Closet organization, Part I

One of the things I hear from my girlfriends pretty regularly has to do with closets being out of control. Doesn't matter if they live in multi-million dollar homes with walk in closets that are as large as my first apartment after college or a tiny reach in with a 30 inch door...closet organization is vexing. 

I've tried a few different things over the years. ROYGBIV, cold/hot, outfits vs. separates...you get the idea! What I am doing now is what I've liked best for me an I hope that if you give it a try that it will be what you have liked best as well, it took some time, to be sure, but it has been worth it in that it has saved me a great amount of time getting ready, packing for trips and knowing what is IN my closet.

The first thing I had to do was pull everything out. EVERY SINGLE THING. My closet was bare and my bed was covered, as was every surface in my room! I was not going to get anywhere fast this way. 

So I bought a freestanding rack. GENIUS! How I have lived without such a device for nearly half a century, I have no idea! The first one I bought was a little pricey and can hold 450 lbs of clothing. I needed a second one and bought a less expensive one, it's barely worth the money because it holds so little. BUT when I need just a little bit more, it is fine. My recommendation though, is to invest and buy a metal one that will fold flat and has strong rolling wheels. Makes a tremendous difference!  You do NOT need to buy new though--one that was used for two years is going to work as well as a brand new one. I bought mine about 60% off from a woman closing a consignment business. I wish I'd bought two! 

Anyway....

So I first had to sit down and be very real with how I put together outfits, what works, what I struggled to find to complete outfits, why I did not wear some pieces at all or rarely (even things I loved) and how I really needed my closet to be arranged for efficiency. I say this to say to you that if my method of FINISHING doesn't work for you, go with one that does...but everything above is a great starting point for any closet redo!

Now I have reach in closets and never appreciated how lovely a walk in was until having reach in. But going from a giant walk in to two smaller reach in was doable once I got smart about space and set up. 

I turned one into a full length and shoe closet, the other into an over/under closet.  I used the smaller of the two for the over under, since I was going to get double the space from it. 

Then I went to the local home improvement store and bought a Rubbermaid closet system. If you have put up the old kind that had the clips and the perfect measuring required and the cutting of metal...it's orders of magnitude better now! I bought the no cut system and installed it all by myself!  It is the Home Free series and it is GENIUS! I had enough to do my 6 foot closet up and down plus a few pieces left over...which I used to extend the 6 foot kit I bought for my larger (10 foot) reach in closet without having to spend the extra money on the 10 foot organizer. 

Because my husband insists on hanging things in MY closets (humor people, humor!) I thought that giving him mostly full length item space made the most sense and for now, that is working! Ultimately, I'd like him to just keep his things in the spare bedroom closet. A girl can dream, right? 

So he hangs his tall shirts and long pants on the far left of our closet, the space for shoes is in the middle and then all of my long things go to the right. It is a nice, clear divider of space between the two which is nice (for him) because I can't encroach without being obvious. 

I had a set of Joy Mangano hangers from HSN, the thin, flocked kind. They were a tad pricey, but love that even the silkiest items won't fall off. But I did not want to wait for more to arrive and figured I could find something similar for less...and I did, at Home Goods! I got them for about half of what the HSN hangers sell for and in a TON of colors, too!  And that got me thinking. I was not married to the color, just the style of hanger! I started looking and had one of THOSE moments, color could be SO helpful in organizing! 

All my Lilly Pulitzer, which I rarely mix with non Lilly pieces, are all hung on (of course!) hot pink hangers. Evening pieces are on black, work pieces are on a steely blue, casual weekend are on purple, sets are on emerald green.  I then made a list of my clothing before it went back in the closet. EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. I did this in an Excel spreadsheet and assigned categories to items and could then go back to sort them on a variety of data points and have found that I can mix and match outfits on my spreadsheet easily and identify new outfits that I can create without standing there with the doors flung open and me feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. When I come up with a new outfit idea, I save it on another spreadsheet in the same workbook.

Was it quick and easy to do this? No. But the time savings after the initial investment has been well worth it!  One nice benefit is that I can easily see what is ready to move into the consignment rack and I make notes of what I need to fill holes in my wardrobe as well.

Phase II is all about handbags, belts, scarves and shoes! 

So tell me...what method have YOU used and are you going to try this one out? Would love to hear feedback/questions/ideas!