Help with organizing my closet!!

Question

I'm active duty military and I am constantly moving. Some living spaces are bigger than others. I recently relocated to Italy and we have NO closets in base housing and I came from an apartment with two walk in closets. All I have here is the closet space shown and a 5 drawer dresser. PLEASE help!!!

Debellen · Answer

I find using small clear totes works well. You can stack them on shelves, and clearly see what's in them. They come in many sizes, so pick a size that fits your space and use a lot of them.

Louise Taylor · Answer

Hi Nadia!
Since you are moving a lot I guess that you don'twant to make any investments in the apartment you live in right now. So myapproach is that you don't change the closets and the investments you do makeare in things that are easy to bring with you when moving. 
 
If I were in your situation I would use the rightcloset for all the hanging clothes since you have two rods there with noshelving in between. Put frequently used shoes in your shoe organizer andon the floor in the right closet. Those fancy shoes you don't use that oftenyou could keep in shoe boxes and label them with a picture of the content ofeach box so that you easily can access the right shoes without open everybox. 
 
I would move the little dresser to the left closetand invest in one or two more (don't know if the come in bigger sizes). Sincethose dressers are light weight you can take them with you with the clothesalready in them when you move next time. You could even put those kind ofdressers on the shelf in the left closet or use those plastic pull out shoeboxes that are stackable.
 
Another idea is to use these crystal clearstackable clothes boxes with open fronts that I found on Amazon (picture andlink below). You can put them on top of each other and create as many shelves youneed
 
 A more frugal approach is to use regular shoeboxes whenever you can (I've gotten them for free just buy asking in my localshoe store). I use them as dividers to contain underwear socks etc, in mydresser. Keep the lids under each box and you just have to put the lid on whenmoving.
 
You can fit a lot of clothes in the drawers and boxes and get get easy access if you foldthem right. I only use half the dresser space I used to just by foldingclothes this way!
*As a military you are familiar with rolling yoursocks, such a space saver I love it!
*I use the folder system for T-shirts andsweaters and I am rolling my tank tops and that makes them easy to see and access withoutmessing up the drawer or box they are in. See video below.
*For underwear I do rolls (I think that comes fromthe military as well) and for more sensitive delicates I use the fold.See videos below.

All these solutions are easy to just pack in movingboxes as they are and as easy to unpack.
When moving clothes on hangers I recommend usingbig garbage bags, make a hole in the bottom of the bag, take a few hangers withthe clothes on them and put the hooks through the hole in the bag and pulldown. Your clothes are protected and can be folded down in a moving box.

I hope one or two of these ideas can be of use toyou,

Have a great Day!

Louise

Gloria Duy · Answer

Can you put some sweaters and things in soft zippered containers under your bed?

Neatsmart · Answer

Hi Nadia,
First off, thank you for your service. We appreciate all of your hard work and sacrifice for our country. 
Second, I'm a big fan of using baskets to contain various items because you can find cute ones in different locations around the world and they can be re-used in other parts of the home as you move. If you get baskets with lids, you can make cute labels with a 3x5 card and some jute or baker's twine to attach so you know what's in each. It looks like you have some extra hanging space so you may want to hang more items than you normally do like t-shirts and shorts. Just group like items together so you've got a shirt basket or underwear basket etc. 
Let me know if you need further assistance. I'd love to help!
Carrie

Louise Taylor · Answer

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Lori J · Answer

I have a friend who swears by those vacuum bag thingies. Pack all off season clothing and suck the air out.

Nadia Marie · Answer

Thank you ladies. I really appreciate the feedback!

Nadia Marie · Answer

@louise taylor I am definitely going to try your suggestions. I'm kinda worried about buying the stackable boxes. In the reviews the customer said the they came broken and with they way our mail works it's takes at least 3-4 weeks for us to get stuff here and i would be very unhappy if they came broken. We do have an ikea here in Naples, hopefully I can find something there. And also, I couldn't see the links to the videos. :-(

Nadia Marie · Answer

@carrie you are very welcome!!!

Tracy McLean Packman · Answer

Ikea do a series of fabric storage containers called SKUBB. they stay rigid, but are very lightweight & fold to almost nothing - you could easily pack them up for transporting to your next posting. have a look, they've got Ikea in Italy.

Abbie · Answer

Been there done that! My hubby is military and we have been stationed in three European countries and none of them have closets. The wardrobes that the base provides are never enough. Especially since you essentially have two wardrobes; work and civilian. What we did was to switch out our clothes by season and store the off season clothes under the bed in the ziplock zippered storage bags. It's a pain in the butt, but it works. We also invested in another chest of drawers for things that lived in the closet normally but could be folded without wrinkling. If you don't want to spend a lot of money checkout the local yard sale websites for your base. You can usually find good used stuff on them for not a lot of money. The thing the drove me the most nuts was the lack of a linen closet!

Debbie D. · Answer

Nadia, I have learned to go vertical by adding an over door 36 shoe organizer closet door(shoes on outside) & inside for more storage( I have one on bathroom door for bath essentials). Install removable mounted shelf above doors. Move existing rods/shelf up and put a second rod in for more space(or an inexpensive vertical track and shelf system). Use Joy Mangano's flocked, tiered hangers to double clothing capacity. Sturdy folding storage for the floor that doubles as extra storage cubbies and a low, flat shelf. Most of my storage solutions are from the Container Store that I've amassed over 27 years as a military member/spouse. When overseas, shop the flea markets because they have out of the box solutions to their storage challenges. Hope this helps.

Chas' Crazy Creations · Answer

I have several organizing posts that might help you https://chascrazycreations.com/diys/how-tos/organizing/

Chas' Crazy Creations · Answer

Here's a post that might help you https://chascrazycreations.com/how-to-organize-a-closet-with-these-tips-tricks-and-hacks/

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