An Organized Closet in One Afternoon (OK, two weeks and one afternoon)

This was a long time coming, peeps.  As I described in this post, there were some obstacles along the way, one of whom is five and quite cute.  But finally, my closet looks like this:

…instead of this:

Embarassing, yes?  Where's the police tape?

Wahoo!  Finally, I can see the floor!  Major victory.

First of all, let me explain how my closet got this way.  

Because our weather here in the south is warm until October, then turns cool one day like someone flipped a switch, I end up with summer clothes and fall clothes all over the place.  Also, because I always have a nutty end of September/beginning of October because of my teaching job, often I just toss things in my closet, figuring I'll get to hanging it up or putting it away later.  Well, later is here, friends.

OK, what did I do to organize it?  You have to start with a plan:
        ·       Putting away summer clothes and donating those 
                pieces that don’t fit or are out of style, and tossing 
                those that are stained (thanks, kiddos!) or just 
                plum-tuckered;
        ·       Getting out the fall and winter clothes and 
                organizing them;
        ·       Getting out fall and winter shoes, such as boots;
        ·       Donating anything that is out of style or doesn’t fit 
                or I haven’t worn it in a year.

As you can see, there is a method to my madness.

First, I pulled everything on the floor of my closet out of my closet.  I needed room to work.

Then, I weeded out any clothes that were too small, out of date, worn out, or stained or torn in any way.  I did the same thing with my shoes.  As it turns out, when I broke my leg earlier this year (see this post), it changed the shape of my foot and ankle and, of course, made my ankle less stable.  So, I (begrudgingly) had to get rid of shoes that didn’t fit anymore or had too tall of a heel because of this.  Meh.

For the clothes and shoes in good condition, I donated those to Goodwill.  Old t-shirts can be recycled as dust rags.  Otherwise, it went in the garbage (sigh).

Next, I organized.  Purses went into boxes from Ikea and into the back of the closet, where they are accessible, but out of everyday reach (I don’t change purses every day, after all).  The back of my closet has an awkward slope to it, so the back corner is a great place to put these boxes.  The orange box next to them is my sewing kit.

Summer clothes went into a plastic bin at the bottom and back of my closet.  The sweaters came out and were put on the top shelf (I have a folding step ladder in my closet to reach these, given that I am vertically challenged).  Sweatshirts went on the other top shelf.

I organize my shirts/tops and pants differently.  For the shirts and short jackets, I organize them by color, starting with the darkest on the left and working to the lightest.  Then, within each color grouping, I organize them in order of (from left to right) jackets, sweaters, long-sleeved shirts, short-sleeved shirts, and sleeveless shirts.  This organization helps me find exactly what I want to wear in terms of color and in terms of being “weather appropriate” (a term usually reserved for telling my daughter that she can’t wear shorts to school when it’s 40 degrees outside).

Top bar - shirts organized by color and style.

For pants, I organize them casual to dressy.  I wear the casual pants more often, so they go where I can most easily access them.

On the adjacent wall of the closet is my hanging storage.  I organize it (from left to right) by fleece jackets (love me some fleece!), suits, dresses (in order from most dressy to casual), skirts (same organization - dressy to casual), and then scarves (on an organizer from Ikea).

On the adjacent wall to the hanging storage (right to the right of the door) are hooks for my necklaces, belts, and, as it happens today, a hat:

I like having my necklaces hanging up, rather than in a drawer or jewelry box, so I can see them all and so they don't get tangled.

Lastly, on the floor, I organized my shoes by color and heel height.

And voila!  An organized closet:

I especially love the dividers between my sweaters.  These are from Lillian Vernon.

Looking into an organized closet each morning not only makes it easier to get dressed, but makes me happy.  Order out of chaos.  To add a little extra inspiration, I added this, from a newspaper in 1991:

Sorry for the bad picture, but the picture is of Coach Mike Krzyzewski (and yes, I can spell that without looking it up) from Duke, after winning Duke's first national championship.  The caption reads: "$2.99 buys you a net.  34-2 earns you one."  I love this ad, not just because I love Duke, but because it inspires me - you have to earn your net in life.  Work hard.  Do your best.  You will get to cut down a net.  I like that.

What do you do to organize your closet?  Do you have a method or time of year you organize?

Thanks for stopping by.