With cold days gone and warm weather firmly here, it's safe to stuff your coats away and put your shorts front and center. If you don't have a ton of storage space, though, the issue becomes a question of where to banish those cold-weather items. Here are some ideas.
This is my faithful trick: I only use my big, rolling luggage a few times a year, but it's necessary to keep in my closet purely because I do need it. Since my suitcases are taking up space, anyway, I use the space inside them for extra storage. My winter coats, hats, scarves, wool dresses, tights, and everything else I don't wear in spring, summer, and fall go right into the luggage.
You can make this even more effective by getting some luggage organizers and using them to keep everything separate. Try these:
If you're wondering what happens when you need to pack for a trip, I'll tell you, but it's not really glamorous. I just pull everything out of the luggage and dump it on my couch or something. The clutter isn't going to bother me since I'm not going to be home, obviously, and its presence will spur me to unpack when I get back, so I can stuff it all back into the suitcase.
Closet space can be hard to come by, but you probably have some space under your bed you're not using. Might as well put it to work. For heavy items, under-bed storage with wheels are best, just so you don't hurt your back dragging them in and out at season's end or when it's time to clean.
If you don't feel like spending money, slip a few pieces of cardboard under anything you store under the bed to make it easy to pull it all out at once.
I'm a big fan of multi-function storage furniture because it makes your space look organized while hiding the fact that you may have too much stuff. A storage ottoman is a great idea for heavy blankets, coats, and other winter wares because it's spacious inside but serves additional purposes in your room.
Most major decluttering methods have a few elements in common. One piece of advice that crops up frequently is that you need to store similar items together and make sure everything you own, in every category, has a specific place to be stored. Designating a spot for seasonal items is key because if you leave your coats out in the summer or your shorts out in the winter, they'll get pushed and moved around as you dig past them for what you actually need all the time, eventually becoming a jumbled mess. It's better to maintain one storage spot for off-season items to keep everything more organized and functional, leaving space only for what you actually need and require access to at a given time.
