10. Purge and Organize Your Undies

Pull all of your underwear out of your drawer. Separate into to piles 1) Purge: This should be a given but you need to purge all undies that are stained, torn, worn out, too big and too small. Give your pile a once over and add anything that is uncomfortable or you haven't worn in over a year. 2) Keep: This pile can then be organized back into your drawer. You can separate by color, style, season, etc. Pick a system that will be easy for you to remember and maintain. If you space is large enough you can place in drawer dividers create sections. Each section will contain a category from your organizational system you created. Good luck!

9. Purge and Organize Your Belts

Locate all the belts in your closet. Separate into 2 categories.

1) Purge: Your purge pile should contain belts that are too small, too worn, or out of style. Are you having trouble purging your belts for fear of needing them in the future. If you haven't worn it in a year, chances are you won't wear them again. Get rid of it.

You can donate the purge pile to your local charity or if you are crafty, you can recycle your belts into cute accessories. I found this video on YouTube on how to make a vintage bracelet.

2) Keep: Your keep pile can be organized back into your wardrobe. Some people like to roll up their belts and place them into drawers. Another option is to hang then onto hooks in your closet. You should organize them by size or color. You can find several hangers for belts online. Find the best option that works for you and your space.

8. Purge & Organize Your T-Shirts

If you are like our family, you have tons of t-shirts. Seems like every new activity comes with a new t-shirt. Join a sports team, get a t-shirt. Run a 5K, get a t-shirt, each grade level in school has their own class t-shirt not to mention the school t-shirt. Time to purge people!

Gather all the t-shirts from your closet and dresser. Pull out t-shirts that have holes, are stretched, stained, or faded. Place these in your dis

card pile.

Now you can go through the t-shirts again and pull out t-shirts that are too small or too big. Place these in your discard pile.

Of the remaining t-shirts, you can once again purge by placing them into a box. When you wear a t-shirt it comes out of the box and stays out of the box. After being washed, fold it and place it back on the shelf or in the dresser. Do not hang t-shirts. This will cause them to be stretched or misshaped.

evisit the t-shirt box in 6 months. The remaining t-shirts can be discarded. Be honest with yourself, if you haven't worn them in 6 months, you probably aren't going to wear it again.

Now, what to do with the discarded t-shirts bes

ides the obvious donation to Goodwill.

You can:

- Make a shopping bag tote.

- Cut up into 1/2" strips to make a weaving project.

- Frame your t-shirt to display the cool graphics on your walls.

- Make a quilt.

- Turn you favorite t-shirt into a pillow.

My favorite idea is to cover my dog on cold winter days.

7. Organize Your Socks

This is a simple task and should only take about 30-minutes to complete. Before you organize your socks, make sure all of your socks are clean. Check the dirty clothes, washer, dryer for any socks that may be hiding.

Start my pulling all of your socks out of the drawer and put into groups:

1) Matched socks: These socks are complete sets that you plan to keep.

2) Unmatched: These socks are singles without a mate. From this pile, go through and try and find matches. Separate again by putting new found matches in the matched socks pile and then place the remaining socks into the discard pile.

3) Discard: This pile contains socks that are loners, have holes, too small, stained etc. You can use the discarded socks as dusters for your furniture, to make dog toys, make hand puppets or donate them to http://www.themismatchedsock.com/

Visit http://www.wikihow.com/Recycle-Your-Socks for more creative recycling ideas.

Once you have purged your socks, place a plastic or cardboard shoe box into your sock drawer to create a divider. Depending on the size of your drawer, multiple boxes can be used. Each section should contain different types of socks: sports, tights, color vs. white....whatever best fits your needs.

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.)