If you (like me) live in a tiny studio apartment, or if your home is just short on storage, you’re likely always wondering where to keep your clothes. When you don’t have giant walk-in closets like the mega-rich people on reality TV shows, you need to get creative about your storage — and one way to do this is by stashing away your un-seasonal clothing when temperatures begin to change.
“When you don’t have a lot of closet space, putting out-of-season clothes away makes it a lot easier to keep track of what you have for each season,” Catie Kelly, founder of Sistamatic Organizing, told HuffPost. “An overstuffed closet is so much harder to keep tidy!”
When preparing for seasonal storage, Kelly, who organized former “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Porsha Williams’ current home, encourages you to think outside your closet. “Take advantage of vertical spaces like walls and doors, and store as much as you can underneath couches and beds,” she said.
And although it may hurt to hear, she also suggests doing a major clothing purge. “Decluttering is the most important step in any organizing journey, but it’s especially vital when you don’t have a lot of storage space,” Kelly said. “The more aggressive you are about editing your belongings, the easier it is to get organized and stay organized.”
Ruth Shafer, a tidying expert and certified KonMari consultant, concurred. “No amount of storage hacks or fabric bins or space savers will bring relief if your closet is full of items that make you feel guilty or not cute,” Shafer said. Once you nail down the clothing you love and wear the most, you can strategically decide where to put it all.
Haleema M. Burton, owner of Jillian & Leigh Home Organization, said seasonal changes are the perfect prompt for a closet clean-out. “Taking the time to go through the process of storing your out-of-season clothes gives you a chance to assess your current wardrobe to see what you want to keep, donate or purge,” Burton told HuffPost, “while also helping you pre-plan your wardrobe needs for the next season.”
To help you find calm in your closet and to make storage seamless for your small space, Kelly, Shafer, Burton and other organization and wardrobe experts shared some of the best ways to organize your clothes. While some, like Burton, advocate for a full seasonal rotation of your closet, others, like Shafer, recommend keeping all clothing visible and together at all times — but they all suggest taking your time to find an organization method that you’ll actually stick to.
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1. Maximize your furniture
Bruhn suggests finding useful pieces like this 12-compartment cubby to display your off-season clothes and shoes along side your plants or knick-knacks, making them part of the interior design of your space.
"Invest in a chest, trunk or ottoman that has storage inside," she suggested.
This bench trunk has a padded leather top, with metal sides and a dark wood finish. Put it at the foot of your bed or near an entryway to create a space to put on shoes and hold all your off-season basics.
2. Use vertical space
Burton recommended this six-shelf hanging unit with brown detailing. It can hold up to 40 pounds and comes with three pull-out drawers. "Don’t let vertical space go to waste," she said. "Utilize the height of your space with hanging storage shelves with drawers."
"I love using back-of-the-door hanging options like this one," Gelvin said. "This [method] hides your things in plain sight and keeps them easily accessible without creating an eyesore."
Kelly also suggested choosing over-door storage with mesh or clear sides. "Clear fronts make it easy to see what’s inside," she said.
"If your bed is too low to the ground to store things under it, bed risers like these will give you more height to work with!" she said. "If you don’t want to see all that stuff underneath, a bed skirt is a good option."
Kira Coopersmith, proprietor of Sensible Sort Professional Organizer, suggested wooden risers that have a warm, homey feel.
3. Think inside the box
"The purpose of storing clothing like this is so you can see everything you have, and so that nothing gets squished, forgotten, or wrinkled," she said. "I rotate my warmer pieces to the front of the drawer in winter, and lighter pieces to the front in summer."
This set of fabric organizer drawers comes in a set of 12 in eight colors.
Burton recommends these windowed fabric boxes from West Elm. The canvas fabrication makes them look homey, but clear siding allows you to identify your clothes.
Gelvin echoed the need for visible storage, and recommended clear, stackable boxes with durable, latched lids (like these 5-quart ones from Iris) to keep your items protected.
"As someone who thrives with ADHD, I realized a while ago that out of sight truly meant out of mind," Gelvin said. "When I store anything, it is easily accessible and identifiable. This works great for neurodiverse people like me, but it works great for neurotypical people as well because everyone benefits from a space that feels orderly. It helps reduce anxiety when you know where and how to find what you're looking for."
Gelvin also recommends vacuum bags for seasonal storage, noting they can help organize linens and bulky bedding. "You can store a lot more in a much smaller space using these bags, and they will also do a great job of protecting your sensitive fabrics from the elements during the storage season," she said.
These Space Saver bags come in five sizes and include a hand or electric pump to help you vacuum seal on your own.
This rolling bin from Target has a latching top that's able to stack with other bins.
4. Streamline your closet
"Ditch the old plastic hangers and get some matching cute hangers," she said. "They help make your hanging space look more streamlined."
Creating more room in your closet means there's more space for all of your clothes, and it's easy to rotate seasonal pieces.
"Not only do they decorate your wall, you can hang your hats, your cardigans, your jewelry, or anything else you're looking to organize," Gelvin said.
Gelvin suggests finding stylish hooks from a retailer like Anthropologie.
Before You Go
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