Watch CBS News

Ask An Expert: 5 Tips to Winterize Your Closet

(photo credit: Simon & Schuster)

Barbara Reich is the author of Secrets of an Organized Mom. She formed Resourceful Consultants, LLC in 1999 and lives with her husband and their twins in Manhattan. Barbara has appeared on the Today show and has been featured in The New York Times, iVillage, and Real Simple, among other publications. Visit Barbara at her Website or on Facebook.

Unless you have a closet that rivals the size of a small bedroom, changing of the seasons means reorganizing for the appropriate attire. Changing from summer to winter is always the most challenging. Lightweight clothing to puffy coats can make any closet look smaller and cluttered.

It doesn't have to be that way though! Your closet can look organized for any season – even winter. Follow these tips and surprise yourself at how easy winterizing your closet can be.

1. Take it out; Shake it out: 
• Take out all of your summer dresses, shorts, and beach clothes
• Take out all of your summer sandals and flip flops
• Give away any clothes/shoes that you haven't worn in the past two summers, are in poor condition, will never fit, or are hopelessly outdated.

2. Maintain and Move:
• Assess whether any maintenance is needed on clothing or shoes. Do buttons need to be tightened, do shoes need new heels?
• Consider putting bathing suits in a box, clearly labeled and moving them to the top shelf of your closet, under your bed, or to another closet. You can use the underbed boxes from The Container Store.
• Move summer dresses and other summer clothes to the back of the closet.
• Make piles to donate, discard, take to the cleaners, wash.

3. Put what you'll wear most in prime real estate:
• Move your winter sweaters and pants to the most accessible place in your closet.

4. Group like things together:
• Put all of your black sweaters together, all of your cardigans together, and all of your turtlenecks together. Then within each category, group by color. Use shelf dividers to separate your piles. I like the Acrylic Shelf Divider from Organize-It.
• Hang as much as possible. It's easiest to see what you have. You can even categorize your hanging clothes using " At-A-Glance Closet Organizing Dividers" from Organize-It.

5. Shop with a purpose:
• Never buy without a plan.
• Is there something you really need (e.g., your black boots are looking shabby)?
• Did you discard something you need to replace?

Barbara Reich is the author of Secrets of an Organized Mom. She formed Resourceful Consultants, LLC in 1999 and lives with her husband and their twins in Manhattan. Barbara has appeared on the Today show and has been featured in The New York Times, iVillage, and Real Simple, among other publications. Visit Barbara at her Website or on Facebook.

Secrets of an Organized Mom was published this year by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.