No more room in your closet? 3 space-saving tips from a cleaning expert
The start of spring often puts people in a cleaning mood — and TikTok star Melissa Pateras, known as the "Laundry Lesbian" on the video app, has tips to keep even small spaces tidy.
"It's not a fun task to clean for most people," said Pateras, author of "A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home," in an appearance Wednesday on CBS Mornings. "I want it to be fun and enjoyable, and I want you to just get it done."
Pateras also takes a judgment-free approach to cleaning, telling CBS News' Gayle King it's OK to have a junk drawer in your home.
"You're going to make your space happy for you — it doesn't have to be Instagram. That isn't what the goal is. It's what works for you," she said.
Part of making things work for you? Maximizing your space.
"If you are short on space, which a lot of people are — especially if you're living in the city, if you're living in an apartment — there are a couple of really inexpensive, easy space-saving hacks," she said.
Here's what she shared:
Put more than one item per hanger
"You can use shower rings to hang just about anything on a hanger," Pateras said. "You could hang 10 tank tops, scarves, belts." King chimed in another idea: "Ties!"
Pateras said this avoids cluttering your closet with a bunch of baskets or taking up drawer space for accessories.
Optimize your vertical space
"Take a soda tab, put it onto your hanger and then you can hang another hanger," she explains, demonstrating how this stacked hanger trick allows you to save on horizontal space in your closet. "That way you can use the space vertically."
If you have a thicker hanger, you can also just use a shower ring instead of a soda tab, she said.
Don't hang up your hoodies
Opting to fold bulkier items can help clear up space.
"If you don't have the luxury of hanging up your hoodies, I'm going to show you a fold (that) is also fantastic for travel," she said. "It's super easy."
After placing the hoodie facedown, you fold each arm in then fold it three times from the bottom hem to the top, where the hood is. Then, you can invert the hood over the rest of the folded hoodie to make it easy to pack or store away without coming undone.
