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4M Task – Organizing your Teen’s Closet
Last spring for her 15th Birthday we surprised our daughter by doing a whole Benjamin Moore makeover of her room. At that time painted her entire room, some of the furniture and of course, I re-organized her closet. Well that was then and this is now…Its time to do another closet re-org. So today’s 4 M tasks will take a bit longer but the impact on her daily life is huge.
I have a teenager that loves clothes… at least when I see them thrown about on the floor, I think she has too many clothes. That is not necessarily true because I have pretty strict rules about what can be purchased and how much stuff she can ‘stuff’ into her closet. I knew this one would take a bit longer as we needed to purge some of the clothes and not just tidy things up. As part of my 4M series, I try and tackle projects that will take you 20-30 minutes. A few weeks back, we decided to go through her closet and try to get it clean in just under an hour.
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NO SUCH LUCK… this whole projected was closer to two hours but we still managed to get it accomplished together as quickly as we could. Below you will see what we had to start with. There were clothes on the bed and in the laundry basket. Here are the 7 tips to getting her organized in 90 minutes or less.
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Have bags at the ready & the music motivational
– make sure to have bags that will go to Goodwill, to a friend and to the garbage
– we love music so it plays loudly in the background to keep her happy while she works (great motivational tool for us both) -
Set a Time Limit
– I wanted to do this project in one hour or less. I gave her the time that we were going to work so she knew there as an end to the task
– use a timer to make sure she transitions from one area to the next without wasting too much time
– with little kids beating the clock makes it a game
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Section clothes by use
– that means her school uniform was in one section
– training shorts, t-shirts and sports bras were in another section
– everyday clothes were in another section
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Find space for the accessories
– read how we organized all her hair appliances last week
– there are belts that need to be hung up
– scarves that need to be updated
– hair accessories that need to be bunched together
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Find room for make up and body sprays
– this is what girls use, body sprays… so make some room for them but limit the amount that she can have
– reminder her that mascara should only be used for 3-6 months then replaced
– also keep face cleaning supplies close at hand
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Use inexpensive Shelves to double your space
– use easy to assemble, shelves to double your space
– don’t worry about adding a full shelf as this limits your options
– use easy to remove light-weight wired baskets to containerize like items
4M Project–Organizing your Teens’ Hoodies -
Share your good fortune
– any really, really nice things (Lulu’s, French Connection, Gap, Banana Republic) will go to a friend of mine (her daughters usually like it but if they don’t she is free to donate)
– any other items that are still usable go to Goodwill
– items that are ripped, dirty beyond repair (I have a soccer girl that finds herself sliding in mud) and underwear get thrown out – immediately
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Margarita Ibbott is a travel and lifestyle blogger. She blogs about travel in Canada, the United States and Europe giving practical advice through restaurant, hotel and attraction reviews. She writes for DownshiftingPRO.com and other online media outlets.
One thing I miss about having teenagers at home was the “hand-me-ups”. They would tire of their clothes so fast (or they wouldn’t be in style enough for them) that they were still in good condition, so my husband and I often benefited. Even the stuff we didn’t want was good enough to get some nice tax receipts for our donations!
These are great tips! I think it’s important to be organized. It makes it easy to clean up and find things.
I could use some (OK…ALL!) of these tips for my own closet. Lots of great organization ideas. I love the two tiered shelf at the top of the closet, saves on lots of dead space, need to buy some of those.
Can you come and organize Gabrielle’s room? It needs it bad!!! I do find organizing a lot easier now that I have a place to donate the clothing and items we no longer use.
I dream of closet organization for myself. I need to implement some of these tips for sure, when I have time to do so. I always feel so relaxed once everything is organized.
Oh boy is this ever timely. My almost a teen, not quite a tween’s room and closet are horrific at best. I think I will print this off for her, LOL