Welcome back to work, dearhearts! I hope you had a fantastic long weekend. Mine wasn’t quite as relaxing as I had hoped, but still great. On Saturday I did a major closet cleaning, then Todd and I met up with my parents for dinner and a movie (Angels & Demons, just okay) to celebrate my dad’s promotion. On Sunday we had a wedding shower (Todd’s cousin) and for the rest of the weekend, I worked on a project for my friend Sara and caught up on some office work. I did not, however, manage to make it out to the Nordstrom Half-Yearly Sale. Bummer!
Back to the closet purge. It as less of a purge and more of an organization project. I didn’t get rid of too much, as I already have a closet filled with clothing waiting for new homes via eBay. However, I thought I might share my process and ask how you go about organizing your closet, if you do at all.
On a side note, I apologize for the crap photos. I don’t really know how to use my camera so it’s really hit or miss.
Let’s kick things off with my closet, shall we?
It’s very large. VERY large. It’s from Ikea and only just fits into our small bedroom. What can I say, I needed the space.
My first step was to empty the wardrobe. I own a rolling rack that I (heroically, I thought) brought up from the basement. I pulled all of my shoes (lots) and bags (not many), along with miscellaneous accessories like scarves and belts.
I then made myself a cocktail and jotted down notes as I went through my things; what I discovered….
- I love cardigans and blazers. Perfect for layering and blazers keep me warm enough paired with a huge scarf in the winter months.
- I no longer wear button-ups, they feel too conservative. The only exception is when a crisp white shirt is paired with a great pencil skirt. But I have neither of these items.
- I am always drawn to pretty, girlie knee-length skirts. But I rarely wear them. I don’t know why, I feel strange in them.
- I need a new pair of my favorite J Crew flip flops.
- I wear my worn, black skinny jeans more than any other pair of pants. I may need to buy more skinny jeans.
- With the exception of coats and boots, I don’t really have any “winter” clothing.
- I have a great Banana Republic khaki trench, but it may be time to upgrade come fall. If I could only afford Burberry….
- I still can’t bring myself to purge my Max Mara leather jacket that I’ve had for years. I never wear it, but I know it won’t pull in much money on eBay; Max Mara never does.
- I can’t wear belts, or anything at my natural waist. Because I have the shortest torso known to man. So depressing. Bye bye belts!
- I still can’t seem to part ways with my ratty, nasty pashmina. Even though it’s too ugly to even travel with anymore.
I threw a few tops and an old knock-off Balenciaga bag (the motorcycle one everyone had) into my donation bag. The aforementioned pretty skirts, belts and a few other items went into my eBay closet.
My jackets are already stored away (in a corner of the eBay closet) so I packed up my boots.
I then surveyed my shoes, deciding to keep them all for the time-being.
Heels went into the top drawer (with my unmentionables, in the basket), and flats went into the bottom drawer (with clutches).
I decided to organize my closet by color, which is silly really because it NEVER stays that way. But it looks pretty.
However, my pants will not fit in the closet and are still hanging on the rolling rack in the living room. Because I can never actually finish a project.
How about you? Did you do any cleaning this weekend? How often do you reorganize your closet?
UPDATE – I added a photo of my bottom shelves so you can see what I am talking about with the baskets.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Funny thing, this weekend I was supposed to wrap up some of the random stuff from the re-org from the week before. Apparently, I can never finish a project either. [Note to self: marry a Finisher.]
Well lets see…
I clean out the closet either when it gets messy (which for a guy, is a fairly high threshold) or when someone is going to stay over for a few days. So this happens once every 6 months.
Some re-orgs are more detailed than others. The one I did last week, I emptied out all the racks and the the suitcases with all the old clothes (I have a walk-in closet), and neatly folded them up and stacked them according to size. There are some which will never ever fit me again hopefully. I used to be disturbingly thin till a couple of years back. And there are a few which I hope will start fitting me again in a month or so.
Then I hung all my more formal work clothes on one side of the closet, all the shiny new special occasions ones on the other side. On the opposite side are all the regular wear clothes, including informal work wear.
And finally, I chalked up a system where the clothes fresh off the dryer are on the left side, and the clothes close to being washed are on the right side. I am not used to putting much thought in my clothes selection, and this system lets me pick clothes according to the occasion without putting much thought into it and still not look like a hobo.
Apparently “just pick one randomly off the floor” is no longer an acceptable strategy for picking clothes. I must be getting old.
Oh god look at that rant…
Since I moved back in with my mom, I had to reorganize my bedroom with some of my apartment stuff. I ended up placing my small love seat and an ikea side table in there. It looks like an odd little studio now. I need to organize my closet next- get all of my coats and dresses together etc.
I LOVE your closet though. That is pretty sleek looking
I’ve been working on weeding out my closet these past couple of months. I have so much stuff, yet never can seem to find anything to wear haha….I have stacks and stacks of t-shirts I refuse to part with (packrat!!) along with piles of jeans. I tend to wear the same type of jeans, so I have more than a few pairs stocked up. Shirts on hangers are organized by color and type (t-shirt, cardigan, button up, fancy, etc). If I didn’t do this, I would never be able to find anything and it would get lost in the shuffle. I recently realized that I am a walking Gap ad, most of my basics come from there. The stuff that got sent to Goodwill were things that were too small, stuff I outgrew stylewise, and my college going out tops from Forever 21. If I can’t wear it, I need to send it to a new home. My closet is a constant work in progress…never finished, never quite right….
it’s so beautiful! my closet is so embarrassing that my messy, disorganized BOYFRIEND suggested we go to IKEA and find some organizational items. the problem? a) I am used to having at least 2, sometimes 3 closets in all my apts. I also lived alone (until we shacked up) so he doesn’t understand what a concession this is. b) I have close to 6 pairs of shoes, most of which are sans shoebox. c) I live in the northeast, which means I have to store my full length wool winter coats in with my sundresses. Our building has a damp scary basement, so that’s out for storage and if I bought a lovely setup like yours, the only place I could put it is in our kitchen. I really need to start giving stuff away, especially stuff I’ve bought that I intended on having tailored but it still hanging up with tags. I have serious closet envy!! and I am totally trying the color-sort thing; looks great!
Penny! you are so organized, I am in awe. I need to do this. I am totally disorganized which leads me to forget I own things and wear like the same 4-6 outfits to work every week. One question do you have a dresser as well?
Also I once apon a time had a freestanding rolling rack I kept my pants on (I was in a flat with very limited almost non existent closet space) and one day I came home from work to find the whole thing had collapsed under the weight of my pants. Thats when I pruned like half my pants from my wardrobe. out of control.
Claudia, I don’t have a dresser. I keep everything in baskets!
I re-do my color code system about once a week to make sure everything is in its place. I need to analyze it like you did — with wearability and such. I’m pretty good about doing a big purge every 6 months
I am also moving in with my mom (and dad). My room doesn’t have a closet though! Just a bureau built into the wall.
Oh, how I will miss hanging things up.
And Penny, I must steal your basket idea! (and every other idea you had)
Oh my god, short torso! THAT’S why I can’t wear belts! No, seriously, I could not figure out why that look- which I love- never looked good on me.
I now feel very very guilty about the size of my closet. And realize I have no excuse for it to be as disastrous as it currently is. Time to seriously purge. I just have such a hard time being honest with myself about what I actually will and won’t wear again. My mom used to be great help with this. When I lived closer (i.e. not on the opposite side of the continent), I would lure her over with the promise of dinner and enlist her to badger me about my keep and give-away piles.
Penny, this is amazing! Did those drawers come with the closet or did you install them yourself? Where did you get it?
I need to redo my closet and this would be the perfect layout for me. Thanks for the great post!
Coco, they are part of the “system” that Ikea has for closets, you can actually mix and match the elements, and I believe the closets come in shallower and shorter versions, and different woods.