Honestly, the hardest part of organizing your closets is simply getting started. For inspiration, flip through a few home decorating magazines and see how spiffy the closets in them look. Or, visit a website or two that are devoted to home organizing. However you find that spark, get started before you lose it!

One thing that every good organizer will tell you is this: Simplify, simplify, simplify. The best way to do this is to get yourself three large cardboard boxes. Label them: Keep, Mend and Give. It’s as easy as that. Now take everything, and I mean everything, out of that closet. Get real with yourself and only put garments that you have worn and liked wearing within the past year into the Keep box. Anything you’ve put on, said “blech” and put back away is a goner. Put those into the Give box immediately! If a Keeper needs mending - say a hem or button needs repairing - toss it into the Mend box. And set a date - write it on your calendar - to do the mending. Everything that lands in the Give box gets taken out to your car trunk or stowed in the garage immediately. That way you won’t be tempted to change your mind. Don’t ever look in this box again! You’ll forget everything in it within a week.

Once you’ve separated all your garments into either Keep, Mend or Give boxes, you’re almost ready to begin putting things away. First you have to devise a workable system for yourself. It doesn’t cost much to add an additional bar above or below the one already in your closet. With an extra bar in there, you’ll be able to hang skirts and shirts above and below each other, and voila - you’ve got twice the space. If you regularly wear business suits and use the same shirt and skirt together most of the time, go ahead and hang both items on the same hanger. Tuck a fresh pair of pantyhose in the jacket pocket while you’re at it.

What else do you keep in this closet? Coats? Boots? Put them

in a different closet, say one that’s near your front door. Stash your raincoats, boots, parkas, umbrellas and other weather gear in there, as well. The closet in your bedroom should only contain work, play and dress-up clothes. Nothing, and I mean nothing else. The vacuum doesn’t belong in this closet, nor does your tennis racket. You do want to get organized, right?

Whether you organize by color or event, each garment should be easily found when you want it. If you can afford enough clear acrylic boxes for your shoes, buy them. If not, use the boxes they originally came in. Label them “black dress shoes,” “white tennies,” “purple cfm spikes,” or whatever it is you have. Shoes in a pile on the floor is not good organizing; shoes in clearly labeled, neatly stacked boxes is.

An over-the-door multiple hook gadget is fine for keeping things like scarves, handbags and belts together, out of the way and organized. Most of us have only a few of each. If you have more, or they only match one pair of shoes, by all means keep that particular belt or scarf in the same box as the pair of shoes they match. There is absolutely no reason to have a purple paisley belt that only works with one particular pair of boots staring at you every time you open that closet.

Of course, not all garments live on hangers. If you’re fortunate enough to have a huge, walk-in closet, put a reasonably-sized dresser in there. If you can’t fit a full chest of drawers in your closet, get some of those wonderfully versatile milk crates and either stack them in a corner of the closet or place them beside each other on a shelf. This is where you’ll stow your sweaters and other foldable garmets, organized by color, of course.

Are you starting to see what I see? My wish is that you got halfway through this article, bookmarked it then dashed off to obtain three cardboard cartons. Inspiration is the main ingredient of good organizing. That said, go find yourself a closet and get into it!