It happens to all of us; one day you are just trying to put away the towels and you open up the closet door. Suddenly a pile of towels and other miscellaneous items falls towards you and onto the floor. Closets often become catch all spaces for items that don’t have a home elsewhere. However, when you’ve got a home to sell, overstuffed closets scream “there is not enough storage space in this home” even if that isn’t true. A little reorganizing and decluttering can help to manage the space in your hallway closets and make it more functional. Here are six ideas for keeping your hallway closets clean.
Start by decluttering
To start keeping hallway closets clean, you first need to decide what needs to stay and what can go. Pull everything out of the closet and make piles to keep, trash, and donate. If you have something that you aren’t sure about, stash it in a separate box. If you haven’t reached for the item in a few months, you can donate it. Try to assign a purpose to each closet. Is this one for cleaning products and coats? Is this for towels and sheets? Gathering items from around the home and grouping them together will help you see what you’ve already got and determine which closet is best for holding the items.
Maximize the vertical space on each shelf.
Tiered shelves, like these, can help to add additional vertical storage space on shelves for smaller items while still keeping them easy to see and reach. A lazy susan is great for deep corners that are hard to reach. If you’ve got tall ceilings use that space to store items that you reach for seasonally. Adding additional space to place items goes a long way in keeping hallway closets clean.
Add shelving
Do you have a closet that is just a bar? Take advantage of the space by adding additional shelving above the bar. You can add a rack to hold brooms on the sides of the closet or attach a rod to the back of the door to hang brooms and mops. An additional tension bar below makes hanging up a jacket easier for little ones. If you need room for coats in the closet, then consider adding additional shelves above or attach a back of the door organizer to add space without sacrificing room for jackets.
Use baskets and bins
While we all wish our closets looked magazine ready, it’s ok if they don’t. Gather up bins and baskets that you already have and use them to organize the things in your closet by group. In a bathroom, it may be helpful to have clear bins so you can see what’s inside. In a hallway, use the bins to stash winter gloves and hats, umbrellas, and other miscellaneous items. You can easy switch the bins to higher shelves when not in season.
Ditch the hanging rod
How many times do you open the hall closet to find the coats on the ground? For keeping hallway closets clean, get rid of the hanging rod and install coat hoods instead. You can utilize all three walls of the closet and create two levels so the littlest ones in your family can hang up their own coats.
Assign everyone a spot
Why is it that shoes, hats, or gloves only disappear when it is time to go? Use a plastic drawer system to give everyone in the family a specific spot to place items. You can also organize the drawers by item. For example; one drawer might be for swimming googles in the summer, but hats in the winter.
