You're organising your wardrobe wrong.

If your wardrobe “eats” your clothes, you need this.

Quit fighting with your closet and get more visible, accessible and usable space right now with these tips from professional organisers.

1. Get rid of empty hangers and ditch the thick ones.

Often we’ll pull a shirt off of a hanger and forget that there is now an empty hanger tucked away on the wardrobe rod. Do this several times and suddenly, your wardrobe rod is wasting space with empty hangers.

“You’ll be surprised at how much space hangers that have nothing hanging on them occupy,” says Barbara Reich, professional organiser and author of Secrets of an Organised Mum.

Go ahead and move empty hangers to the front of the wardrobe. “This way, you can access them easily when you need to hang something up,” Barbara says, “and your wardrobe isn’t unnecessarily stuffed with empty hangers.”

And if you haven’t already swapped out your thick hangers for a thinner style, consider making the switch to double your hanging space, Barbara says. “A typical wood hanger is almost two centimeters thick while multiple hangers are a centimeter thick.”

2. Group short and long clothing.

Simply being aware of how you organise your hanging clothing can help open up space.

“Separate short-hanging stuff — tops, skirts, folded pants — from long-hanging — dresses, coats — and put short at one end of rod and long at the other end,” says Julie Morgenstern, professional organiser and author of Organising From the Inside Out and Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life.

"The more short-hanging space you can create, the more space below it you have to work with," she says.

Use that newly-found floor space to install stacking shoe racks for more levels of shoes, or add a small dresser for folded T-shirts, pyjamas and workout wear.

3. Maximise the inside door space.

That wardrobe door can do more for you than just open and close. It can also be a go-to spot to store accessories.

“Stagger a bunch of individual hooks in one or two rows for belts, scarves or handbags,” Julie says. “Staggering them enables you to use every square inch of the door.”

Julie also recommends using the hook system to hold necklaces, bracelets and other jewellery items.

4. Add shelf dividers to the upper shelves.

“Upper closet shelves are usually a mess for most people, but it can be very valuable space,” Julie says. “Slide shelf dividers onto shelves and create subdivisions to stack folded clothes — jeans, sweaters, sweatshirts. It keeps them separated and neat and keeps things from toppling when you pull something out.”

Julie prefers clear acrylic shelf dividers because they are sturdy, as opposed to coated wire styles that bend and wobble, creating more of a mess. They’re also super easy to slide in.

If reaching those upper shelves is a challenge, Julie suggests buying a small step stool so you can access the higher areas with ease.

CLICK THROUGH the gallery for more genius storage ideas...

Like this? Try these:

Are these 8 life hacks totally cool or completely crazy?

13 awesome home organising hacks

Follow iVillage on Facebook

When you become a parent, you don't leave your brain in the delivery suite. That's why mothers with kids of all ages come to themotherish.com; because they're still interested in news about entertainment, health, current affairs and food along with an inspiring and useful stream of parenting advice and support.

Most importantly, they come because they want to hear personal stories of parenting directly from other mothers, without fear of judgement.

[iv-signup-form]