Share or Save This

Feel like clothes are swallowing your entire house? These simple tips for clothes storage for small spaces will give you the room you crave.

With six kids in the house, sometimes it feels like you can’t turn your head without seeing clothing everywhere.

Someone is always dropping a hoodie or socks in some ridiculous place.

And the bedrooms…yikes.

Learning some tricks to manage all of those clothes wasn’t really optional for this Mama.

Here are the simple things I do to tame the clothing mountains in our small space.

5 Easy Things You Can Do To Fit Clothes Storage In A Small Space

Interesting Clothes Storage Spaces

Here are some creative ways to store clothes.

Under the Bed

If you have room under the bed, keep clothing in short drawers like these.

(I don’t recommend you get those bags with zippers. The kids are never gonna rezip their clothes in there.)

For a cheaper option, look for a used dresser. Pull the drawers out of it and stick those under the bed instead.

And if your beds aren’t high enough, you can solve that problem pretty cheaply and easily with these bed risers.

In A Suitcase

If you only use your suitcases once or twice a year, why not put them to work in the off season? Store clothes that are less used in them and stick them in the closet.

Or keep them in a more available spot and store your dailies in there.

Behind the Door

This over the door clothes rack is a great way to keep hoodies, jackets, and other favorites clothes off the floor.

Basket Or Old Diaper Caddy

This can be a great space to store socks and undies. Just keep it hidden behind a door or bed.

Tension Rods

If you have space between a bunk bed and shelving (or anywhere high enough to keep shirts off the ground), add a tension rod or two for extra clothes storage.

Laundry Baskets

My 15 year old doesn’t even want to own a dresser. He’d rather just have all of his clothes in a basket so he can grab whatever is on top to wear today.

I mean…they aren’t my clothes. I guess I don’t care that much how he stores his.

Switch Out Seasonal Clothes

Assuming you live in the part of the country that experiences different seasons, you probably have a ton of clothes for each kid and adult.

Winter coats. Light jackets. Heavy hoodies. T-shirts. Shorts. Swimming suits. Snow pants. Boots. Flip flops.

It’s too much for a small space.

It’s essential that you find a way to store the off season clothes away from the rest of the laundry.

For me, there’s nothing more frustrating than finding snow pants and hoodies all over the floor in the middle of July.

(Why????!!)

Store those off season clothes in a high space of a closet, under a bed, in an attic or basement, or even in a shed (get these heavy duty tubs to help keep out the mice).

Simple Ways To Make The Off Season Swap

Look for a staging ground to use for changing out seasonal clothes.

Our boys’ bedroom is rather large and the attic opens off of it.  It’s the perfect place to use for big boxes of clothing.

In a small space, you might have to settle for using the couch.

Hey, having all those clothes in your way may be the inspiration you need to get through it quickly!

Get Organized

If you have a lot more than clothes to organize in a small house, these ideas will be perfect for you.

Every family works differently.  What does organization look like to you?

If you have a pile of kids, you might find that storing off season (or off size) clothes by size works well.  

You’ll need one large plastic tub per size that you have to store.

Or you might want to keep everyone’s jeans in one tub, and all of the sweaters in another tub.  (In my area we’ll need jeans now, but not sweaters until closer to Christmas.)

If you’re in one of those extra busy seasons of life, you might just be happy to have all of the warm weather/cool weather clothes out of the way in garbage bags.

And that’s ok! It won’t last forever.

If you want more organization tips for all your kid’s stuff, check out this list of organization ideas on a budget.

Sort As You Pull Clothes  

Every time you pull out clothes is an opportunity to do some sorting.

Try to find a day that you can devote to going through the clothes.

Older kids can absolutely help. In fact, I insist on it.

That’s how I find out what clothes they love, what they hate, what doesn’t fit right anymore, etc.

Anything they don’t care for can either go back into storage for the next kid, or get the heck out of my house.

Sometimes I have to sneak out ripped or stained clothes away so no one insists that it’s still their faaaaavorite.

You can also sort your clothes by type.

The first fall clothes we usually need are pants and jackets.  I also like to get out some sweatshirts and long sleeved shirts so we are prepared for colder days.  

So I try to keep those things together in a tub, or hang them in the back part of the closet.

While you’re at it, do a little counting. If you have 10 different pairs of size 8 jeans, it’s probably time to get rid of the least favorites.

Don’t Keep All Of It

I try to keep it to a week’s worth of each type of clothes per kid, but we all know it doesn’t quite work out that way.

They also need a couple pair of nice pants for church. And the Boy Scout uniform. Plus that white shirt they wear to show rabbits at the fair.

It’s a general rule I use to help me make decisions, but I don’t let it run my life.

These days, I’m more and more likely to just get rid of clothes. There’s a six year gap between my last two boys, and a 9 year gap between my girls.

That’s way too many clothes to keep.

So I only save the most special things, and ship the rest of it off to the thrift shop.

Sometimes I’ll try to organize it enough to sell it, but most of the time the low amount of money I get for selling used clothes just isn’t worth my time.

These tips for better clothes storage will simplify your home.

It’s so nice to be able to see the floors and couch again!

If you hate laundry, you’ll want to read my Awesome Laundry Hacks for People Who Hate Laundry.

What tips did I miss for changing out seasonal clothes?