Get Ready for Winter: Organizing Your Closets for Winter
For those of us with small closets, it’s the time of year to start swapping out our seasonal wardrobes. October is certainly a challenging time, as we are forced to bundle up in hats, gloves, and coats for our morning and evening outings, yet strip down to our T-shirts for the early afternoons. Since we’re almost to the point of ditching the T-shirts, now is the time that the official wardrobe switch should happen. Follow these 4 EASY steps!
Step 1: Swap Seasonal Clothes
Start by pulling out all your summer clothes. Set aside for donation anything you didn’t wear this past season and anything that you no longer like or fit into. Keep one or two warm-weather items just in case there is another day of unseasonably warm weather. Drag out your cold-weather clothes and put them away in drawers and closets. Don’t do this step halfway, or you’ll find yourself living out of bins all winter!
Step 2: Store Off-Season Items
Use storage solutions like vacuum-sealed bags or weather-tight bins for summer clothes. Make sure you label your storage clearly so that you can easily identify it 6 months from now. If possible, store the clothing in a temperature-controlled and dry place to decrease the possibility of damage to your clothes.
Step 3: Organize Winter Gear
Arrange your winter weather clothes and gear for easy access. For some of us, this will mean swapping our lighter-weight coats for our snow jackets and heavy coats. If you don’t have room in your coat closet or hallway for all of your coats, store the off-season gear in a spare bedroom closet or in a bin, like you did with your off-season clothes. If you haven’t already, you can invest in heavy-duty wooden hangers to keep your coats securely hung. Hats, gloves, and scarves can be stored with the coats on the hangers and in pockets, hung from hooks, or placed in baskets on a shelf. Alternatively, they can be stored in tote bags hung from hangers. If you have kids (or if the adults have gained or lost weight), make sure all the coats, boots, and accessories still fit and donate anything that doesn’t.
Step 4: Maintain the System
Keep your closet tidy with a weekly 5-minute reset—return items to their spots and check for anything that needs repair or cleaning. If you buy anything new, donate an old item to keep from getting overloaded (the one-in, one-out rule).
Swapping out your seasonal clothes and organizing your winter clothing and gear will eliminate a whole lot of wardrobe frustration this winter. The cold weather and snow can be a real pain, but finding your sweaters, warmest jacket, and favorite wool hat doesn’t have to be.
