“If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.”
George Bernard Shaw
Yep, it's this bad.
Been thinkin’ about my closet.
Broadly speaking, I’ve been thinking about my inability to put away my clothes and accessories. Clothing that I spend much of my disposable income on. In the last while I’ve even developed the habit of filling the floor of my walk-in with clean laundry. My cats think the pile is a bed, so I inevitably walk about wrinkled and furry.
I don’t think it’s simply laziness. My storage “solutions” aren’t working for me. One sliding door is off its track. My hanging rods are in the wrong places. My purse shelves are insufficient for all my bags. Particular shoes are impossible to find. Furthermore, my light is broken! My thought process is that a neat looking, workable system will put me on the right track to changing my habits.
Bottom line, your closet has to work for you. My friend Kiera is a closet guru, as evidenced by her KV Style articles on the subject. For the actual organization of its contents, I defer you to her, but lets talk about having a proper place to put all that stuff.
Identify your problem areas and what you might do to resolve them. My closet currently boasts four rods with a shelving unit down the centre. There are some storage baskets on the lower shelves for scarves and such. I’ve got ample room on the sides of the closet walls for hampers. I have more than enough room for my clothes, but not enough hangers when everything has been laundered, nor the appropriate real estate for everything else.
I debated ripping out the existing bit and building something from scratch, but for now it makes more sense to create a Frankenstein out of the existing structure with a few pieces added or removed. I’d rather spend my money on what goes in them. For descriptive purposes I’m going to be using Ikea’s Pax Wardrobe Planner, a system I will absolutely invest when I buy my own home or condo.
Bag Lady
Currently my dozen or so handbags are crammed into six narrow adjustable shelves in a tower centred between my clothing rods (or collecting dust on the floor). Shelves are definitely the best option for my bags as many are too large for hooks or should be kept in their dust covers. I also want to avoid undue strain on my shoulder straps and handles from the weight of the bag itself.
My solution is to add a second set of shelves. They’re pretty generic, so matching shouldn’t be an issue. I may add a second skinny tower next to the first or a wider tower on the side wall of the closet. My woven baskets from Wicker Emporium neatly hide scarves and other accessories. They slide easily in and out of the current shelves. I want to toss ample lint brushes and my battery operated de-pilling thing in these baskets as well, because I can never find this stuff when I need it.
Walked All Over
Footwear is by and large my biggest concern. I purged to the point I can forgo my lower left clothing rod and have stacked my shoe boxes all to one side. It seems pretty conventional for most people to have a dress/suit rod and store footwear under said rod. I need to accommodate 25 pairs and growing. Shoe trees are not appropriate for this many pairs. If you check the reviews for cubby type units online, you’ll see many a complaint that each compartment is often too small to hold both shoes in a pair. The hanging “pocket” style are equally impractical, not to mention ugly.
I think my best bet is a three to four tiered flat top, wide shelving unit or alternatively, installing the shelves myself. Boots will have to be relegated to the top of the unit or under my purse shelves.
Don’t Leave Me Hanging
Many people keep a chest of drawers in their walk-in for folding. While I may consider this in the future, my drawer set remains in the bedroom and contains my intimates, t-shirts, and pull overs. My clothing rods are a bit disorganized at the moment. The lower right quadrant is jammed with cardigans, blazers and pants while the top has my tanks, blouses, dresses and skirts. The upper right rod has a lot of things I don’t wear that can be stored or purged and a few of my roommate’s dresses. The fourth quadrant is empty as previously mentioned.
I want to add a few more tiered skirt and pant hangers to my collection and have only one garment per tier. The hangers I have no for those items are overloaded and I can’t really see what I own. I want to shift my dresses and skirts to the appropriate rod and leave the bottom rod for bottoms and the top for tops. I know… total rocket science. I’ll be replacing all my plastic jobbies with high quality wooden hangers. If I keep the empty or “free” hangers at the front and visible, I’ll be more likely to hang things back up.
Let’s face it…
I believe these things are best planned by acknowledging both your intentions and your existing habits. I know that I am going to want to drop pieces of my outfit before I drop into bed. Like many people, I don’t launder everything after one wear, but I may not hang it up right away. I’m going to find an attractive covered hamper to place discretely in the bedroom specifically for “clean” clothes. My closet is actually just across the hall from my bedroom door and I can’t see myself EVER making it that extra few feet. It may not always save me from wrinkles, but it will at least save my bedroom from its current slovenly appearance.
I know I’m not offering most of you any new information, but the closet is an easily neglected region. My hope for this post is that in sharing my closet renovation odyssey, you too will be motivated to make some changes.
