How to Organize Your Closet Drawers for Efficiency

You've heard of Henry Ford's famous assembly line model that produced cars in record time? The key element was movement, more so less movement by workers thus saving time and energy walking around the car to assemble it. The parts and pieces moved down a motorized belt and brought to assembly workers. Why not implement a similar strategy to organizing your closet drawers for efficiency when getting dressed? Here are some tips that help you organize your closet drawers and get dressed quick. 

VIP - Give focus to your most frequently worn items

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Bending down or reaching up high day after day to grab your favorite pair of socks or hat doesn't make sense.  Favorite pieces of clothing and accessories used the most should be stored at a comfortable position in your closet so you can easily grab without hassle. This doesn't mean store these items in the top or first drawer of your closet. This means storing these items in the drawer most comfortable for you to view and pull from.  If comfortable height is an open shelf, add an open top fabric basket on the shelf that holds your things in like a drawer does and go with that. 

Here's the Plan - Figuring out what goes where

Women opening closet drawer   

Think about the order in how you get dressed. Usually I go from top to bottom, meaning I get my undershirt on, my top on, then my bottoms.  Then I go onto socks, jewelry and maybe I'll finish off with a hat or scarf. This is how you should design what things go in which drawer. It doesn't make sense to open top drawer, then third drawer, then back to second drawer.  This is the heart of the efficient assembly line. We're trying to minimize the amount of action it takes you to get dressed with an efficient drawer system!

Grouping - See if you can limit opening and closing of drawers

Storage bin with lid for undergarments socks and clothes

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If you're able to minimize the amount of drawers you have to open, that's even better. Try to group similar categories of clothing and accessories and limit how many drawers they take up. It's nice to have all your undergarments in one drawer and socks in another, I know. Imagine if you were to sort all your business undergarments and socks in one drawer then your evening wear undergarments and socks in another drawer? You could limit yourself to opening only one drawer when getting dressed for work in the morning. PLUS minimizing opening and closing of drawers extends drawer glide life so you won't be replacing drawer glides as often. 

How to Store - First come first serve

Folding tshirts lined front to back of closet drawer

This is the same concept as what goes in what drawer. You are focusing and lining items in the drawer according to what you grab first in the drawer.  I'm right handed so I line my accessories and grab them from right to left.  First earrings, then the necklaces, and lastly the bracelets.  That's what makes sense to me. If you have items in that closet drawer that aren't grabbing as frequently, consider storing them more towards the back, but not so far back you forget about those shorts.

Getting a clear view - Space awareness saves time and frustration

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How you store them is also important.  You need to consider space saving techniques. Rolling shirts versus stacking them so you get a clear view of inventory.  If your drawers aren't deep consider folding them into quarters and lining shirts up like a file system. Drawer organizers and drawer dividers are helpful so that your drawers don't become a jumbled mess after a week.  A clear view of what you have is also important to efficiency. 

Women pulling jeans from closet drawer system

Whatever system you come up with it should be catered to your needs. You might go thru a few revisions until you find the best system for you and feel free to experiment. If you notice a certain part of your closet is a mess after getting dressed, that are may be the first section of your closet you need to tackle first. 

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