10 Closet Organization Mistakes to Avoid, According to Experts

A well-organized closet is beneficial in many ways. Choosing an outfit can be challenging enough without having a disorganized mess to select from. A cramped closet can also lead to wrinkled clothing, and when too much stuff is stored together, garments can fall to the ground and get rumpled and dusty. Good organizational habits can also save you money. Who among us hasn’t purchased a shirt because they liked it in the store, only to come home and discover they already had something just like it buried in the back of their closet?

Not all of us can afford to have a professional come in and figure out our space for us, which is why we asked the pros for their biggest closet storage no-nos. While some mistakes are worse than others—you should never use cardboard to store your clothes for reasons that will soon become clear—each of these issues comes with an easy fix.

Failing to Group Like Items

Your closet should be divided into different sections and zones, according to Nicole Gabai, a professional organizer, founder of B. Organized, and the author of The Art of Organizing: An Artful Guide to an Organized Life. "In sectional organizing, each room is divided into areas corresponding to a given activity," she says. In terms of your closet, that means grouping like items (like activewear or formal wear) together so that you can more easily choose from your collection when it's time to get dressed. 

Assigning Equal Importance to All Objects in Your Closet  

Gabai says it's important to prioritize the things you use often, putting them in the most easy-to-access place. That means if you spend your week wearing business casual, those items should be front and center, and your less frequently used items should get pushed to the back. 

Storing Clothes From Every Season Together

If you have the space to do so, Amanda Wiss, founder of NYC-based home organizing company Urban Clarity, says you should move your out-of-season clothes out of your closet all together. "One of the biggest mistakes we see is having clothes from every season in your closet," she says. "In a space where you need to utilize every inch of space, storing less used or off season clothes in bins on the top shelf of your closet or under your bed is a perfect way to maximize space and efficiency."

Buying Storage Before Planning and Measuring

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment while you’re at the store and grab the first organizational system you see, but Gabai says that’s a huge mistake. Instead, she says you need to start with organizing your closet, dividing all of your clothing into like groups (for example, grouping all of your shirts in one pile, dresses in another, and so on) before sorting each of those groups into categories. 

"For example, your shirts might be sorted into categories like long-sleeved, short-sleeved, evening, work, and weekend," she says, adding that you’ll need to do this to all of your different groups until all of your clothes have been broken down into categories. Only then can you tell exactly how much you have to store and what size solutions you’ll need to contain each group. 

Not Organizing Based on Your Preferences

You may have fallen in love with a layout you’ve found on Pinterest or Instagram, but that doesn’t mean it will work for your specific needs, which is why Gabai says it’s important to understand your own preferences before you try to build something based off of someone else's aesthetics. "[For example], for one client, we added more shelves than drawers in his closet because he told me he frequently threw things into drawers and couldn't find them again," she says.

If you already know that drawers are where your items go to disappear, you’ll want to avoid adding them to your closet, no matter how much you like how the space looks when everything is closed off.  

Storing Shoes on the Floor

Another mistake Wiss says she sees a lot is people using their closet’s valuable floor space for storing shoes. "By using stacking tiers to store shoes vertically or an over-the-door shoe organizer, you can open up floor space for a dresser or other large storage solution," she says.

Keeping Things You Don't Wear or Use

Many people have the habit of holding onto things that they’ll never actually use again, either for sentimental reasons or because they’re adverse to waste. "Donate things you haven't worn in one to two years, or toss them if they're stained or torn," Gabai says.

"Most people only wear about 20 percent of what's in their closet, so be honest with yourself as you evaluate each piece," she says, offering up some key questions you should ask yourself about each article of clothing before you decide what to do with it. "Does it fit? Do you love it? Does it love you back? (If you love it, but it doesn't look good on you, it's time to let it go.)"

Using Hangers the Wrong Way

There is a right way and a wrong way to use your hangers, and Wiss says this is something she sees a lot of people getting wrong. "When hanging pants, fold them in half vertically with the back pockets on the outside to follow the natural shape of the pant and prevent the hardware and zippers from catching on other clothes," she says.

As for tops, you always want to ensure you’re using those extra support straps that come with the garments to prevent slippage and to avoid putting any extra strain on delicate fabrics. 

Storing Clothing in Cardboard Boxes 

You may be tempted to work with what you have on hand when it comes to creating closet storage solutions, including repurposing old boxes into storage bins. Unfortunately, Gabai says this could spell disaster for some of your items. "Do not store clothing in cardboard boxes because, over time, the boxes can transfer the smell of cardboard and glue onto your clothes, and this smell is very difficult to remove," she says.

Accumulating Random Things

For many of us, the closet is the perfect place to stash random items, but out of sight can often mean out of mind, causing extra stuff to pile up behind those closed doors. "If you find that random items appear in your closet, that's your cue to assess what is accumulating, determine what section it goes into, and decide what [area] it belongs in," Gabai says.