6. Organize Your Shoes

Pull all the shoes out of your closet and match up the pairs.

Discard shoes you haven't worn in over a year; you probably won't wear them again. Next pull out the shoes that are too small, are worn out or out of style. You can donate these shoes to Goodwill, Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe Program, or a local charity of your choice.

Depending on the size of your closet, following are options for organizing:

- Lay all the shoes on the floor of the closet matched up in pairs. If you have enough room for two rows, place the current season in the front row and other seasons on the back row.

- Hang a shoe rack on the clothing rod to store your shoes.

- Hang a shoe rack on the back of your closet door.

- Store your shoes in plastic shoe boxes or the boxes they came in and stack the boxes neatly on a shelf. Take a photo of each pair and tape to the outside of each box. This way you know what shoes are inside without having to open each box.

- If space is truly limited, you can store you shoes under your dust ruffle.

5. Find Proper Hangers For Your Clothes

Having the proper hangers will not only protect your clothing but could possibly increase the storage space and accessibility of your closet.

- First consider what you want to hang. Keep to the simple rule of one item per hanger. This will eliminate the problem of items getting mixed up or lost in your closet. Do not hang sweaters or knit products. Hanging these items can cause sagging in the shoulders or stretch out the garment. Fold these items and place into drawers or on shelves.

- Next consider how much space you have available. Wooden hangers are fantastic but may take up too much space on your rod in your closet.

- Find hangers made specifically for for each type of garment. Hanging a heavy coat onto a wire hanger will not work. The hanger will eventually bend causing the coat to fall to the bottom of the closet. Cedar hangers are great for long term storage of clothing since they repel moths.

- Find hangers to fit your budget. Hangers come from several retailers in a variety of styles including wire, wood, plastic, vinyl, metal, satin and velvet. Do you really need an expensive $10 hanger for that shirt you found on sale at Target?

Here are a few choice retailers for your reference:

hangers.com, The Container Store, Target, Wal-Mart, HSN, Linens and Things,

4. Organize The Clothes In Your Closet

Begin by dividing clothes into categories.

Style: Group pants with pants, shirts with shirts, dresses with dresses and so on. Once you have separated styles, you can take it a step further and group by color.

Color: Start with white and work your way to black. Lighter colors progressing to dark.

Season: If space is limited, you can separate by season. Place the current season in the front of your closet and then out of season in the back of the closet, in a spare closet, or a storage box under your bed.

Pick a way that is easy for you to follow. If you feel comfortable with a system you are more likely to keep it up.

3. Purge Your Closet

Have you heard the saying we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time? What happens the the remaining 80% of clothes? They are hanging in our closets taking up space and most likely collecting dust. Here are some suggestions on purging your closet:

1. Pull out clothing that you just don't like. This is the easiest task of all. If you don't like it, you probably aren't going to wear it. Get rid of it.

2. Pull out the clothes that don't fit. Let's face it, holding onto a pair of jeans and hoping to squeeze into them in a few months is unrealistic. Chances are, by the time you are able to fit into your skinny jeans, they will be out of style anyway. Get rid of them. If you do loose that weight, reward yourself with a new pair of designer jeans that fit. You will look better and feel better in the long run.

3. Pull out clothes with stains, holes, tears, or stretched. This is a no brainer.

4. Take all of the hangers in your closet and hang them backwards on the rods, hooking from the back of the closet to the front. As you wear an item, hang it back in the closet normally. After a year, you will notice the clothes that are still hanging backwards. If you haven't worn them in a year, get rid of them. I'll remind you close to our year end to revisit your closet and pull out the items that are still hanging backwards. You might be surprised at what you find.

Most people have an emotional attachment to their clothes. Either you've spent a lot of money on an item or it holds a special memory. This makes it difficult when trying to purge, but try not to consider how much money you spent on an item, that money is gone. You should consider how much they are worth to you now. Does it fit? Do you wear it? Do you even like it? If it doesn't hold any value to you now, get rid of it.

All the clothing purged can be donated to Goodwill, sold at consignment or on eBay, traded at a clothing swap, or given to a friend. Keep a bag or small box at the foot of your closet. When you come across something to purge, place it in your bag/box. When the bag is full, take it to Goodwill.

2. Create Bags

Create Bags For Your Various Activities.

Think about the activities you and your family are involved in outside of the house and create a bag for each event. For example, the gym, dance class, soccer, swimming, sports, art class, music lessons.

Each bag will contain everything needed for that event.

Dance Bag: tap shoes, ballet shoes, etc.

Soccer Bag: Soccer shoes, shin guards, water bottle, soccer ball, etc.

Swimming: sunscreen, water toys, swim cap, fins, towel, card to access the pool, etc.

Gym bag: work out towel, lock for your locker, gym card, toiletries for the shower, etc.

The night before your activity, hang your bag on the hooks by the door and grab and go in the morning. No more scrambling to find your soccer ball.....it is in the bag.

I even have a bag for drying cleaning. Instead of putting our dirty dry cleaning clothes in the hamper, I put them in the dry cleaning bag. I also put wire hangers into my bag. Your dry cleaner may accept these hangers to recycle. This is a great way to keep them out of your closet and landfill. Once the bag is full, I take it to the dry cleaners.

Need a bag? I have an extra bag to mail to the first person who emails me at stephanie@curlygirlorganizing.com.

1. Wall Hooks

Hang hooks on the wall by your door.

Stop wasting time in the morning trying to get out the door on time. Hanging hooks by your door will give you a place to hang items that are needed to get you out the door quickly and on time. You can hang backpacks, keys, your purse, jackets, umbrellas, sports bags onto these hooks. Anything that you need for the following day. I use my hooks for everything. I even have a bag hanging that I use to store all the plastic bags to be recycled at the grocery store. When I'm headed out the door to go food shopping, I grab my bag of plastic and go.

Put a system into place that is easy for you and your family to follow.

- When you walk in the door, hang your things on the hooks. This way items are guaranteed to be there when you need them. If you walk in and drop your items anywhere, who knows where they will be in the morning.

- The night before, place items on the hook that need to leave the house with you (coats for cold days, place notes for teachers in your kids backpacks, your gym bag, etc.)

365 Baby Steps to Get Organizing

Are you unorganized? Does your clutter make you feel anxious and out of control? Are you spending more time in the morning trying to locate items than actually getting yourself ready and out the door?

I am an Austin, TX professional organizer called Curly Girl Organizing. I want to help you overcome the feeling of helplessness and chaos while teaching you simple steps to get you and your home in order.

Over the next year, I will post daily simple solutions to inspire you to create a system that will work for you and your family. There is no right or wrong way to organizing. This blog is meant to be a guide and is by no means the only answer to organizing problems. I welcome feedback and photos of your success. If you have a problem area in your home, please email me questions with details and photos. If appropriate, your space may be used for a blog post.

Don't Agonize.....Get Organized!