I have a lot of clothing. So I needed to do something about it before it took over the entire house. Actually, I'm still quite lacking in the pants department, but we won't go into that here. Remember the other day when I said I had reorganized the sweater shelf and it held 40 sweaters, organized by color? Well, some were in the wash. One was at the cleaners. And I've bought *mumble* four more since then. Plus, I seem to have decided I like shoes again this year and my collection has expanded faster than Katie Holmes' pregnant midsection. So I needed to do something about that.
Here's what my clothing storage situation looked like:
*1 dresser, of which I used 2 drawers, 1 for underwear and socks, 1 for foldable knits
*1 closet with a 41" hanging bar, from which hung a 14" wide hanging
shelf unit. This unit held more foldables (mostly tops and skirts that
don't need to hang to stay unwrinkled). From the bar hung blouses and
tees.
On the floor were 2 shoe racks, 1 of which was broken. On the door is a
hook that, as of yesterday, held 1 hanging shoe rack, one hanging
hosiery organizer, my bathrobe, a couple of dresses on hangers, and all
my belts looped over the hook.
*1 armoire with a 36" hanging bar and a small, shallow (about 6") over
the bar. This is where suits, pants and skirts hung. Also hanging from
the bar was 1 canvas shoe bag
that holds 10 pairs of shoes. In the bottom of the closet was a basket
holding jeans, sweats and running clothes. Also in the bottom of the
armoire were a few pairs of shoes and a bag of hosiery.
*1 linen closet with deep shelves, some full length and some divided
into sections. This closet is for all the bathroom stuff we don't have
storage space for in the bathroom (plastic baskets for hair care,
makeup, Joe's grooming stuff, medicines, cleaning supplies). It also
holds toilet paper, extra bath linens, and bed linens. As previously
mentioned, one shelf held my sweaters. One smaller shelf also held my
pajamas and tank tops.
First task: get rid of some stuff in the linen closet and reorganize it to give me more shelf space for clothes. One full, large Old Navy shopping bag full of trash later, I'd reorganized all my stuff into fewer baskets and, for all intents and purposes, doubled the space I could use for clothing. One half-length shelf (one section of shelving is divided down the middle) now holds jeans and other foldable pants (cords, velvet/velveteen), and one holds more sweaters and folded tees. (We'll see how that goes -- I really like to have my nice tees hanging. Since my PJ shelf also held a basket full of nail care stuff, which I made more room for somewhere else, I now had space to put running clothes on that shelf, too.
Second task: shoes. With the basket in the bottom of the armoire gone, I had some space to work with. I bought another hanging shoe bag and a 24" inch stackable shelf. Summer sandals and flip flops went into the previously underutilized over-the-door organizer and everything else is now neatly stored in the armoire. There is also a large shopping bag full of shoes to take to Salvation Army.
Next task: hanging clothing. I've bought a lot of skirts this year, and several suits in the last 2 months, so even with the dire pants shortage, the armoire was getting pretty stuffed.
First task, purge. Even though I try to make myself give away stuff that I no longer wear, I'm not very thorough about it. And every season, my style shifts a little more, so things that I might have worn 18 months ago are no longer my style. So I made a "give away" pile and a "store in basement" pile for things that I couldn't bear to part with.
Second task, take down all the summer clothing and store it. All the summer shirts and cropped pants went into a big storage container to be taken to the basement. A sign that my clothes weren't very well organized -- several things went into the bin with the store tags still in place. *sigh* Next task, fold all layering tees and place on shelf in linen closet. Finally, I ditched the hanging shelf thing in the closet. These actions probably freed up 24" in hanging bar space.
Third task, redistribute. Suits, pants and camisoles went from the armoire to the closet, joining a few dresses. Skirts and blouses went to the armoire.
Finally, I added two sets of stackable cubes to the closet. In 2 of these went the foldable skirts that were previously in the hanging shelf thing. (All the tops were either stored, put in the Salvation Army pile, or relocated to the new shelf space in the linen closet.) In two of the 4 cubes I placed fabric drawers. One is for bras and the other is for socks. We'll see how that goes...I still have to clean out my underwear/sock drawer today
So today I need to finish the laundry and then tackle the underwear and socks. Next task -- tame the massive amounts of accessories spilling out of my jewelry box. While I'm on this reorganization kick, I should probably tackle Joe's closet and the drawers in the coffee table (big square table with 3 drawers on 2 opposing sides). And I need to come up with a handbag solution. *sigh*
Yeah, I know this is crossposted from my LiveJournal.
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