I Showed a Pro Organizer My Small Closet, and She Had Brilliant Ideas to Fix It

Living in a home with minimal storage can be tricky. My husband and I currently reside in a  two-bedroom townhome. It’s the largest home we’ve ever lived in, but aside from a bedroom closet for clothes, the only other storage spaces we have are an upstairs linen closet and a small downstairs coat closet. The result? Low-key chaos. 

Our downstairs coat closet slowly turned into a dumping ground for … just about anything. Over the past few years if there was something that didn’t have an obvious storage home, it went into the coat closet. Things like extra air filters, our winter coats, Christmas lights, tools, and even a hanging light fixture sat stuffed in the closet. Something had to be done, so I reached out to professional organizer ​​Ría Safford, owner of RíOrganize, for her advice on how to get my coat closet back. Here are a few of her tips and tricks!

While I anticipated getting right into organizing, Safford surprised me with the very first step in her process. “Take note about what is frustrating you about the space and what has made you choose to tackle this organization project,” she says. “The pain points are important to identify so you have a clear vision of the results you are after.”

Having a goal and a vision for what I wanted the coat closet to be was incredibly helpful as I eventually started to sort through all the items. I knew there was a lot of junk that needed to be let go of, but the reality of our living situation meant that the closet needed to be for more than just our coats. 

Because the closet was so stuffed, my main pain point was that I just didn’t know what was in the closet in the first place. I wanted to clearly see everything, know exactly what was stored, and have easy access to it all. With a clear goal in mind, it was time to start the purge. 

I was instructed to take everything out of the closet, and categorize items as I went. This part always makes me nervous, simply because I know there is so much stuff to sort through. Having an organizer on your side is so helpful in this regard, because you have someone cheering you on. 

As I slowly started to take everything out, surprise relief started to creep in. The good news about organizing a small space means that even if it’s packed to the gills, it can only hold so much. Seeing everything out in the open was way less intimidating than I anticipated. Phew! The categories I ended up with were coats, pet supplies, and household items. I set the items into small piles around the living room, then moved onto the next step. 

Safford then instructed me to “assess each item and decide if it can be donated, thrown away, moved to another space in the house, or if it stays in the coat closet.” This process was also much easier than anticipated. Last winter I donated a few winter jackets to a coat drive, so all of the remaining coats I knew we were keeping. We recently purchased a door organizer specifically for pet supplies because we brought home a puppy last January. Our dog Betty has accumulated a lot of belongings, but I was able to toss a good chunk of it. Treats she didn’t like that we held on to, old chew toys and expired puppy teething rings all went in the trash. The final and most overwhelming category was household supplies. 

This category included bags of holiday lights, seasonal decor, a box of air filters, tools, the extra light pendant, and essentially items that we don’t use every day. A few months ago we finally decided to invest in a small storage unit nearby, and all of these items went directly to the trunk of the car, so they could go to storage. I knew I didn’t want or need to get rid of these items, but they were taking up so much space that they needed to be moved. We are so grateful for our little storage unit!

Once everything was categorized, I felt like I could breathe a little easier. The items that were going back into the closet were now minimal — there was more than enough room for it all! 

The fun part was putting the closet back together once I had purged. This is also where working with a professional organizer was incredibly helpful. Safford asked for the dimensions of the space and immediately noticed the closet’s depth. She mentioned I could add hooks to the wall, that there was space for more baskets over the door, and even recommended a stand-alone drawer. “Adding drawers or a shelving unit will keep you from tossing items onto the floor,” she says. While I haven’t purchased a shelving unit just yet, I now have more than enough space for whatever I need! 

Whenever I do an organizing project, I usually go in feeling dread, and this was no exception. It always ends up being much easier (and not as painful!) as I think. Organizing my coat closet was, dare I say, fun? I highly recommend organizing a small, cramped space. If you have an overstuffed closet, don’t be afraid to set aside an hour or two and just get it done. You’ll feel so much better afterward.