Organizing Scarves

Aw shoot! Woke up this morning and realized it was Wednesday and that I had missed putting up a Tuesday Tutorial. Sorry! :}

So after last week’s tutorial where I organized projects, a few of you asked if I had any ideas for organizing scarves. As a matter of fact I love scarves. They’re so versatile and fun, and there’s almost no easier way to dress up an outfit on your way out the door (and hide wrinkly shirts that you didn’t have time to iron). They’re also super awesome if you have to wear a ghastly color for work. Just throw on a scarf (if the dress code allows it) that looks awesome on you and separate that nasty color from your face! You’ll look great in a flash. So you can imagine that I have a nice collection… and it desperately needed to be organized.

So, here are several options that I came up with (note: all of these options are for hanging scarves in the closet on the rod with the rest of your clothes):

Option 1: For skinny scarves

A couple of my scarves came on these plastic loop hangers, so I decided to use them for my skinny scarves. You could easily make your own hangers with some wire. To secure your scarves onto the loop just do a simple whatever-this-is-called knot:

Step 1.
Fold the scarf in half and thread the loop of the scarf through the loop of the hanger.

Step 2.
Take the ends of the scarf and feed them through the scarf loop as pictured.

Step 3.
Tighten it down and you’re good to go.

Option 2: For narrow scarves

For what I call “narrow” scarves, those that are approximately 2-5 inches wide (“approx.” as in when they are just hanging it looks about 2-5 inches wide), I bought a necktie hanger from Walmart. You’ll want to balance the weight on it though as this this can easily tip and pop off the closet rod. Although in the picture I put a heavy scarf on one side and a lightweight scarf on the other (which I shouldn’t have done), notice how I have the heavy scarf hanging towards the back and the other scarf towards the front.

Option 3: For medium & wide scarves

I found a heavy-duty coat hanger with lots of extra hooks. I’m using this for my wide scarves, ruffle scarves, and I have a special tube scarf that I just hang around the top. The first picture shows my widest scarves hanging on the bottom, and the second picture shows the hanger loaded to the gills. Okay, so maybe I need to redistribute some of them since I can’t see all the scarves I have, but you get the idea.

Other Ideas:

Of course everyone’s situation will be different, and these ideas may not work for you, so I found some other great ideas out on the web.

• Of course, there are plenty of scarf hangers for sale out there. BTW, you can make your own with a coat hanger and curtain rings like this tutorial on the Dollar Store Crafts blog >
  
• Martha Stewart uses kitchen towel hangers. I think the foldout towel hangers would be great.
  
• One of my favorites is the scarf curtain as explained on eHow.com. Just tie your scarves with the knot I’ve shown above onto a curtain rod and use them as your curtains! It’s a great way to reduce needed closet space.
  

Next week: I’ll be doing a project for my purse AND my keys. Do you have an idea for a purse/key fob that’s cute yet professional?