I was recently asked by a reader how to organise chests of drawers, specifically for clothes – and so I wanted to write a post on both how I do my own, and some extra ideas.
Hopefully then you will be able to find a method that works specifically for your needs, and the space you have available.
So – lets get started!
My drawers – before and after!
The usual conundrum of chests of drawers is that we all need some drawers for storing things like underwear and other clothes, but too often the drawers are far too large to keep everything neat and tidy.
However much we start off with good intentions, folding everything neatly into piles, over the weeks/months the piles tend to blend into each other more and more, until you end up with something that looks like, well, this:-
No wonder we take ages to find what we need each day – if we find it at all!
So – how to get more organised!?
I use this checklist:-
- Take everything out of the drawer(s)
- Categorise. (i.e. put all socks together, all knickers together etc….)
- Decide what needs to go in which drawer
- Find suitable containers to add to the drawers
- Put everything back, in containers
Simple really!
NOTE – I actually use a chest of drawers on each side of our bed, to double up as clothes storage and bedside tables – as this maximises the space either side of our bed, and also allows us to not clutter up the rest of the room with the chests instead. This idea is one thats worth playing around with in your own bedroom too so you get maximum storage with minimum furniture.
I measured the space available in each drawer, and after researching what was available to use as containers (see below for more ideas), I decided upon these Skubb boxes from IKEA.
They come in a set of 6 – differing in size – and were deep enough to maximise the space in each drawer really well. They also come in a variety of colours, but I chose black as I felt it would be easy to see what was in each space if it was a darker colour.
So – heres the “After”
Hopefully you can see that the boxes have used most of the space available. To the left of the drawer is a little space between the drawer and the last of the boxes, but this actually makes another little compartment which is a bonus!
I used specific sized boxes for what I needed to store in them, and also (you can see it ever so slightly) I sorted out the bottom drawer for things like tights, slips etc….
For me – the middle drawer is easier to grab stuff from, so I put in everything that I use on a day to day basis, and then the bottom drawer is for things that are used less frequently.
Lastly – the top drawer here was for all my bedside items (as it doubles up for me as my bedside drawer) so I used the same boxes and categorised this drawer with things like magazines, medicine, night cream, torch etc….. so I could find things in this drawer more easily as well.
The bonus’ of having the drawers sorted like this are:-
- Easy to find what you need
- Easy to put things away when they have been washed
- See when you are running low on items – that are either in wash or you need to buy more (so you hopefully never run out!)
EXTRA TIP – When putting clothes away, fold and sort them so that every item is visible as much as possible – for example – in the “after” picture above, on the far left you can see my vest tops – these are folded in such a way that they stack neatly next to each other in their container. This way I can see them all and decide easily what I need – rather than have to go through a pile of them where I may want the one right at the bottom.
Other types of containers available for chests of drawers
When I looked around at what I could use in my drawers, there was loads of choice – here are just a few ideas I found. These may well suit your space more than the Skubb boxes above – the key really is to maximise the space you have, and to work out what you need to store where, as this will give you more of an idea when you go shopping for storage.