Maintaining a Clean Closet

Once you put the finishing touches on your newly clean, organized closet, you feel like the worst of it is over. You’ve taken the daunting steps of throwing away, giving away and putting away, and you can finally access your wardrobe, shoes and accessories with the greatest of ease. Relief! But now comes the real challenge: fighting clutter with enough fervor to keep your closet looking as neat and tidy as it does at this gratifying moment of accomplishment.

The problem with maintaining a clean closet is that closets are usually used every day. If you are like many people, you search for the right shoes and clothes to wear in the morning when you are in a hurry, and return items to the closet at night when you are tired. Feeling rushed and groggy, getting the closet in order is the last thing on your mind. Cleaning and organizing your closet can be accomplished in a day, but maintaining the organization you worked so hard to establish requires at least some ongoing effort.

One way to simplify keeping your closet organized is getting clothes ready the night before you wear them. Rather than waiting until the wee hours when your brain seems yet to begin functioning, decide on the next day’s attire the night before. A surefire way to get your closet (and bedroom) in disarray fast is being indecisive about the day’s attire in the early morning. You try on one shirt, change your mind to a different shirt, and as a result you have to change pants, not to mention shoes. At the end of the process, you end up with three days worth of unworn clothing strewn about and no time to put it away. If this sounds like a familiar problem, simply planning ahead can save you time and the hassle of undertaking yet another dreadful closet reorganization in the near future.

Even if you have removed several complete outfits from the closet during the decision process, returning them immediately when you are done will prevent clutter from building. The same technique can be used for clean laundry. Consider removing clothes from the dryer and putting them in their designated spaces as one step. Simply tackling the task right away rather than putting it off gives you more free time later to do what you want. Chances are that if you do not return items to the closet now, more clutter will build and the job will be even less desirable later.

Learning to keep your closet organized will likely involve changing some of your daily habits and devoting at least some time to upkeep. The key to maintaining your organized closet is to put forth small amounts of effort each day, rather than waiting until the closet is once again a disaster area requiring another several hour session of cleaning, organizing and agonizing.

About the Author: Stephen Nickse is the founder of Closet Solutions, a leading provider of quality clean closets, strategically headquartered in the nation’s design capitol, Boston, Ma. For more information, please visit www.closet-solutions.com.