Are your dresser drawers overflowing?  Are they filled with piles of clothes you waste time rummaging through to find what you’re looking for?  Are you frustrated at having to constantly re-fold and re-stack piles of clothes?  If so, this post is for you!  I’m sharing 5 organizing essentials to get your dresser organized once and for all.   Save time and frustration every time you open a drawer by putting these essentials into place and make getting ready in the mornings a breeze!

5 Organizing Essentials For Your Dresser

Before we get to the essentials, a couple of tips to set yourself up for success.  First, organize your dresser right after laundry day when all your clothes are clean and in your room.  You don’t want to organize your drawers then realize you don’t have room for the items that were in the wash!

Second, begin by pulling everything out and as you do, take stock of what you have.  Get rid of items you haven’t worn in a long time, no longer fit, don’t reflect your current style or just aren’t in good condition.  If you have trouble letting go of clothing, here are a couple of questions that may help you:

1. For each item, ask “If I was shopping right now, would I buy this?”
2. Do I feel good in this item? Is it comfortable?
3. Would I be happy to wear this for the rest of the day?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then seriously consider letting the item go.  Now to the essentials!

Dresser Organization Essential #1: Like with Like 

Store like items together.  All t-shirts together, all socks together, all pyjamas etc.  Within those categories, you can make subcategories: all graphic t-shirts together, all plain t-shirts together, all winter pyjamas together and all summer pyjamas together etc.  Only having to look in one drawer to see all your options streamlines getting ready.

Dresser Organization Essential #2: File Folding

If you’re short on drawer storage, I guarantee you’ll instantly create more space using this method.  Further, when stored this way, you can see all your clothing options in one quick glance.  No more forgetting about that t-shirt for 3 months because it was at the bottom of the pile.

File folding also makes it easy to grab the item you want without disrupting every other item in the drawer.  Imagine not having to refold shirt piles after you take out the 4^th shirt down which inevitably messes up the whole pile.  And oh ya, it’s free!  Seriously, a game changer people!   For more on the benefits of file folding and a link to a video demonstrating the technique, click here.

Dresser Organization Essential #3: Baskets and Drawer Dividers

After the effort of sorting your clothes and file folding everything, you’re going to want to make sure the system stays in place.  Nobody wants to waste time reorganizing the same space every few weeks or months.  That’s where drawer dividers and baskets shine.  They make maintaining the rows of file folded clothes easy by separating the spaces and keeping clothes in their proper “homes”.

The benefit of using these is especially noticeable towards the end of the week after you have removed a number of items from the drawer.  Despite there being more open space, the remaining items stay put because of the containment provided by the baskets, bins or dividers.

These bins from Ikea work great and are affordable at $9.99 Cdn for a set of 6.  But you can also use dollar store baskets or old shoe boxes you have on hand.  If you’re looking for a more customized look, you may prefer drawer dividers, available at most home stores and online starting at $17.99 Cdn for a pack of 2.

Dresser Organization Essential #4: Honeycombs

Honeycombs dividers are fantastic at organizing smaller items like socks, underwear, nylons, ties, tank tops, pocket squares, belts, kids’ undershirts etc.   The principle is the same as larger dividers and baskets discussed above: every item has its own separate compartment allowing you to find what you want in a quick glance and easily pick it out without any rummaging that disturbs everything else in the drawer.  They can be found online and at most home goods stores.  This 3 pack is availabe for $20.99 Cdn.

Dresser Organization Essential #5: Bra Organizer

How many times have you organized your bra drawer only to open it a few days later and find it a mess again?  This happened to me.  All.  The. Time. Then I discovered bra drawer inserts and I haven’t had to reorganize my bra drawer once.  The organizers provide separate compartments for each bra making it easy to find and retrieve the specific bra you want without disrupting any others.   Just as importantly, it makes putting the bras away in their “home” easy too.  These can be found online and at most home good stores.  This set, which comes wth 3 other organizers, is available for 13.99 Cdn.

Conclusion

As you can see, you don’t have to spend a lot to have organized dresser drawers.  It really comes down to maximizing space and visibility with file folding and dividing the drawers so items have “homes” that create easy visibility and accessibility.  But these 5 dresser organization essentials will have a big impact on your mornings that can carry forward to your whole day.

What’s your favourite tip to keep your drawers organized?  Let me know in the comments below.  And if you liked this post, please share it!

Happy organizing!