The Best Ways to Organize a Small Closet

You can make the best of even the smallest closet space.

There's plenty of advice out there about how to pare down and declutter your wardrobe, but what do you do when that's over? You still need to organize and store all your clothes—here are the best ways to choose the right layout for your space and stay organized going forward.

Choose a closet layout (and stick to it)

My clothes are organized in rainbow order in my closet simply because I like the way that looks, and it makes it easy to find exactly what I'm looking for. That's a popular way to do it, but it doesn't take care of some of the more complex issues. For instance, you could consider hanging your clothing so that the things you reach for most—like jeans or basic T-shirts—are near the front and special-occasion items are near the back.

You can categorize by season, by occasion, on a spectrum of casual-to-business, or by whatever framework makes most sense for you and the way you dress, but the real key is identifying the best order for your hangers and sticking to it. When I pull a red outfit from my rainbow-coded closet, I know exactly where to hang it when I put it back—which means I know where it is when I want to wear it again. That's why color-coding is a great option for beginners: It might be hard, when you're holding a freshly laundered linen shirt, to remember if you considered this "business casual" or just "casual" when you were coming up with your organizational scheme, so you might struggle to put it back in the right spot that will make it easiest to find when you need it again. Whatever categorization method you come up with, make sure it makes sense for your lifestyle so you won't find yourself in another cluttered mess six months from now because it got too complicated to keep up with.

Get the right organizational tools

My closet is simple and small, which is not true of my wardrobe, so I've found a few ways to double the space and make organizing easier. First, I got some of these cube shelves ($49.99 for a 160-cube unit) and put them against the back wall, letting dresses and longer items drape over them. This gives me loads of extra space and specialized compartments that I can make as niche as I want: I have one cube for hoodies, another for crewnecks, one for leggings, another for shorts, and so on and so forth. I'm a big proponent of using the Organizational Triangle to keep everything in order, which means I follow its rule of keeping similar items together and designated a specific spot for each category, and the cubes really help.

Beyond that, consider hanging shelving units, like a hanging shoe rack ($9.97), which can also keep your categories separated. Tiered hangers that hold multiple clothing items vertically are a space-saving winner that can also fit perfectly into whatever organizational scheme you choose: One tiered hanger can be for jeans, another for work pants, etc. (I have ones for red/orange, yellow/green, blue/purple, black/white, and silver/gold).

Finally, think outside the closet: Items you use seasonally or don't touch often, like heavy blazers or nice bags, can be stored somewhere else. As long as all the items of that category are together somewhere, you're not really breaking the Organizational Triangle rules—but even if you were, it's worth it to save some space in there and avoid over-cluttering the closet. For this, I recommend under-bed storage, so the items are near the closet but out of sight. You can get three under-bed bins for $13.58.