15 Closet Organization Ideas for Whipping Your Closet Into Shape!

1. Install a Closet System

If you have any closets that are like my daughter’s with a single rod and shelf, installing a closet system can add a ton of usable space. My two favorite closet systems are IKEA’s PAX system and The Container Store’s Elfa system. The PAX system involves a series of wardrobe frames with customizable interiors. You can add hanging rods, drawers, shelves, and other specialized add-ons. It’s what we installed in our primary bedroom closet in our previous home:  

Check out my IKEA PAX Closet System Review post for tons more pics & details.

The Container Store’s Elfa system is a totally different concept. It involves hanging a top track high up along the length of your closet and then adding vertical rails that a variety of customizable components hang from. It’s the closet system that we installed in our primary bedroom in our current home last year:

Visit my Elfa Closet System post for all the details of this before & after closet makeover. The Elfa system is also what I used in my daughter’s closet makeover, taking it from this:

to this:

It’s nothing fancy, but I was able to double the amount of shelving and add about 60% more hanging space, which is a definite win!

Which of the two closet systems is better? They both have pros and cons so it depends on the size of your closet and what features are most important to you. If you’re trying to decide between the two, check out the end of my post on our Elfa closet system where I share a detailed comparison between the PAX and Elfa closet systems.

As a less expensive option, ClosetMaid now has a system similar to Elfa with excellent reviews that you can find {here}. I’ve also had many of you tell me that you love your closet systems from EasyClosets – you can explore that option {here}.

2. Corral Caps with a Simple Hanger

When I organized our hall closet a few months ago, I wanted to find a better solution to how we store the baseball caps that were taking over our closet. I found {this cap organizer} that’s a simple, inexpensive Velcro strip with hanging clips that you wrap around your own hanger:

It holds ten caps and keeps them neatly organized and easy to grab:

3. Store Pillows & Blankets Dust-Free

The top shelf of your closet is perfect for storing bedding that you don’t need to access on a daily basis, like extra pillows and blankets. I’m loving {this set of 4 storage bags} as a solution for storing them dust-free. Each bag is the perfect size for storing three sleeping pillows:

or multiple quilts or blankets. I also love that they have handles on both sides:

If you live in a humid climate like I do, it’s smart to throw one of {these reusable desiccant packs} into each bag before putting it up in your closet to store (the temperature in the upper part of your closet can get quite a bit higher than the rest of it in warm months):

4. Hang Your Totes & Clutches

My daughter has a LOT of handbags, totes, and clutches so I wanted to add some closet organizers that will keep them neatly in her closet (instead of on the floor 😉). One organizer I found and love is {this acrylic under shelf hanging organizer} that hangs under wire shelves. There are an endless number of things you could use it for, including clutches or small crossbody purses:

It’s a great way to put space that would otherwise be wasted to use (for this closet, my plan is for a few tote bags to be stored beneath them):

Another simple organization solution is {this handbag hanger} that I used to hold my totes in the storage closet at our previous home:

5. Take Advantage of Behind-the-Door Space

If you have hinged closet doors, there are a ton of behind-the-door storage solutions. They can be as simple as {these over the door hooks} that you can use to hold a robe, pajamas, or clothes that you plan to rewear:

to something that packs a ton of storage in, like {this behind the door storage cabinet} that attaches to the hinges of the door and moves open and closed with the door thanks to the magnetic latch on top (note: it can only be installed on the hinged side of the door so its use is limited to walk-in closets where the door swings in):

It’s been an awesome solution for behind the door in my girls’ bathroom. Check out my post on small bathroom storage ideas for more details and bathroom storage ideas.

6. Stack Up Your Shoes

There are a lot of ways to add shoe storage to your closet, even if you’re tight on space. One option is to stack them on the bottom of the closet using labeled shoe boxes or clear stackable boxes:

{Shoe boxes like these} that have a hinged opening on the front are smart for shoes you wear a lot because you can access each pair of shoes without unstacking them. Other storage solutions include placing shoes in an over-the-door hanger like {this one} or on the floor of your closet in a couple of bins or baskets like {this one} that’s by our front door:

If you’d rather store your shoes in your entryway or mudroom, see my post on entryway shoe storage ideas for several other storage options.

7. Place Large Artwork In Portfolios

If you have kids (or grandkids, nieces, etc.) then you probably have a stash of childhood artwork from over the years. Smaller art pieces can be stored in archival storage boxes like {these} but what do you do with oversized artwork? I recently bought two of {these large plastic art portfolios} which are perfect for the job! They’re very sturdy, snap shut at the top, and have a handle for easy carrying:

I filled one with my girls’ special childhood artwork and the other with my youngest daughter’s recent art (she’s in art school) and slid them behind my daughter’s long hanging clothes on the back wall of the closet. It’s the perfect spot for them to be stored without getting bent or taking up much space.

8. Divide Up Your Shelves

Once you get your closet organized, you want it to STAY organized – shelf dividers can help with that! If you have a long shelf for storing sweaters or other clothes, over time your originally neat stacks tend to morph into an unorganized pile. Shelf dividers can help get your stacks organized and keep them that way.

For standard wood or melamine shelves, {these acrylic shelf dividers} are perfect! I used them in my daughter’s room in our previous home to corral her stacks of sweaters, sweatshirts, and small travel bags/purses:

For my daughter’s new Elfa closet system, I tried out {these 16″ wire shelf dividers} and they work great (they should work with any wire shelving system):

They are pressure-mounted with prongs on both ends that you slip through the wire shelf slats so they grip onto the bottom of the front and back edges:

They also come in a 12” wide size {here} for 12″ deep shelves.

9. Save Space With Slim Velvet Hangers

When we moved from Ohio to Connecticut, we went from a large walk-in closet to a tiny shared one, and Jeff and I literally couldn’t fit all of our clothes in it. I swapped out our hangers for slim velvet hangers that used to be known as “huggable” hangers, and I was amazed by how much more hanging space it gave us! Ever since then, I’ve been a convert and use {these slim velvet hangers} in every closet. Not only do they save space, but going from a bunch of mismatched hangers:

to this:

is easy on the eyes too 🙂.

10. Loop Your Scarves

Our home doesn’t have drawers for scarves and other winter gear like our previous one did, so I needed a new storage solution. I tried out {this scarf organizer} and it’s perfect for the job with over 20 wire loops for holding scarves. I pulled each scarf through a loop to the front and then back through the loop below it:

Along with scarves, this organizer would also be great for holding stockings and tights.

11. Tackle Your Ties With a Hanger

A similar organizer to the scarf hanger is {this tie hanger} that has smaller straight wire loops for hanging up to 20 ties:

It’s a great way to be able to see every tie at a glance while not taking up much closet space.

12. Box Up Your Belts

Hanging belt organizers tend to have the teeter totter effect, where grabbing a belt from one side causes the other side to plummet down. {This acrylic belt organizer} is a great solution with each belt having a box compartment. You can lay the organizer down like this on a closet shelf or in a drawer (it comes with four pads to put on the bottom if you’re placing it in a drawer):

or you can stand it upright to take up less of a footprint. If you’re going to have your belt organizer facing forward lengthwise on a shelf or in a drawer, I love the look and functionality of {this similar organizer made of bamboo}.

13. Make Use of Every Inch With Baskets & Bins

If you have high ceilings (9′ and up), there’s a good chance that your closet has a lot of unused space at the top of it. This is the perfect spot for placing baskets and bins to hold things that you don’t use on a daily basis. Our walk-in bedroom closet has 10′ ceilings, so when I remodeled the closet, I added additional shelving up top with several of {these woven bins} and it has given us SO much more storage space for things like travel accessories, extra bedding, tall heels that I only use a few times a year, etc.:

I like that they’re lightweight but still hold their shape and they don’t have any rough edges that could snag anything inside.

When you have bins high up like this, be sure to label everything so it’s easy to know which one to grab at a glance! I used {these bin clip labels} that you can clip on to the front of any bin that’s not super thick. I also found some much less expensive bin clips that are the same exact size {here}.

14. Place Your Jewelry in Pockets

If you need storage space for jewelry, a double sided hanging jewelry organizer like {this one} is awesome! With 75+ clear pockets, you can store a ton of jewelry while taking up hardly any space:

They come in multiple sizes and colors and include options such as loops for hanging necklaces.

15. Light up Your Closet

If your closet doesn’t have a light inside, there’s an easy way to add one! {These wireless motion sensor LED lights} can be mounted inside your closet so that the light goes on when you open your closet doors or reach inside (depending on where you mount it).

If you already have an overhead light in your closet but wish that it was motion-activated, there’s a solution for that too! With my Caséta by Lutron smart lighting system, I can add a Caséta Motion Sensor above the door to a closet so that every time I walk in, the lights automatically go on (and they go off automatically too once it senses the space is vacant).

It’s different from motion sensors that are in the light switch itself because you can place the motion sensor anywhere you want (our closet light switch is outside of the closet, so if the sensor was in the switch, our closet light would go on every time we stepped foot in the bathroom). In a standard closet, you can place it inside, facing the closet doors so that it activates the closet light every time the doors are opened. You can read more about our Caséta by Lutron smart lighting system in {this post}.

And with that, this post is a wrap! If your spring cleaning involves cleaning out a closet, I hope you found a few ideas in this post to help make it a more organized and functional space!

XO,