Tuesday, November 11, 2014

In The Closet


Uhm, closet porn! Did anyone else just die from viewing this super organized closet or was it just me myself and I? LOL. Alright, if you’re like me you love clothes and probably have tons of them. You walk into your closet and literally have conversations with your clothes in terms of how you’ll style them and where to. You even pride yourself in having an uncanny ability to find the greatest, the coolest and the trendiest pieces. You try on a bunch of them, straighten up others and walk back out to whatever it was you were doing prior. Not without one last glance at all the great findings of a true devotee of fashion (you), some hanging neatly and others seating pretty on shelves in your closet.

Life does happen however, and every once in a while if not on a regular basis we are in a mad dash and we can’t afford that couple seconds it takes to slip an outfit onto a hanger and slide it right back where it belongs in your perfectly coiffed closet space. By the time this happens a few times that stylish space you created for your great finds becomes an out of control neglected and messy pile of stuff. Its time to stop, purge and organize. Organization is the first step and a must in ensuring that any space lives up to it's potential. We owe it to ourselves so it's imperative that we declutter every once in a while to get rid of odds and ends and methodically organize what's left.
"The consequences of being disorganized can sometimes be financially disastrous, emotionally overwhelming and physically exhausting". - Sheila Augustine Bartol




CLUTTER: When do you draw the line between saving it to wear later and way too much clutter in your closet? We all love to shop for those amazing pieces. These become our go to pieces in the closet but what about those pieces that were last month’s favorites? Or 3 months ago? Or 6 months ago? 5years ago or more? How long is too long to save a piece of clothing or shoes. Are you suffering from an extreme case of hoarding? One rule of thumb is if you haven’t worn it in a year then give it up. There are quite a few causes of clutter, these two seem to be the universal ones: 
  1. The emotional clutter caused by emotional shopping. In this case you are using shopping as a means to fill a void. Often times that need is not met and the clothes take up space in your closet. Some with tags still attached for the longest time because you didn’t need them or really even want them to start with.
  2. Hoarding for all kinds of reasons from memories you don’t want to let go of to hopes of fitting that hot number again is another huge reason people have over crowded closets and ultimately clutter. Lets face it, how many of us have a bedroom sized space converted to a huge professionally partitioned closet with islands and floral arrangements and lounging chairs and live size images of you and your style icon displayed etc? Unless you have been blessed with this dream closet that holds your warm weather clothes, your cold weather clothes and everything in between then you need to snap out of that hoarding honey. Letting go will not only declutter your closet and your life but would put you on your way to that dream closet space.


GET IT TOGETHER
Sort: First step is to take everything out of your closet and sort them into two piles - what you wear often and what you haven’t worn in a while. If the later has stuff that are still in good shape you can donate them and get a tax write off or sell them. Set up an ebay or an etsy store and make $ out of your forgotten treasures. Make purging your closet a fun activity by inviting that BFF over to give you an objective opinion on different pieces. Catch up on all the juicy happenings as you organize and definitely celebrate with dinner and a bottle of wine when all the work is done, :).
Separate the keepers by season. Clothing that belong to a past season goes in the back of the closet so items from the current season and of course staples are more accessible. Another great option is to store past season keepers in vacuum sealed bags. Under the bed space if you have any is a great place for these sealed bags. And if you don’t, the container store has bed risers that help create under the bed space for storage while freeing up your closet.



Color Code: Does that pretty pink top suddenly sprout wings and fly out the window or swallowed whole by the stack of clothes on the floor? Color coding your closet will help keep this in check. By all means use a color wheel if you have access to one otherwise just think rainbow, as long as there is a method to the madness you should be good. Start out with reds, then oranges etc. And in each color section decide an order say shorts in front, tops, sweaters, pants etc and maintain the same order in all sections. Take it one step further by color coding your hangers. Walmart, Home Goods are great places to find ultra thin colorful hangers at great prizes. 


Source: The Couveteur

Double or Triple Your Closet Space by hooking hangers together using soda can pull tabs.  Add-on skirt and pant hangers allow you to waterfall clothes and save space. The container store carries these.



Source:containerstore.com


The Shoes: One of the reasons people buy good shoes is so they can hang on to them for a bit. If you have invested your hard earned money in high quality shoes, you should most definitely invest time and effort to take care of them. Storing them correctly is not only a huge part of that if you want your lovelies to be around for a while but is also a huge part of keeping your closet organized and very pleasing to the eye. Put your shoes in uniform boxes with an image of each shoe on the side of the box. If you’d rather not go through this hassle then use see through tubs for the same results. This is a great option for the gal that not only wants to store her shoes but 'display' her shoes. A lot of container stores carry nice boxes that are big enough to hold even the tallest boots.
You can get even fancier and use color coded boxes to separate by brand. Your shoes stay dust free and you know exactly where each pair lives. Confessions of a shoe whore, lol.

 Source:Coveteur.com


Source: bhg.com


Bags: DIY shelf partitions enable you to store your lovely bags in slats where they are not only visible but not crushed and bent out of shape. Even better, if you love those beautiful handbags and collect them, then just like your shoes and everything else you treasure, you must put some effort into storing them properly. Just like dust covers for your shoes,  handbag dust covers help protect your treasures from the sun and scuffing and keeps them organized. Most dust covers are breathable and come with tags for easy identification of the content. Mia Cotone makes really good ones. They come in many colors so you can also color code your bag storage by designer.  Amazing init? And if size is a concern they have you covered because their dust covers come in different sizes. Simple and drawstring large designs are one size fits all. Here is a size guide for premium classic and classic size bags.
LARGE:  25w (top) 18w (bottom) x 16h x 7d (fits large to extra large handbags/totes)
MEDIUM:  21w (top) 15w (bottom) x 14h x 6d (fits medium to large handbags)
SMALL:  17w (top) 12w (bottom) x 12h x 5d (fits small handbags, large clutches, crossbody)

 Now every bag you own and not just the high end ones that already come with their dust covers will be stored properly. Goodbye sun damage, goodbye scratches, hello happy bags. 


Source: Miacotone.com


Accessories: An over the door shoe rack, a towel bar and even the rungs of a ladder all make great displays for your beautiful scarves and jewelry. You might actually get to wear them all if they are in view. 


Bins also make a great storage for scarves, tees, socks etc. If you choose to use bins, don’t forget to label them by content. Hot gluing a clothes pin to a bin will allow you to attach a label to it and also help you switch the labels around easily.
Source: Marthastewart.com

Smaller accessories like watches, sunglasses, bracelets etc will usually live happily in drawers, separated into compartments for great organization. Decide on what goes where, make the compartments wider or narrower to match your needs.

Source: Pinterest.com

If you are like me and you want to pick out the next day's oufit along with every accssesory you'll pair it with from belts to tights to bags then make the valet pole your best friend. It helps me stay organized not to mention save time during the mad morning rush.

Source: Pinterest.com

Decluttering our closets is such a huge and ongoing project.  Hopefully my perspective helps a little, ;). Feel free to contribute what you've tried. Worked? Did your friends suffer from closet envy? What ideas sucked and got tossed out? Stay fashionably organized, Xo...


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16 comments:

  1. I wish I could keep my closet/ spear bedroom clean for more than a few hours... i will try to use some of tips this weekend. .. lol

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    1. Go for it girl, I struggle in that department too...

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  2. Such a fun post! I've been struggling to get my closet organized and re-done and figuring out the most efficient way and best design so i can keep everything organized all the time and everything in full site... I think I am slowly getting there :)

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    1. That's awesome. I'm trying really hard too. Keeping up is surely a challenge.

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  3. Great article! I enjoyed reading it very much! :)

    P.S. Yes, I almost died seeing the first picture!!! lol <3

    X, Marky
    www.mypinkboudoir.eu

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Uzo pls go for it. Sorry about your "stolen" items lol lol. I'm glad you found this helpful, :).

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  5. Wow! Beautiful post, really interesting! kisses

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  6. Omgosh...those are indeed some breath taking closets!!! I sooo wish I had a walk-in wardrobe too!! UGHH! And some of the tips you gave were so so good!! I shall try to incorporate them to my current mini-closet! :P Thanks, dearest! :)

    http://anshul90.com

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  7. Wow, are you a celebrity ? your closet is very stunning, you must be very rich , and i see you love fashion so much

    http://www.fashionculturediary.blogspot.it/

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  8. EXCELLENT post Hun! I know I have said this before, but your style of writing is amaze-balls! Xx

    www.JenniferNoir.blogspot.co.uk x

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