Space Age Closets has been designing and installing custom closet organizers in Toronto since 1989, and we’ll let you in on how our best-organized clients stay that way: not with heroic willpower, but with a weekend closet reset — a simple, repeatable process that takes a closet from “wow, that’s a mess” to sorted in two days. Here it is, step by step, exactly as we’d walk you through it.
Friday Evening: Empty It and Face the Inventory
The reset starts with a full empty — every hanger, every shelf, every shoe, out onto the bed. Working shelf-by-shelf feels tidier but hides the truth; only a bare closet shows you how much you own and how little of it you wear. Take a rough inventory as you go: how much hangs, how much folds, how many pairs of shoes. You’d be amazed how many shoes you really have and don’t wear. That count matters later, because it’s exactly what a closet should be designed around.
Saturday Morning: Three Piles, No Mercy
Everything gets one of three verdicts: keep, donate, or gone. If it fits, gets worn, and is in good shape, it stays. If it’s wearable but hasn’t earned its space, a local charity will put it to better use than your rod will. If it’s worn out, let it go. Be honest on the shoes — this is where most of the hidden space lives. The pile that leaves the house is the cheapest closet expansion you’ll ever get.
Saturday Afternoon: Put It Back With a System
Now rebuild by type, not by habit. Shirts with shirts, pants with pants, boots all together in one spot and well away from your sweaters. Separating clothing types means you see everything at once instead of hunting for those favourite leopard heels amongst the winter knits. Matching hangers, clothes facing one way, heaviest folded items lowest — small disciplines that keep the system readable at a glance. If two small closets are splitting your wardrobe, consider condensing into one well-planned space; combining closets almost always reveals more room than you thought you had.
Sunday: Fix the Closet Itself
With everything sorted, look hard at what you’re putting it back into. One sagging wooden rod and a single high shelf wastes most of a closet’s volume — that’s builder-standard, not a design. This is where a purpose-built interior changes the arithmetic: double hanging for shirts, shelving sized to your fold piles, racks for the belts, and a felt-lined jewellery drawer (easily lockable, if that’s your wish). Our custom reach-in closet organizers are built around the inventory you just took, so every category you sorted on Saturday gets a permanent, labelled home on Sunday.
The Measure-and-Design Visit
When you’re ready to upgrade the bones, one of our designers comes to your home to measure the space — and no, we don’t judge if the bed is unmade. Expect questions about how many clothes you have and what variety, because precise measuring plus a real inventory is how custom storage ends up using every square inch. It’s also when you pick colours and textures: white remains the runaway favourite, high-gloss white especially with the condo set, alongside warmer tones like chocolate pear and antique white wash. You use this room every day — there’s no reason it should be boring.
Closet Reset Questions, Answered
How long does a proper closet reset take?
One honest weekend for a typical bedroom closet: an evening to empty and inventory, a morning to sort into keep, donate, and gone, and the rest to rebuild by type. Rushing it into two hours is how things end up back where they were by March.
Do I really need to empty the whole closet first?
Yes — it’s the step people skip and the reason resets fail. Sorting in place lets the mess hide behind itself. A bare closet forces every item to justify its return, shows you the true size of your wardrobe, and gives you a blank layout to rebuild logically.
Do matching hangers actually make a difference?
More than any other two-dollar upgrade. Uniform hangers hold clothes at one even height, so the rod fits more and your eye can scan the row instantly. Mixed wire, plastic, and wood hangers create visual noise that reads as clutter even when the closet is technically tidy.
Should I combine two small closets into one system?
If your wardrobe is split across rooms, usually yes. Condensing into one well-designed closet keeps every category in a single view — boots in one zone, sweaters in another — and frees the second closet for linens, seasonal storage, or a completely different job.
What stops a closet from getting messy again after a reset?
Giving every category a fixed home the whole household can see: a shelf that fits the fold pile, a rack for the belts, a drawer for the jewellery. Mess is usually storage that doesn’t match what you own — when each thing has an obvious spot, putting it back is faster than putting it down.
Ready to make the reset permanent with a closet built around your wardrobe? Call Space Age Closets at (647) 394-7557 to book a free in-home design consultation.
