Project: Simplify: Organize Your Closet!

Are you following along with Simple Mom's Project: Simplify? If not, head on over there and get started! Week 1 started today, so you've still got plenty of time to get busy.

The first Hot Spot was revealed today. Time to get cleaning and pare down that wardrobe.

I started off with a pretty messy closet. I can't stand going in my closet. The way the door opens is awkward, and my husband's half is just UGH. I won't even show pictures of it. But it's his stuff and I'm respecting his space (though I will be nudging him a little to get it tidied up).

Here are the before shots of my half:

Before, right

Before, left

Before, rod & shelf close up

I followed the suggestions given to attack the mess. I tried on EVERYTHING. Yes, all of it. It was quite an eye-opener. You see, I've recently had a baby (he'll be 6 months old in two days!), and before I got pregnant I was already dissatisfied with my wardrobe because I had gained a few pounds. I was certain I wouldn't have anything left in my closet. I was thinking none of my clothes were going to look right anymore.

But they did! I don't know what happened, because a lot of my better clothes looked great on me. I even need to take a few things in to get tailored.

Here's a fun disaster area "during" shot:

Please don't judge my builder-bare master bedroom. This room is going to get decorated this year. My new year's resolution list says so. ;)

Empty closet:

These guys were of no help to the task:

Here's a tip for the clothes you don't want to keep: take them off your good hangers and reuse old dry cleaner and store hangers to hang them up. I'll be selling them at a garage sale, so I want them to look as buyable as possible - which is not piled in a box.

Reuse those dry cleaner hangers!

And finally, here is what my half of the closet looks like after:

After, right

After, left

After, rod & shelf close up

I just want to lay down on this empty floor!

My strategy to putting the clothes back into the closet:

-Make sure all the clothes are facing the same direction. I walk into my closet from the left side, so it made sense for me to face the left side of my closet. If I had a rod that was straight in front of me (say I had a sliding closet door and not a walk-in) then I'd probably have them face the right side since I'm left handed - I'd be picking the item up with my left hand so the front would still be facing me if it faced left. Does that make sense?

-Use the same hangers throughout. This is an inexpensive way to make the closet look more streamlined and organized. My mom has fancy wooden hangers that she purchased little by little. I have simple white plastic tubular hangers with the little notches.

-Use the correct hanger for the garment. Skirts stay pretty and pressed when hanging from the little skirt hangers that match my other hangers.

-Try to keep a little bit of space between each garment. It's probably good for them to have some air circulation, plus an even space between each hanger just looks sharp on the rod.

-Keep like items together. I used to organize by color. That looks great and all, but that doesn't work for me anymore. Think about how you get dressed. Are you only concerned with color? If so, then organize that way. For me, however, I want to pick my pieces based on the weather. It changes at the drop of a hat here in the Houston area, so I always have a variety of season's worth of attire. So I keep sweaters with sweaters, tees with tees, blouses with blouses, and tanks with tanks. For the garments with sleeves, I like to sub-organize by sleeve length. So far that's what works for me.

-Store extra hangers in your laundry room. I have a hanging rod in my laundry room, so all the empty hangers stay on that. When the clean clothes come out of the dryer, they get hung up immediately instead of getting piled on the bed or dresser (or dog crate in my case).

It feels great to have the closet cleaned up, and now I'm actually looking forward to getting dressed tomorrow. Look at all those clothes I have! And they all fit! And I can find them! It's like I just went on a shopping spree or something.

Thanks for the motivation, Simple Mom!

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