Cheat Your Way To A Neat Closet: Matching Hangers

Now that you've cleared out the unwanted pieces from your closet, it's time to get it in proper order. Group like things together; tops, pants, skirts and so on, and put in color order from light to dark. If you have a colorful wardrobe, rainbow order looks best. Some people subdivide by type; all camisoles together, then all t-shirts, button-downs. Separating your business and casual clothes is a good idea if you have enough in either category.

Having matching hangers not only helps your closet look neater but it makes it easier for you to see what you have. When looking for hangers, remember you can have different hangers for different types of clothing. I have a client who uses wood hangers for her jackets, padded canvas hangers for delicate tops, tubular metal (with and without notches) for the other tops and wood hangers with clips for skirts and pants. Since her closet is sorted by type of clothing, it looks and functions great. Here are some of my affordable favorites, in no particular order (click on bold text for link):

>Heavy Duty Plastic Hangers are always a safe bet.

>Padded Canvas Hangers* are fantastic if you have the room! I prefer the canvas over satin because the canvas holds the item in place, even thin spaghetti straps which the satin ones don't do. I purchased mine years ago at Kmart as part of the Martha Stewart line but can't seem to find them online. They are sold elsewhere and seem to be less expensive at organize.com and the most expensive at the container store at $3 each.

>Metal Tubular Hangers* are my personal favorite and suggest getting a mix of notched and non-notched if you have thin strapped tops and dresses. I purchased mine from hangers.com as I feel their quality is better than a lot of the metal hangers found else where and are most expensive at the container store at $5 each.

A friend just bought the ones from Ikea and so far has no complaints.

>Add-On Wood Pant and Skirt Hangers* are sold in Bed Bath & Beyond stores, but aren't on their website. Note of caution: avoid turning the hanger hook or the suspended hook as they will eventually come off and have to be glued back in.

>Huggable Hangers can be found almost anywhere these days. I would suggest getting the suit hangers (the ones with the bottom bar) or the shirt hangers and use different type of skirt hangers. The clips they sell with them aren't great. Container Store sells black, ivory and platinum.

More colors at Bed Bath & Beyond...

HSN has a ton of colors...

* ones I use in my closet