De-Cluttering: What's in YOUR Closet?

NJ Organizing Expert, Marilyn Shain Labendz, says there are forgotten treasures hidden in your closet!

The closet that gets the least attention but is open to your guests to see is the hallway coat closet.

Whenever I empty someone's hall closet, and I mean the entire closet, inevitably I find items that have fallen behind something and more items that have fallen on top of those, and that's where they stayed.

The typical reactions I hear are :

"Oh, my! I have forgotten all about that!"
"Wow! That's back in style!!"
"I really thought I gave that away!"

This becomes the perfect opportunity to sort everything out, find ways to keep things organized and visible so nothing gets lost anymore and get rid of clothing and other items that you know you won't wear anymore.

Some recent ideas from a hall closet I just did:

Lots of gloves/mittens?
Keep one pair in each of the jackets/coats you are keeping.
Donate the rest.
Have coats you haven't worn in years because they need modernizing?
It will cost a lot of money to alter and update them.
Post-holiday sales are soon upon us.
Donate the coats to the homeless who need warmth not style right now.
Be thankful and get a new coat to meet today's fashion, if that's your thing.

If you prefer to keep individual gloves/scarves, hats visible and not inside pockets, there are many ways to keep them neatly on the shelf without spending lots of money. Here are just two:

Hang an over the door plastic shoe rack on the inside of the closet door.
Invert a wine/soda container on its side with the sections facing out for easy access.

I know the holidays are upon us and it

may not be the best time to clean out closets,

but it's a great time to look around the house

and notice what has to be done after the tumult dies down.