Do bundles of clothing tumble out to fall on your head the moment you open your closet door? Well, if you have a mirror behind that door look at it and think long and hard. You are the only one to be blamed for just rolling and wrapping up things before pushing and stuffing them in there until there is no more room and hence the avalanche!

Well, the good news is that there is a method to the madness, which has a lot to do with common sense really. And with a system in place, your closet can fit in more things than it could when you forced things into it. For starters, just take out everything. What kind of a storage place for clothes and other wearables do you have? How much hanging space is there? And how many shelves? Do you have drawers?

Assess your stuff: Ideally, the shoes, of course, go in the bottom shelf, the socks and undergarments go in a drawer. But before doing that, tie up the pairs of socks together with an easy knot so that they don’t get mixed up making looking for both pieces a problem. Never store dirty clothes in your cupboard. Keep a basket or clothes hamper close-by for the ones to be laundered.

Put things separately: Now go through your things carefully. Separate the warm clothes from the others. What season is it? If it is summer, set aside the warm clothes and worry about the cool, in-season stuff first. The clothes that wrinkle easily are not for the shelves, they are for the hangers. The jeans and T-shirts for instance can be folded and placed on the shelves. As for the clothes that you won’t be using this season, you can get storage boxes or storage bins for them to place on the floor of your hanging side.

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Managing your clothes and shoes help cut clutter and saves time

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Preserve: But before transferring not in current use items to boxes, do sprinkle in mothballs, moth flakes, etc. They release toxic vapour to kill the moths which feed on wool, silk or even cotton fibre. Because they carry naphthalene and similar toxic chemicals they should be used in closed or airtight spaces. Otherwise, what if a mothball rolls out from your cupboard shelf and one of your pets or small children find it? They are poisonous.

Drawers and shelves: If you have a chest of drawers, then all the better. That way you can use the cupboard itself just for hanging and store the folded stuff, including the out-of-season clothes in your chest of drawers.

A lady, who once won a prize for arranging her cupboard for practicality, said that she designated separate shelves for separate things. She was a school teacher so all school saris went on one shelf and all the saris she wore at home went in another. She also planned ahead about what saris she wanted to wear for the five days that week and got them starched, ironed and hung on hangers with her other evening wear.

Walk-in closets: But all this is for cupboards or almirahs. Some people can afford more space like create walk-in closets in storerooms or basements or attics. That is ideal. With the luxury of space you can fit in shelves and hanging places here and there. Also you can bring in clothes racks like those in boutiques. And line up your shoes and sandals on the shelves. If you still have some space left in the room think about creating a sitting area too. A little settee or puffy would do.

Hang up: There are a variety of hangers that one can select for one’s clothes also. If you are short of space there are hangers that can be hung on other hangers and they fold up, too. Then there are separate hangers for hanging trousers with clips to maintain the crease after ironing.

For couples, there have to be two cupboards at least for him and her. Otherwise you have grounds for a divorce right there.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 24th, 2014