I’ll admit it—I hold onto clothes way longer than I should, and I know I’m not alone. I have a habit of saving dresses “just in case,” of collecting oversized sleep shirts so often thatI likely have enough 14 consecutive nights, and keeping stray socks on the off chance I eventually find their partner. Sound familiar?
Add in a one bedroom apartment shared with a partner, and you’ve got a recipe for disordered clothing chaos. It doesn’t have to be this way though, and beyond letting go of lots of clothing (which, you know, is difficult to do), there are smart solutions for organizing what you do have. Tucking away seasonal items and putting sentimental stuff out of reach while displaying what you want to show off can help make sense of a small, cluttered space—and it’s not hard to do.
So, we’ve rounded up 7 of our best small-space clothing storage ideas to implement in your own home, and corral the clutter once and for all (or until the next reorg!).
1. Stash Seasonal Clothes in Underbed Storage
Puffer coats and turtlenecks are certainly winter essentials, but they take up a lot of space hanging in closets or smushed into drawers during the spring and summer. Enter: Underbed Storage. These zippered storage containers are actually made from a soft canvas outer and a protective nylon inner, keeping your clothes safe year round and easily fitting under a standard bed. They have sustainably-sourced leather handles to make pulling them out from under the bed a breeze, and they’ll zip open fully or halfway, so you can grab what you need and slide them back under. And if you’re worried about them showing under the bed? Don’t be, they’re neutral and cozy, matching any bedroom aesthetic.
2. Keep Sentimental Tees in Bins Up High
If you’re like me, and love to hold onto sentimental T-shirts, your drawers are probably overflowing with shirts you can’t part with but rarely wear. Instead of letting them take up precious real estate, try folding and storing them in Medium Bins (with lids) at the very top of your closet, so they’re out of the way but still nice and safe.
3. Display Graphic Tees on a Modern Rack
On the other hand, if you have a whole bunch of graphic tees you want to display, consider stacking them up (design side out, of course) on the Entryway Rack. Shoes are a natural fit for this rack too, and you use the other shelves to store bins and baskets full of other clothing, but more on that later.
4. Maximize Closet Space with Shelf Risers
If you have a closet with shelves, especially with lots of space between shelves, Shelf Risers are a great way to maximize all that vertical space, because you can stack on top and below them, without creating giant teetering piles from which you can’t grab the bottom item. This is a perfect solution for folded knits, pants, T-shirts, and sweats.
5. Store Bras & Underwear in Stacking Bins
Conventional dresser drawers just don’t seem to work for bras—either they’re too deep or too shallow, making it difficult to store bras without wrinkling and ruining them. Small Bins (with lids) are actually a clever solution for storing bras and underwear, because they’re at the ready without being smushed into a drawer. Plus, you can put these bins on the entryway rack, in the closet, or under a dresser for sleek storage.
6. Roll Up Socks in Wire Baskets
Socks are another hard-to-store item, since they get easily lost and mismatched in drawers. Wire Baskets are a semi-see-through option for paired off and rolled up socks, as they’re visible from the top and sides, and won’t fall into the back of the dresser, never to be found again.
7. File Fold Clothes into Drawer Dividers
Even in the smallest drawers, Dividers are crucial for maintaining order. These ones, in particular, expand or contract to fit whatever size drawer you have, and can move back and forth to accommodate a growing (or shrinking!) collection of clothing. The best way to organize clothes within drawer dividers is definitely the file-folding method (made popular by Marie Kondo on Netflix), which just means folding your clothing (shirts, pants, shorts) in threes and stacking them vertically (instead of on top of one another) so you can see exactly what you have.
