THIS Is the Biggest Mistake You’re Making in Your Closet
When it comes to closet organization, it turns out we’ve been overlooking an essential detail in our quest for a slickly stocked storage space: hangers. Yep, your closet’s most basic element is actually the secret to the easiest closet makeover ever.
The tip comes from consignment expert Corri McFadden, whose eBay-based business, eDrop-Off, has become a bona fide fashion-girl destination for buying and selling authentic designer goods. As someone who’s professionally stocked thousands of luxury looks over the last 10 years — not to mention stays savvy with her own sartorial stash — Corri swears by her devil’s-in-the-details approach to getting a flawless closet, fast. You can too: just overcome these three major hanger hangups.
1. Buy the right kind of hanger: Yep, there *is* a right kind of hanger, and your closet detox isn’t complete without ’em. The game-changers: slimline velvet hangers. “The beautiful thing about these hangers is that they hold all fabrics well, so your silk camis that always slip off, those stay clung to the velvet coating,” Corri says. Besides their built-in brawn, they’re also major space savers. “You can hang four garments to one on slimline hangers to a wooden hanger,” she notes. So, trading out your bulkier hangers for these thin ones will actually leave you with room to stash this season’s most covetable finds. Major win-win.
2. Ditch the dry cleaning freebies: Tossing those wire hangers is the one organizational rule Corri never breaks. “Get those out! They’re not pretty. Get all the dry cleaning materials out of there so your clothes are on one consistent hanger,” she says. “It’ll streamline your closet, and lifts any space to looking like a retail hanging space instantly.” Keep the temptation at bay by doing a piece count of what you’re going to hang to make sure you’re never a hanger short, then order slimlines online. “Get them delivered to your house so you don’t have to schlep all those boxes of hangers,” Corri says, and be sure to scout places online that have free shipping to save time and money.
3. Make it a house-wide system: Consistency is key to nailing new routines. If you associate your new hangers with a fresh start for your closet, it just might be what you need to keep it organized once and for all. If that works for your wardrobe closet, expand that throughout your pad. “It’s all we use in our home,” Corri says. “They sell them in children’s sizes too. So, it’s something you can carry over in every closet of the home. And here in my retail store we probably have 4,000 of them. I am invested in the slimline hanger.”
What closet hacks do you live by? Tell us about the ways you’re kickstarting spring cleaning in the comments below.
(Photo via Emma Arnold)