This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Home Depot & Rubbermaid, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #AllAccessOrganizers http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

I wouldn’t say housecleaning and organizing is my forte, but I do get comments on the “cleanliness” of my house when guests are over. I hate cleaning as much as the next person (especially bathrooms), but I think it’s time to share my secret to the faux clean…

Guys, it’s true. The surface of my house looks clean because everything goes into the closets and drawers.

I tend to give the closets a good clean out every six months once a year and it’s been time to tackle the front hall closet for a while now. This time I am determined to keep the closet looking organized and put together for at least, well, more than the usual week…

And so, I swallowed my pride and called my college roommate who’s a “retired” home organizing consultant. She shared her go-to tips for organizing a closet with me and now I am passing those 5 steps to organizing your closet along to you!

Step One: Remove everything from the closet

The first step to organizing your closet is clearing out EVERYTHING. Yes, everything. Coats, gloves, towels, bags, hangers, loose odds and ends all need to be removed and placed in a designated staging area.

As you remove the items take your time sorting through the items to ensure you know what you really have.

Step Two: Sort into categories

Take inventory of the items in your closet by organized categories. You can place the items on the floor in your staging area, or in plastic Rubbermaid containers to keep track of the items in each group.

I placed my things into three different piles – “keep,” “move,” “toss,” “donate,” though you could start with more general categories (clothes, bags, linens) and then break it down.

Step Three: Discard unwanted items

Once I pulled everything out, I noticed that a lot of the items clogging up “my system” were things that didn’t even belong in the closet. I found everything from a kitchen towel and appetizer plates to a sewing machine (to lazy to carry it down to my studio).

Once I cleared those things out the next step was to go through my “keep” pile AGAIN, just to make sure I had cleared all of the items I needed to. There are a few things I asked myself about each item:

• Does this jacket still fit?
• Has anyone word this in the last year?
• Are there multiples of this item?

The answer to many of the questions was “no,” but I had the hardest time sticking to my guns and putting those items in the right box. I tried to make all sorts of excuses for why I needed to keep a few of the items.

Step Four: Clean the closet itself

Once the closet was clear of all the clutter, I took a minute to wipe down the walls and clear the dust bunnies from the corner. I was surprised to find a few stray tags, little pieces of paper, etc.

Step Five: Utilize storage bins and organizing accessories

(And this might be the most important.) Utilizing storage bins and organizing accessories is the key to ensuring your closet stays neat and tidy. I’ve used storage containers in the past, but they were hard to reach and difficult to get into. The result? I would sling items up on top and on the floor rather than pulling the bins down and opening them up.

I’ve been looking for a better solution and I was so happy to find Rubbermaid’s All Access Organizers! These are the answer to my organizing prayers. 

Here are a few things that SOLD me on them:

• The All Access Organizers really provide really EASY ACCESS. You can open them from the top or front (even when stacked). I no longer have to pull the entire storage box down to put something inside. Yay!
• You can see and access what’s stored inside. There’s no guessing what box you need to access.
• They stack easily and don’t slide around, that means nothing is going to fall on my head or my toes.
• I can use these organizers anywhere. They obviously work well in closets and I could see using them in the garage, laundry room, a playroom or even my craft studio.

I didn’t have to look twice. I packed them up and took them home to organize. Just look at my clean closet!!!

Interested in learning more? You get additional information about these awesome organizers here:

Home Depot | Home Depot Facebook

Rubbermaid | Rubbermaid Facebook