Conquer Your Closet

I have a B.A. in Organizational Leadership. No joke. In college we called it the degree for future housewives. If you can run the daily functions of an organization, you can run the daily functions of your household, no problem. All this to say, I like things organized and efficient. My house, my car, my purse, my mind, all of it. My closet is no exception. 

This was the state of my closet before I conquered it:

In every house I've ever lived in I've always had a teeny-tiny closet. This includes all my childhood bedrooms, my college dorms, the castle I lived in in Austria, the dance studio we lived in in Kauai... all of the closets were overstuffed and bursting at the seams, nay a walk-in closet in sight. Now that I'm married, the closets seem even tinier, since I share them with my hubby. 

I was destined for some relief, so I figured I'd attack the clothing section of my closet. (That's sewing stuff down below. Not gonna attempt to organize that right now!)

So here's step #1: EMPTY YOUR CLOSET

Take everything off the hangers and get rid of the hangers you don't like or aren't functional. For example, I don't like wire hangers or cheap plastic ones you get when you buy clothing from a store. Trash 'em!

There it all is. Laid out on my bed. 

Step #2: GET RID OF STUFF YOU DON'T LIKE, WEAR OR FIT INTO. 

Step # 3: SEPARTE YOUR CLOTHES BY TYPE. 

I use the following categories: 

tanks/camis 

shirts

long-sleeve shirts

cardigans/jackets

dresses

skirts/pants

Step #4: TAKE INVENTORY OF WHAT YOU HAVE.
Now that your clothes are organized by type, take inventory of what you have. You can see if you have, say, 4 track suits from 2002 (see right). Do you need 4 track suits from 2002? No. I also discovered I had 4 white dresses and too many black hoodies.

Step #5: GET RID OF STUFF YOU DON'T LIKE, WEAR OR FIT INTO.

If you're like me, you didn't entirely get rid of everything the first time we did this step, did you? And now that you know what you have, you know what you need to get rid of.

Godiva snuck in to help -------->

Step #6: PUT YOUR CLOTHES (BY TYPE) BACK IN THE CLOSET ON HANGERS.

If your hanger collection allows it, use similar colored hangers for each type of clothing. If you're OCD, you could go buy all new hangers in the same colors. I'm not that bad, but it did cross my mind. I used what I had. The color coordination was hit or miss. 

How does it look to you? Do you like the clothes that you see? It's important to assess this, because there is no reason to put clothes you don't like back into your closet! Don't be afraid to repeat step #2 & #5 again!

Tip: 

For shirts with a looped tag in the neck, stick the tag through the hanger. 
Now my shirts don't slip off the hangers!

Step #7: CONSIDER SPECIALTY HANGERS

I invested in some new hangers for my nicer pants and skirts. (Casual jeans and skirts are folded and stored elsewhere.) With easy-to-use hangers for these articles of clothing, I actually want to take them off the hanger. Before, I didn't even want to bother, cause the hangers were time-consuming or the hanging method I used made them too wrinkled to wear without ironing. 

It may not look like any different to you, but this is my closet after cleaning it out. I cleared out two trash bags of clothes, and now I can actually move my hangers left and right and see all of my clothes. I like getting ready now, because my closet's not overstuffed and stressful. It's definitely lessened my "getting-dressed" time. 

BONUS STEP: GET YOUR DRAWERS IN TOP SHAPE!

This is what was in the bottom of my drawers- hunter green, stupid drawer liners. Seriously, these foam things NEVER stay flat.

But what was underneath wasn't too pretty-- warped wood, dust, and sand. 

I picked out a pretty fabric, fired up the glue gun, and lined all my drawers. 

After getting rid a bunch of clothes, organizing by type, assessing what I had, then getting rid of some more, I placed the piles back in the drawers. You know how I know it was successful? I can actually see the fabric on the bottom of the drawers. 

So get off the internet, stop reading my blog, and go conquer your closet! Have fun!

Aloha, Becca