The Motherload Blog

Thank you all for your entries! We would like to congratulate Michelle S. (Commenter #202) on winning our Cheer for a Year Giveaway! Happy Holidays to you all!

Editor’s Note- Don’t forget to enter our Tassimo T20 Coffeemaker Giveaway from Monday (valued at $139),  our $1,300 Prize Pack from The Talk, and our Nintendo Wii with Family Game Night 3 Giveaway. Check back tomorrow for more!!

Over the last few months I have had the incredible opportunity to work as the spokesperson for Cheer brightCLEAN detergent which has been a fun and exciting opportunity for our entire family. I have been working hard to share with moms easy ways to keep their clothes looking great for the back-to-school season, but my work doesn’t end there since a mom’s work with laundry and clothing is never done!

Today I wanted to share with you some easy tips for organizing your closet in under 30 minutes. If you are limited on closet space, like me, or you simply like to organize your clothes by season, I have a few easy tips to incorporate in your life to help keep your closets organized and fresh!

Pull All of the Clothing Out of the Closet- To begin organizing your closet, you really need to know what is in it. Begin pulling all of the clothing out of the closet and eliminate any items that have not been worn in the last six months, clothing that no longer fits, clothing that is no longer in season, or clothes that are no longer in style.

Organize Clothing by Color- Next put your items back into the closet and organize it by color and then by type. For example, put all of the black clothing together and then organize it by style of shirt (knit, blazer, sweater, cardigan, etc..) I have used this advice over the years,  that was offered to me by my closest fashion confidant, Kathy Friend. Sorting items by color makes it easier to find what you need quickly and also discover what areas in the color scheme needed a boost and what areas need some scaling back.

Repeat these steps above for your children’s closets and I am sure you will notice a true difference in how easy for you all to get ready in the morning!

Store Your Out-of-Season Clothing- Storage depends truly on the size of home you have and the space that you can use to tuck your out-of-season items away. In our house, Rubbermaid totes are our clothing storage option and I keep my personal (freshly washed)  out-of-season items tucked away in the basement, while the kids have two bins going all of the time in each of their closets.

With my children, one bin of clothing that they are outgrowing is stored throughout the year and can be added to as items are outgrown. I have been lucky enough to have a “bin exchange” program with my best friend and we trade bins of clothing with each other for our children. When a bin is filled, I pass it on to her in exchange for a bin of her clothing. With this exchange system, I can probably count on one hand the amount of items that I have had to buy my daughter this year. It is great if you can work something like this out with a friend and by keeping a bin on hand, it helps to keep your closets tidy and organized.

The other bin of clothing that is housed in their closet contains items that they will soon be growing into, sometime in that next year. This bins helps serve as a reminder to me on how much or how little I really need to buy for the upcoming year or season. If you do a lot of thrift shopping, consignment shopping, or hit the garage sales for your children’s clothing, an itemized list of items you have on hand and sizing can help reduce the amount of duplicate purchases.

Implement a Free-For-All Drawer for Kids- Maintaining organization in your house, let alone your closet, with small children is practically impossible. I have learned over the years to choose our battles, but I never knew what battles were until I met my strong-willed and wildly independent little girl.

It is because of her that I have developed the, “Free-For-All,” drawer. This nightstand is my daughter’s drawer that she can organize and do exactly what she pleases with it. Each day we were battling her about what she could or could not wear for school. Now we have compromised and this drawer is filled with all of her favorite nightgowns and pajamas. At the end of the day, she can do whatever she wants and where whatever she wants from this drawer, provided we are spending the day at home!

Make sure that if you have a drawer for your children, that it is the lowest one or a safe one to access. When my daughter began climbing on a chair to grab her favorite nightgowns and toppled the drawers on herself, we knew that she needed a drawer that she could access with a few of her favorite things in a safe location.

Donate Often- Make donating to your local thrift store or shelter a part of your weekly routine and just imagine how much space you can reclaim in your closet and home. I like to keep a bag or bin going all week long and add as I see items that we no longer need or have outgrown, that can be passed on to someone else. It is amazing how these little things really add up over the course of the week, and how much simpler my life has become thanks to ridding myself of clutter. Make it a part of your routine just like paying the bills and caring for your home each week and you will begin to see the power you have in transforming those cluttered corners and closets.

Switch to a Wallet-Friendly Detergent- Before storing those clothes for next season and when caring for those clothes for this season, be sure to look for a wallet friendly detergent to care for them with that will keep your clothes looking fresh and bright for this season (and many seasons to come).  Do a price comparison on the detergents in your store and I am sure you will find that Cheer brightCLEAN detergent is  not only inexpensive, but that it performs just as well as the more expensive detergents.

At only $.15 a load though, it is great to know that if you need to buy it, that this detergent is very budget-friendly and they offer different (including unscented) varieties to choose from! It is a product that I am using for my own family and one that I would love to share with you! The best part though is that it will remove the day’s dinginess from your clothing and brighten the clothes you already have at a fraction of the price. Who wouldn’t want a little of that in their life…or perhaps, a year’s worth of that!

I don’t want to just talk about how much you will save by using Cheer brightCLEAN detergent, I actually want to give it to you and save you that expense for an entire year! Cheer brightCLEAN™ detergent has graciously offered to give to one of our lucky readers a year’s supply of laundry detergent. Imagine not having to pay for detergent for an entire year and what you could do with that money.

Today we are offering one lucky reader a year’s supply of Cheer brightCLEAN Detergent to help inspire you to get your closet organized with fresh clean clothes with Cheer brightCLEAN Detergent!

Leave one comment for each item that you complete to enter:

  • First Entry: Leave a comment and let us know one tip you use to get your closet and out-of-season clothing organized in your house or one tip that you have discovered through this post that would really help your family!
  • Additional Entry: Let us know you are a fan of MomAdvice and join the MomAdvice.com Fan Club today on Facebook.
  • Additonal Entry: Follow me on Twitter and get an early scoop on all of our giveaways and articles that we are formulating for the year!
  • Additional Entries: Subscribe to my feeds and never miss another thing on our site again! We have a landing page where it makes it easy to subscribe to our blogsFor each one you subscribe to, leave one additional comment.

One winner, chosen at random, will receive a year’s supply of Cheer brightCLEAN™ Detergent . Please submit your entries by Wednesday (12/22)  at 8PM EST.  Our winner will be drawn at random. Good luck, everyone!

Please check out this video below where I share more great tips on organizing your closet in 30 minutes or less!

I am a spokesperson for Cheer brightCLEAN™ Detergent and have a relationship with the company. Want to know more about how things are handled here at MomAdvice? Be sure to read our Disclaimer which clearly states how things work and know that we will always offer only the best reviews to our readers. In full disclosure, the email addresses that are collected for this giveaway will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner(s), and will never be sold or given to anyone. This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States who are 18 years of age or older. Entries that do not follow the above criterion will automatically be disqualified. This giveaway will close Wednesday, December 22 at 8PM (EST). I’ll anneounce the first name of the winner(s) that will be added to the top of this current giveaway post and contact the winner(s) by email. I will draw the names of the winner(s) by using the random number generator at Random.org from the eligible entries received. If a winner does not contact me within 72 hours by email, I will draw a new winner. The winner(s) will receive their prize from the PR agency responsible for this giveaway. There is no guarantee that this item will be received by Christmas.


679 Comments

Comments

  1. 502
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    I go through my closet twice a year and pull out anything I don’t love or haven’t worn in the past 6 months…

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  12. 513

    I usually clean out my closet twice a year and re-sort by category – skirts, dress sweaters and shirts, jeans, casual tops etc…

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    If I turn all my hangers around in the opposite direction, with the hook facing forward,but the clothes I wear I hang back up in the correct position, at the end of the season it is easy to see what I haven’t worn. Then I pack it up and off it goes! Very similar idea to comment #482.

  19. 520

    I keep a cabinet for the out of season clothes. As I store them, I take out any that are to little or will be too little by the next season and I donate those to charity.

  20. 521

    Where I live there isn’t much change between the seasons so I wear the same clothes throughout the year. I’m working on finding and buying different sweaters and jackets for the fall/winter season.

  21. 522
  22. 523

    One tip I have is to grit your teeth. Nothing like heading into a cluttered closet with your face prepared to meet the evaporating chaos. Look at yourself like the superhero of order and cleanliness. Reward yourself with ample praise like, “I am amazing. Look at what I am doing. Good job!”

  23. 524

    I would love to win a year of Cheer! My tip for organizing is to have everyone go through their clothes before school starts and before summer starts. They need to clean out the contents of the closets completely. Lots gets traded, sold to Plato’s closet, donated, or tossed depending on the situations!

  24. 525
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    I keep the current season in the front of the closet and the off season in the back and rotate them. I also use different color hangers. As a mom of 4 teens, a baby on the way and a grand child on the way I jave to organize.

  26. 527

    I, too, use the bins to sort the kids clothes they no longer fit into. Though, with 3 boys boys, I keep all the stuff from the older brothers! I also keep handy on the top shelf of the closet some of the out-of-season items they may wear during the year (shorts/short-sleeved shirts in winter for sports practices; long-sleeved shirts/sweatshirts for cooler spring & summer evenings) so they aren’t taking up space in drawers or closets.

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    Everyone in our family likes to donate unused or too small clothing to a program in our town that helps out people that have less than us.

  34. 535

    I donate often- before moving clothes into storage I check to make sure I’ve worn it in the last year- if I haven’t, it gets donated

  35. 536

    The “bin exchange” would really help me. Inevitably, when I send my husband to dress my son he manages to pull out the one shirt that is 2 sizes too small (and out of season)!

  36. 537
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    I have a top rack and a bottom rack. Everything on the bottom rack I wear so if it stays on the top rack it goes into the yard sale bin!

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    I try to keep each type of clothing item together in the closet: all capris together, all tshirts together,etc. Helps me find what I’m looking for!

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    I love the idea of organizing the clothes by color or by type. It would really help us to choose the clothes quickly when in rush. Secondly, liked the idea of putting outer season clothes in storage. Thanks Amy for all you do for us.

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    I like the free-for-all drawer idea—my daughter is a little piglet and makes me crazy with her extremely messy ways

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    I also organize clothes by color. My three girls know that whites/pinks/reds are in their top drawer, orange/yellow/green in the aecond drawer, blues/purples/blacks and browns I. The next….

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    At the end of the season, we go through drawers and toss clothes with stains, holes, or too small for anyone in the house. It’s a great feeling.

  57. 558

    I have mine in tip top shape because my hubby just put up new shelves and racks! It’s color and short/long sleeve organized!

  58. 559

    My husband put up several clothing rods in our basement. We just moved our summer clothes downstairs and pulled out our winter clothes. This is the first year we have had this and I am so excited about it!

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    Living in North Texas, it’s easier to remove your winter clothing to another closet than it is for the warmer seasons! My “trick” (though it’s really not a trick) is to just keep everything in its place, with a hanger or in a container, so that we can find our shorts one day and our sweaters the next! The closet is cleaned like any other room, dusted and vacuumed, cleared of debris, with a place for everything.

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    I do the “pull everything out & put back” drill a couple times a year.

    I also have one of those HUGE ziplock bags for the outgrown kids’ clothes, and hang the “growing into” clothes in their closet since all of their clothes are stored in their chest of drawers.

  65. 566

    I’ve been donating clothes to the Salvation Army since my daughter was little. This year our church went to the Salvation Army and bought clothes to take out the homeless along with food. What a good feeling.

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    I love the free for all drawer idea! I have 2 different families that get my children’s hand me downs. I see both of them quite regularly and pass on outgrown clothes to them.

  69. 570

    Twice a year I pull go through everything and pull out those I don’t wear and donate them.

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    I go through everything after each season and give away things that don’t fit. Same with the beginning of the next season, just in case the boys have outgrown something we didn’t expect. That happens more often than not.

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    We put the kids clothes away in bins and label them (with label pouches) the size and season-with 4 little guys this totally helps us stay aware of what we have and what we will need (as we put the out of season clothes away we make a list of what we will need to update it for the next kid).
    I learned to donate clothing instead of holding onto everything baby-I created a photobox for each son that has 1-3 baby outfits in them.

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    I have big boxes and baskets for off season outerwear and shoes. Each season I go to the front closet with my boxes/baskets and just switch everything. So easy!

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    NEVER REALLY HAD A SYSTEM -MY CLOTHES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN YEAR ROUND CLOTHES-FRIEND PUT IT BEST -ROLL THE SLEEVES UP IN THE SUMMER AND PULL THEM DOWN IN THE WINTER

  79. 580

    follower on facebook

    ps sorry for the caps in the previous comment didn’t realize till after sent

  80. 581

    We make sure we pack by size, season and stuff them with fabric softner sheets, then next season they are fresh :)

  81. 582

    I am lucky and have three extra closets in my house. I keep clothes on hangers and rotate them into the closet in my bedroom when the weather changes. I keep clothes that I haven’t worn in a while in one closet and empty it out every October.

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    I too organize my clothes by color & put out of season clothes in plastic boxes on the top shelves of our closet.

  88. 589

    I keep the out of season clothing on the right side of my closet, and typically only open it only from the left. I live in a warm climate though, so I don’t have too many things to switch out.

  89. 590

    Luckily my closet is big enough that storing out of season clothing is not an issue, but my biggest help is just not buying tons of clothes in the first place and weeding through them once a season to donate or consign.

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    i like the free for all drawer idea!

    i take our clothes to the consignment store; what they don’t want they donate so it’s a win for all of us!

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    Living in Illionis, I must rotate out my clothing for each season. My daughter (14) and I also organize our clothing by color. Its Fun!

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