Your hall closet often gets dumped on. You may have taken the time to organize it when you first moved in but it has probably just continued to accumulate more and more stuff ever since. Do yourself a favor and make your hall closet an organized oasis. When everything you need is at your fingertips and everything you don’t is out of your way, you’ll have time to do the things you want instead of the things you have to. These tips to organize your hall closet will help guide you step-by-step to accomplish this.

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Define Purpose

Before you even begin organizing your hall closet you have to define what it will be used to store. When we living in a small, two bedroom apartment we didn’t have a pantry. We did, however, have a hall closet that I totally converted into a pantry. That was what we needed storage for at the time. Our house on the other hand has two hall closets. The smaller on the 2 is a linen closet and the larger one houses coats, hats, and outdoor toys like bubbles. Each of these closets was organized differently based on what they are storing. That is why you need to define your hall closet’s purpose before organizing it.

Choose Storage Options

You can absolutely spring for new items to organize your closet. If you would rather organize it on a budget, you can save money by using items you already own. If you are creative you can make storage options out of almost anything.

• Small Dresser: If you have a small, shallow dresser available to use it is perfect for storing hats, gloves, and even sandals. This is an easy organization piece to put in your closet.
• Cube Organizer: You already know that I am a HUGE fan of cube organizers (which are heavily featured in the craft room). They are simply so versatile. The hall closet is no exception. Throw one of these babies in your closet and have instant storage shelves.
• Hanging Organizer: These are obviously great for clothes but they are also perfect for creating a removable pantry if you rent. You can store boxes on their sides for easy reach and maximum space utilization. You can also store pantry items such as rice, beans, and similar. (Little bonus tip: maximize your storage with a hanging organizer that has mesh pockets on the sides as well as the regular cubbies.)
• Over-The-Door Shoe Organizer: These are another extremely versatile piece of storage. We use one that I cut in half on the door to our linen closet because it isn’t a standard size door. This has made finding Band-Aids (like the ones on our monkeys), deodorant, and sunblock for the zoo a breeze!

Organize It

Now that you know what your hall closet is going to store and how it’s going to store it, it is time to actually organize it. There are four basic steps to an organized closet:

1. Empty – Take everything out of your closet. Decide what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of. A super easy rule to help you decide what to keep is that anything you haven’t pulled out in a year (or worse, that you didn’t even remember you owned) goes.
2. Clean – Chances are you have never taken the time to really clean your hall closet. Take this opportunity to clean it now. Sweep/vacuum the floor, wipe down the walls, and wipe down any built-in shelves. Give your stuff a freshly cleaned place to live.
3. Storage – Add your storage piece to your closet.
4. Put Away – Now, put all of the items you are keeping back into the closet. Remember to keep like items together and place items used less frequently in the hardest to reach areas. This leaves the areas at arm’s reach for the things you will need to get to on a daily or weekly basis.

Now you will have a hall closet that is not only storing all of your stuff but organized for easy access too. This will make finding the items you need when you need them super easy, freeing up your time to do the things you want (or possibly need) to do. Don’t forget to take your time and really think about what you need storage for. Your family might need a place to store coats and shoes but if you have a coat rack, maybe you would be better served organizing all of the board games in there for family game night. Make your storage work for you. If you’re looking for more ways to get organized, check out Organizing A-Z.

See where I’m linking up!