The Best Ideas for Organizing Your Closet
When your hangers are all the same and they’re pointed in the same direction, your closet will look more streamlined. “A good rule of thumb is to hang anything that wrinkles easily, like dresses, blouses, skirts, and slacks, while folding sturdier pieces like denim, sweaters, T-shirts, and athleisure,” said Corey Pence, senior manager of in-home organizing at The Container Store. For the items that can be folded or rolled, make sure they’re visible, and consider systems to prevent them from shifting and getting lost on top of each other. Good lighting helps, too.
Slim, nonslip hangers: Amazon Basics Slim Velvet Hangers
Budget pick
Slim hangers maximize hanging space, and in our guide, the Amazon Basics Slim Velvet Hangers are our favorite slim hangers. They’re affordable yet still sturdy, and they don’t shed as much flocking as other velvet hangers we tested.
If you’d prefer a non-velvet option that looks a bit more elegant, and you’re willing to pay more, we also love Mawa’s Space-Saving Hangers. They’re made with a steel-rod coated in PVC to keep garments from slipping.
And if you prefer pants-specific hangers that make hanging and removing garments easy, we like The Container Store’s Chrome Metal Pant Hangers. Similar in design to the Mawa pant hanger, these hangers have a PVC nonslip coating; it keeps pants in place, yet slipping them on and off is still simple. Keep in mind, however, that the thinner bar may cause some creasing.
Slim, breathable shelf dividers: Lynk Tall Shelf Dividers
Top pick
Shelf dividers are helpful for keeping piles of clothes or linens tidy and purses or tote bags upright. Of the five models we tested, the Lynk Tall Shelf Dividers (made of a coated heavy- gauge steel) are the sturdiest ones we found. A few staff members have owned the Lynk dividers for several years, and they report that the dividers have held up well and kept their closets calm and organized. These dividers work for shelves up to 0.75 inch thick, and due to their slim profile, you’ll have slightly more space for your clothes. To avoid chipping painted shelves, be careful when removing the dividers.
Stackable shelf bins: The Container Store Clearline Open Bin
Top pick
Instead of creating a precarious pile of sweaters that inevitably topples over every time you grab one, you might consider The Container Store’s Clearline bins, which let you stack your stuff up into a high heap that actually stays neat. Because these bins are completely transparent, you can find what you need from all angles. The Container Store sells each bin and lid separately, so you can customize the height. I’ve used mine in two Los Angeles apartments for the past three years without any cracking of the plastic or snags on my sweaters.
See better: MCGOR 10 inch Under Cabinet Lighting
Top pick
Most closets can benefit from a little extra lighting. Easier to use and cheaper than figuring out wiring, a battery-powered light will let you see more clearly, so you’ll waste less time digging around in vain for what you want. These 10-inch lights are a cinch to install and impressively bright. These lights are sold in a set of two, and each light can be toggled between four brightness levels, and it can be set to on, off, or “auto,” for motion activation. You can attach them magnetically or with an included adhesive strip. They charge via USB-C (cables included) so you can easily detach them when they need to get charged. The motion-sensor capability is impressive, considering the price (it lags just a second or two after I open the closet), and it goes back to dark about 30 seconds later (as the battery drains, over a few weeks, this dwindles down to about 19 seconds, and probably lower, until the battery runs out completely).
