Would you believe some people actually get paid good money to put clothes away? It’s true. Depending on the current state of your wardrobe, you’re either currently scheming to find a way to get that job, or trying to budget a way to afford their services, or maybe both. But wait! Before you pick up that phone, we’ve got a couple tips here to help you organize your clothes like the experts do, without asking expensive consultants for a second opinion! Before you start scanning Angie’s List for the best (or cheapest) closet organizer, try these tips first: Group like with like The best place to start keeping things tidy, whether in the closet or the dresser, is to keep like items together. Whatever your space constraints may be, make sure to always group shirts with shirts, pants with pants, and so on. (And if this leaves any empty space, that’s fine—avoiding ‘hybrid spaces’ is going to be better for your overall organization scheme. Fold like an expert Folding, rolling, getting mad and stuffing it into the drawer like a ball; whatever your preferred way of organizing bedroom dressers is, you’ve surely found yourself running out of space faster than anticipated in your drawers. One good way to prevent this is to learn the “KonMari” method of folding, a method of folding clothing developed by Marie Kondo, a Japanese organization specialist. There’s plenty of videos out there to help you get the gist, but here’s the important steps:

• Fold one side of the garment across the center
• Fold the opposite side the same way, stopping before the edge, to form a rectangle
• Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise once, then again

After that, all you have to do is tuck it into a drawer vertically and voila! It’s a good way of quickly finding the top you wanted, all while creating more space in your drawers for everything that needs to go in there. Get flexible with your shelving Shelving in bedrooms and closets can go a long way towards holding items that either don’t fit in your drawers or simply need a little extra space to be properly arranged, but the shelves themselves may need a little extra arranging. Get some wall mounted shelves, wire shelves, or closet shelves and arrange them according to what you’re storing on them: tall boots should be kept on the bottom with enough room between them and the next shelf to make them easy to access, shelves of folded clothing need to be kept closer together to free up space elsewhere, and so on. Arrange items by frequency of use This idea has been gaining a lot more traction among organizers recently, although it may take a little extra creativity on your part. Instead of sorting your clothes by color, type, and so on, simply sort them by how often you wear them. Sure, those shoes are mega cute, but how often have you needed them lately? Your daily wear jacket doesn’t quite match your favorite sweater, but if you need to wear them both for work, why not just keep them both right up front? Even if you swear your color/style/size-based organization system already works, try moving them around based upon how often you wear them, or at least how often you’ll need them. Set ‘zones’ for everything Finally, take stock of some of the stuff in your room and make sure it all has an accessible station for it; gym clothes in this corner, jackets on this closet rail, and so on. This will have the double effect of giving your clothes a distinct home to prevent mess and crossover, and help your brain categorize where everything is to help you better remember where your clothes are and feel less anxiety about getting ready in the morning. Do you have any other tips for organizing that you’ve learned from the experts? Drop a comment below!