etc.  Keep your dressers clear and store your trinkets and baubles in small boxes housed in a large box clearly labeled according to your preference.

Line them up on your shelves as shown and stack your favorite cashmeres in between.

Storage Boxes

Once your closet has had its makeover, it becomes very easy to keep it lean, mean and a functioning machine for you.  All the pretty corralling tools with matching hangers for your clothes will have transformed your closet.  You will want to be keep it uncluttered and ship-shape.  The closet in its new avatar will itself be the motivating factor that will make you keep it in order.