Often times I feel like I’m continually in a state of “I have nothing to wear”… Even as I gaze at a ridiculous amount of clothes hanging in my closet. I am forever rummaging through, digging, and pushing past to find what I’m looking for in a jam packed space. Recently I decided to make the most out of the clothes I already own in order to curb my clothes spending habits — and a part of that would require me to organize what I already have. But where to begin…
I’m a very visual person and I realized that I couldn’t physically see almost half of what I owned. There lied the problem of my “I have nothing to wear” state of mind. I think there are many more steps I can take to transforming my closet but these are the four steps that I decided to start with:
1. Conduct a major purge of clothes that don’t fit, you can’t remember the last time you wore, or you don’t really love. Until very recently I thought the more clothes I had in my closet the more options I have for clothes to wear. However now I realize that simply is not true. What really actually happens is you have the clothes that you wear and then you have clothes that you don’t wear, for what ever reason. The clothes that you don’t wear simply take up space and allow for things to become cluttered and disorganized. I can only offer the advice of common sense when choosing what to keep and what to let go. If you just had a baby or are going to have a baby soon I might be a little more liberal with the “purge the clothes that don’t fit” rule. But truly if you have accumulated a lot of clothes it’s time to let some go!
2. Organize your clothes by color, not type. I’ve always organized my clothes by type. T-shirts with t-shirts, blouses with blouses, skirts with skirts, etc. To me it was practical. But I’ve always been attracted to the idea of color coding my closet. Not only do I think it’s visually appealing, but I sensed some functional benefit out of it as well. And boy was I right! Easy to put away, find and maintain.
3. Hang your scarves. I’ve seen many elaborate and beautiful ways to organize and hang scarves on Pinterest, and maybe someday I will graduate to one of those methods, but for now I’ve trusted a good ‘ol pants hanger/organizer to tackle the job. Before I had them folded and organized in a box in my closet. And although they would start out organized, I couldn’t actually seem them all at a glance and maintaining that organization system was a never ending battle. Now, I can see them all at once and the simple system of threading and knotting them around one of the rungs of the pants hanger makes for easy maintenance.
4. Hang your bags and purses too. Not only can I now see my bags and purses at a glance, like the scarf situation. But hanging them is keeping them nicer. They aren’t ending up stacked on top of one another in a corner — misshapen when I dig one out to use it. Keeping stuff nicer longer is always the goal.
Next up? Some serious improvements on lighting. I have a feeling it will transform my closet yet again!
What are some other simple ways with which you feel you’ve been able to transform your closet?