Dirty Trick #2 for Keeping Your Home Clean: Closet Can-Do, a tidy closet system on a budget.

Organizing a clothing closet is simple and can be done in just a few hours. You don’t need a world-class closet organizer to put a workable system in place.

• Before you put anything back into the closet wipe down shelves with warm soapy water and vac the walls, baseboards, tops of doorways, and the floor.
• Use hooks along the back or sides of the closet for scarves, hats, or belts. If you’re on a tight budget a box of cup hooks will do fine for just a few dollars.
• All clothes items (except those in seasonal storage) must be visible and easy to reach or you’ll never wear them.
• While you have your shoes out clean them up, apply polish, wash laces etc.
• Store shoes on a shoe rack, in shoe boxes on the shelf, or in inexpensive clear boxes on a shelf.
• Shoe-a-holics take advantage of vertical space. If you have many pairs of shoes place them in clear plastic boxes with visible labels and stack them 2-3-4 high on the closet shelf.
• Need more dresser space? Plastic rolling carts with drawers work perfectly in a closet. The roll out so putting away folded laundry is even easier.
• Pack seasonal sweaters and shoes away. These items can go on the way up high shelf in the closet, in an under the bed storage tote, or on a hanging rack in the basement.
• Launder seasonal items before you pack them away. Store in breathable containers in cool dry locations. Avoid plastic bags and mothballs and all costs. Launder again when you bring them out of storage to freshen them up!
• Separate tops and bottoms in the closet for easy selection.
• Invest in hangers. Don’t use wire hangers, when you can purchase a pack or two of wooden hangers at a time. Wooden hangers can be purchased inexpensively at Target, Wal-Mart, Costco and clothes will look better coming out of the closet.
• ROYGBIV it. That’s right sort tops and bottoms by color. Grouping colors makes finding clothes and creating outfits simple and fast! In my closet clothes are actually sorted: white, red, brown, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (does anyone have anything indigo?), violet, black, and gray. I start each color section with solids then move to prints, it helps keep the system in place.

If you’re working on a tight budget search craigslist and the clearance isles for items like shoe racks, rolling carts, hooks, storage totes, and hanging racks. When you rotate out seasonal items (switching the swimsuits for sweaters) take the time to sort through clothes and shoes again and purge items which are worn out, damaged, or out of style. When you reach into your closet for clothing, stop and take a minute to make sure clothes are in order and no squatters have moved in.