It’s a new year, and maybe (just maybe) time for you to start getting your home organized.  Let’s start with the closet in your bedroom.  If you’re like most, it’s overflowing with clothes, shoes and anything else you couldn’t find a place for somewhere else.  Here are some suggestions for getting your closet organized.  These steps may sound simplistic, but how simple are they?  If it were that easy, your closet would already be neat and organized!

Go to your nearest discount department store or home improvement store.  Buy several Rubbermaid type storage containers, a shoe rack, an under-the-bed storage box, wall hooks, and at least a dozen hangars to replace the broken ones and wire ones in your closet.

When you get home with your new purchases, set aside a few hours to do nothing but work on your closet.  Get your partner or husband to take the children out to the movies or lunch so you’ll have uninterrupted time to work on this project.

Now that you’re ready with the time and the supplies:

• Take everything (yes, EVERYTHING) out of your closet.
• Be merciless as you go through all the clothes, shoes, purses, and belts in your closet.  What ones do you actually wear?  What ones actually fit?  Determine the ones you want to keep and put them aside.  Put the rest in a pile.
• Sort your clothes by in season and out of season.
• Put all your out of season purses in one box, shirts/blouses in another box, and pants/skirts in a third box.  (If you don’t have the room you can put all the clothing in one box.)  Label the boxes so you can find them easily and put on the top shelf of your closet.
• Assemble your shoe rack and put in the back of your closet.  Line up your shoes on the shoe rack.
• Put your in-season clothes back in the closet on your new hangars.  Organize all your tops in one group, skirts in another, slacks in another.
• While you’re cleaning the closet take care of the rest of your bedroom.  Get rid of any old magazines or papers.  Organize all your jewelry in one location.  Take a few minutes to go through your dresser drawers and sort your clothes the same way.  Use your under-the-bed storage container for blankets, heavy sweaters, etc.
• Place the unwanted items in garbage bags and take to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army right away.  Don’t consider this job finished until you do this last step or you’ll have garbage bags in your nicely organized closet.