Never worry about organizing your closet again. This step-by-step guide (with photos) shows you how to easily organize your closet for good. If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably decluttered and organized your bedroom closet many times over the years, and yet every few months it still ends up looking like a bull busted through your walk-in.

Follow these 5 easy strategies to organize your closet for good. It may take a little time, but we promise it’ll be worth it.

1. Declutter your clothes by category.

A fast, easy way to declutter your clothes is to sift through them by type. Tossing every piece of clothing you own into a massive fabric mountain on your bed is overwhelming and inefficient.

Instead, separate your clothes into categories like pants, dresses, tops, outerwear, accessories, and undergarments. Then sort through every item in a single category before moving on to the next.

2. Empty and clean your closet.

Once you’ve made separate “donation” and “keep” piles for your clothes, shoes, and accessories, give your closet a once-over and pull out anything else still lingering inside it.

When only the occasional lone safety pin remains, dive in and give your closet a proper deep cleaning. Vacuum the carpet, wipe down the shelves, and scrub any scuff marks or dirt off the walls.

3. Design your ideal closet space.

Within reason, obviously. If you have the time and money for a full-blown Carrie Bradshaw closet renovation, go for it.

If not, get creative to work with what you have (and yes, it’s possible to organize a closet without an actual closet ). Take note of your closet’s best features: Maybe you have tons of vertical storage space, built-in shelving, or multiple hanging rods. Use these to your advantage.

For the areas of your closet that aren’t so great — your hard-to-reach upper shelves or total lack of shelves altogether, for example — figure out what you can do to fix these problems.

4. Store your clothes by category.

This tip may seem obvious, but it makes all the difference when you want to locate your cozy gray alma mater sweater in a flash.

Keep like items with like items. Store all your belts in the same spot, hang your sundresses alongside each other and keep your workout shirts separate from your pajamas.

5. Hang anything delicate, fancy, or sturdy.

Maybe you have enough space to hang every single T-shirt you own, but if you don’t, then stick with hanging the obvious stuff.

That means delicate items like dresses, skirts, and lingerie, fancy items like suits, and sturdy, structured pieces like coats and blazers.