How are your linen closets looking my friends? Don’t know about you, but when I start to see the buds on the trees and hear the birds chirping, it really gets me in the mood to organize and clean everything. We can’t do it all at once, so we’ll focus in on hall closet organization this week.
{DOWNLOAD THE CLOSET ORGANIZING CHALLENGE CHECKLIST HERE}
HALL CLOSET ORGANIZATION
Let me start by clarifying that I’m using the term hall closet organization loosely to include all of the closets in the public areas on the main floor of your home. If you’re like me and don’t have any hallways on your first floor, those closets might include a closet in the foyer and/or in your mudroom.
Your assignment this week is to tackle each of these closets one-by-one by following the five-step organizing process outlined here.
EVALUATE
Hall closets often wind up serving as as a dumping ground for miscellaneous items in your home. Start by making a rule about what specific categories of items you will store in each of these closets. Be intentional about the function of each of these closets.
We use the small closet in our foyer area primarily to store our vacuum cleaner+ attachments, as well as my Hubby’s suit coats. Over the past few years, the upper shelf has been used to store board games and toys. I also store my laminating machine and accessories there. I made a decision a year ago to relocate the board games down to the basement rec room. I’m officially making the decision this week that all remaining toys need to leave this closet.
GRAB YOUR DECLUTTER KIT
Prepare for your closet organizing session by getting your declutter tool kit out and setting up the following sorting bins: Relocate, Donate, & Keep. Have a trash bag handy as well.
EMPTY OUT & CLEAN
Pull everything out of the space onto a nearby sorting area (table, countertop, desk). Give that closet a thorough cleaning by wiping off shelves, dusting the baseboards, and vacuuming the floor.
SORT & PURGE
If you come across items that don’t belong in the closet (remember, you already decided which item families belong in this closet now), place them in the RELOCATE bin. For the remaining items, determine whether they belong in the DONATE bin, KEEP bin, or the trash bag. Once you’ve gone through all of the contents, sort your KEEP items into categories.
Empty out the RELOCATE bin by bringing those items to their new home, and gather up the items earmarked for donation and put them in your car.
ORGANIZE
Now that you know what’s going back in and how many items are in each category, take a good look at your space and determine how you’ll contain each category of items, and also how you can maximize storage space in the closet. Would the closet function better by removing the existing storage “skeleton” and replacing it with a more customized closet storage solution?
{you can read all the details about how I organized our mudroom closet here}
As you put everything back into the closet, be sure to follow basic organizing principles, such as putting the things you use most frequently in the most easily accessible location in the closet. And don’t forget those labels!
MAINTAIN
Like other closets in your home, I recommend a twice-a-year maintenance session routine for your hall, mudroom and foyer closets. I like to complete my closet maintenance sessions in the spring and fall, since it coincides with the change of seasons (and many of the item families in our closets are used only during certain seasons). Do what makes sense for you and your household.
Your Assignment for this week:
- Determine the categories of items you’ll store in each closet
- Empty the closet(s) & clean them
- Sort items into Keep, Relocate, Trash and Donate piles
- Explore options for maximizing storage & containing item families
- Put items in your KEEP pile back into the space using basic organizing principles
- Schedule biannual appointments in your calendar for hall closet maintenance
After you’ve completed this week’s assignment, share a photo of your newly organized closets on Instagram (use the hashtag #OrganizeandRefineChallenge and don’t forget to tag me).
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This post is part of the Organize and Refine Your Home Challenge
Photo Credit: © Depositphotos.com / SectoR_2010
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Liz W. says
I love it! We just moved and I’m really struggling to find ways to organize our stuff in a smaller home. Time to declutter and purge! thanks for sharing with us at Funtastic Friday!
Natalie Gallagher says
Awesome Liz!
Janet Barclay says
When we moved in, we stuck two boxes on the shelf in the front hall closet just to get them out of the way. Of course, they sat there for years! Finally, we moved one to a more appropriate closet, and took the other to the disposal center (it was cleaning products we no longer needed). Now we have a proper place for our hats, gloves, and scarves!
Natalie Gallagher says
LOL Janet! I think that those of us who have moved at some point can all tell a similar story!