Martha has a gorgeous feature about closet organization starting on page 74 of Martha Stewart Living (Jan. issue). I read this eagerly because our bedroom closet was stuffed to the gills.

The biggest problem with closets, in my opinion is the amount of stuff you have in them! If you look at Martha’s photos, you’ll see there are just a few things hanging or stacked on the drawers. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got more clothes than that!

Ok, so maybe it’s a tad disorganized in this photo. When we moved in, we redid this closet and installedwire drawers, shelves and three different heights of rods.

I also bought a shoe cube, which really helped. There is also a shoe rack on the inside of the closet door, which holds a lot of shoes as well.

And this big plastic drawer unit holds all my jewelry and scarves.

Despite those organizational systems already in place, you can see we needed some help.

So I sat down with the magazine and read Martha’s advice.  I have to say a lot of it was not very useful. Installing custom made wooden drawers and pull out shoe racks is really beyond what I can afford at this point. There isn’t a speck of wall space in this closet to hand belts or scarves, let along a message station!

I did like the idea of folding tshirts and standing them up. It didn’t really work out for me, so instead I tried rolling them and standing them on end and I’m pleased with that result. It makes it so much easier to find things because you can see them all.

In this after picture you can see how much neater it all looks. I did get rid of a pretty big pile. I also discovered I had about 20 turtlenecks which I never ever wear anymore (but can’t help thinking I might want someday), so I took those out and stuck them in a drawer somewhere else.

The biggest challenge for me is always keeping the closet neat. I have trouble with the stacks of sweaters and shirts – they always end up jumbled and messy. Now that I have some more space though, maybe I can manage!

I liked the tips about putting things in garment bags. I have some suits that I really need to do that with, so I’ll buy some of those when I go out.

Getting rid of the tangle of extra hangers made a big difference in this section. I kept some and tried to organize them so I could actually remove them one at a time.

SIDE NOTE: Tonight I’m going to be cooking part of the Inaugural Luncheon menu for dinner. Martha showed all of the dishes on her show yesterday, made one, and spoke with the head chef. I’m excited to be making some of the menu myself and will be posting it tomorrow. Happy Inauguration everyone!