Like I said in my last post, 2013 is the year to get my shit together. And I'm starting off big.
Just in time for epiphany, I took all of the Christmas decorations down today, and decluttered SLIGHTLY in the process. I always hate how empty the house looks when the Christmas tree is gone. It just looks sad. But on the bright side, that also means the beginning of Mardi Gras season! I'm celebrating this afternoon by getting slightly day-drunk (note: I wrote most of this yesterday. Not getting drunk at work, I swear).
But that's really nothing compared to what I spent yesterday (and a couple of days before that scouting and buying supplies) cleaning.
OH GOD LOOK AWAY!
Believe it or not these pictures were taken after I'd been at it for awhile. There is just...SO MUCH STUFF. And more than that it's just piled everywhere and makes no sense.
Yeah a bunch of stuff had gone into the donate pile and most of my dresses were pulled out at this point. As you can see, the shoe rack on the door was just not big enough to handle my - admittedly large- shoe collection. I love shoes. I do not love cramming them into a 2" gap between shelves.
And here's the impetus behind the whole thing. I got a 10 pack of huggable hangers in my stocking this year (well, beside my stocking). And I loved them, really loved them. I have a lot of shirts that just slip right off the hangers, but these are incredible. As far as the space saving claim goes, they do save space but the "double your closet space" claim is bogus. It's not that much of a savings. But in the end I would definitely say they're worth it.
Another big problem is the towels busting out of a shelf that's not deep enough to hold them. And these cloth storage bins that I bought almost ten years ago, and which now just have random crap shoved in them. Brett's side was in better shape than mine, but he still had random piles of crap.
A big part of the problem is those wooden shelves. When we moved in I thought it would be great to have all of that storage space. But they are so randomly and oddly placed that they're almost useless. A couple of them are 6 or 7 inches wide. All of them are only like 9 inches deep. Just not great. But the biggest issue is us not keeping it in good shape. And I'll own it, having too many clothes.
So my plans were:
- replace the hangers
- Move things I use often down to my level.
- improve scarf/tights situation
- move my sweaters into the closet
- find a better place for Brett's shorts
- rethink towel storage
- replace cloth bins with clear storage
Midway through it still looked like this. And I was ready to murder someone.
But look! All of my clothes fit in one side!
At the end of that day, I was left with this.
Empty shelves! Shoes visible and not crammed into tiny spaces or piled everywhere! And dude, someone wears a lot of plaid.
Towels neatly folded with room to spare (although I wish we could go completely to the turkish thin towels. I love them, love how little space they take up. Brett's not a big fan).! Handbags visible and not stuffed into a bin! Necklaces not tangled together and easily accessible!
So my system is
- dresses on the left, organized by color
- shelves to hold sweaters and shorts
- a drawer at the bottom for dry cleaning
- shirts and jackets on the top right, organized by color
- skirts and jeans on the bottom
- Necklaces easy to see and grab
- Bracelets, rings, etc. in trays, easy to find what I'm looking for
- Shoe racks with shoes worn most often near the center
- Boots stored under dresses, belts looped over the rear hanging bar
The reality is that I'm never going to have a beautiful closet. I could pull out everything and paint the walls bright white, I could change out the light fixture to something that has more than one bulb, I could rip out the ugly wooden shelves. And I may do those things. But I won't. I actually may do the light thing after my next Ikea trip, but nothing more than that.
But even with this small change, it just feels so much better in there. Lighter, less oppresive. I don't feel like clothes are going to rain down on me any moment. And I get to look at all my pretty shoes.
There are a couple of more things I'd love to do. I want a laundry sorting system in here, but we're limited on space. I also want a full length mirror. If not in the closet, then in the bedroom. For now, I'm just happy to have all of my clothes visible!
So what next? Probably my craft closet but oh lord, that's going to be an undertaking.
