Cleaning MY Closet
I'm a weirdo.
I get joy out of cleaning and organizing closets. Now that I'm stuck in my house counting the days of seclusion away from the public, in an attempt to avoid the Coronavirus, I am tackling my own closet. We've had a record season for the amount of clients we've had this Fall and Winter. So, my closet has been needing some attention.
<-- Before
1. I started on the floor and pulled all the items on the floor out of the closet and vacumned. Personally, I'd prefer to have an empty floor but, I have a very basic walk-in closet that I share with my husband. I'm not a minimalist; as you'll see, I have a lot of clothes. A couple years ago, we talked about turning our guest bedroom into my personal wardrobe suite. But, I don't want my wardrobe to become an obsession. I help women sort and edit their wardrobes making them functional. There is a definite line between useful and hoarding.
I love textiles and style so much that I'm afraid if I had more space, I'd fill it. So... I'm sticking to my basic walk-in closet. With that said, I use the floor of my closet for box storage under my hanging clothes.
2. I tidied my clothing sections.
The sections are: TOPS - organized first in sections of "no sleeves", "short sleeves", and "long sleeves". Within those sections I sort the tops by color: white, yellow, red, navy, green and black. When you sort your tops like this, you quickly find out if you have too many tops in one color and maybe you'll find you are lacking in another. I tend to be drawn to navy shell tops and I've found that I tend to avoid tops with a pattern or print. I get it; prints are sometimes limiting but, a basic cut foundational top in print can give some fun styling options. When I realized this hole in my wardrobe, I found a few to integrate into my foundational pieces. It has added personality to my wardrobe.
Other sections are divided by TROUSERS, SKIRTS, BLAZERS and DRESSES. I separate those by sleeve length and color, too.
3. One of my problem areas is my overhead shelf where my jeans and sweaters set. I have two wooden crates standing vertically that I've piled my sweaters and jeans in; it's just not working for me. So, I'm trying something new; turning the crates horizontal for my denim and moving my sweaters to the center shelf in my closet. (My husband's sweaters are next to the crates.)
Below: Before and After
Below: This is the old way I organized the center shelves in my closet but, I've found that it's waisted space and not functioning. I placed the static cling spray and belt hole punch in the laundry room cupboard. The picture on the right side shows my new attempt to make the most of my closet space. My sweaters are reachable and eye-level. That is important; putting the most usable items in your wardrobe eye-level. When out of sight or out of reach, we tend to avoid pieces or not consider them as options. Moving my sweaters down and in the center brings them back into the easy flow of my wardrobe. I put my scarves in a basket on the bottom shelf; eye-level and reachable.
4. Lastly, for the last few months I've been turning hangers backwards as I've worn items. It didn't take long for me to see the items in my closet that I was avoiding or didn't use as much as others. I looked these items over to see if there was a less obvious reason I was avoiding them: fit? shape? abundance? I moved these items out of my wardrobe gradually. I'm still doing this in my wardrobe and will continue; it's a great way to keep only the best and most useful pieces.
I'll be moving onto my linen closet next week. As you find yourself with extra time, this is an opportunity to set yourself up for a happy wardrobe once you return to your normal routine.
Happy Wardrobing!
Stylist Kathy
Below: Before and After Closet clean-up (feels so much better!)
