WEEKEND STYLE GUIDE // ORGANISE YOUR CLOSET & LOOK AFTER YOUR CLOTHES!

Last week I shared a few style resolutions you might want to add to your list of New Year resolutions.  One of those was: Look after your clothes - You worked hard to pay for them so make them work hard for you! Hang and wash them carefully so you don’t have to replace them so soon.

I don’t have a big budget to spend on clothes so I try to ensure that what I already have lasts me for as long as possible. I’ve helped hundreds of women sort out their closets and have learnt a lot along the way; so for this weekend’s style guide, I thought I’d follow up last week’s style resolution post by sharing a few of the closet maintenance tips I’ve picked up over the years.

Rolled up magazines make great shoe trees:

Necklaces stretch if hung for too long, so I try to keep mine lying flat as much as possible.  Drawers are a great place to store them as they’re super easy to access and you can see everything at first glance.  I keep any little boxes I get and use them for storing jewelry in.

Store bags and shoes in the dust bags they came with.  I have a growing collection of fabric shopping bags that I've accumulated over the years, from various fashion events and stores that no longer use plastic bags (I recently got a pretty fabric bag when I bought a sweater from Free People).  I use the spare ones for shoes and bags that didn’t come with their own dust bags.

Scarves are a messy item to store, so I roll them up and keep them in a box on a shelf in my closet. 

Hang knitwear and delicate tops on non-slip hangers.  They’re rubbery so clothes stay put, and these ones are thin so they take up less space on the rail.

Hang trousers from the hem instead of hanging them over hangers.  You’ll never have that stubborn crease across the middle of the leg again and the weight of the waist band will pull out any other creases so you’ll spend less time ironing!  Oh, and they’ll take up less space in the wardrobe too.

It’s a good idea to store your shoes in the boxes them come with, write/photograph what’s inside each box so you don’t have to rummage through to find what you’re looking for.  I know it’s not always possible to keep all your shoe boxes (I had to ditch mine when we moved) so purchase some inexpensive storage boxes from Amazon or Ikea instead.  Go for boxes that are clear so you can see what’s inside.

I found this shoe rack in a local vintage store, it’s a great way to store flats!

Check out some more ideas for looking after and storing your clothes, over on my closet maintenance Pinterest board!

If you want some more tips on organising and de-cluttering your wardrobe, then check out this post I wrote last January.