Here’s my brand spankin’ new closet, after another round of Kon-Mari style purging.
Over the weekend, I made some progress in getting my life back together. One way of doing this was fixing my closet situation. Moving into our new apartment was done in a mad rush and I pretty much stuffed my side of the closet with a big mess; without organizing it in any logical way. This led to frustrating mornings where I was forced to dig around for things I could wear to the office.
Then it occurred to me over the weekend that I should arrange my clothes so that all my work appropriate clothes are on one side of the closet, and all my non-work clothes on the other. This organization made getting dressed this morning so much easier! Historically I organized my clothes based on type of clothing, ie. grouping dresses, sweaters, shirts, t shirts, pants, etc together. And this might make sense for some people, especially if you have a lot of clothes or if your work and non work clothes are not very different, but since my wardrobe is relatively small, I think this new method makes much more sense.
My side of the closet is shown on the right side. The BF uses the left side (covered). I arranged all my work clothes on the top rack with additional work sweaters, knits, skirts, or dresses folded on the hanging shelves. I placed a wire basket on the floor of the closet for dirty laundry. The bottom rack of hangers and the middle shelf hold my non-work clothes. When our new dressers arrive, I’ll relocate a lot of my non-work clothes into drawers. I’m usually in a rush to get dressed for work in the mornings because I like to sleep in, so it makes more sense to have my work clothes easily accessible on hangers rather than hidden away in drawers. My work clothes also needs to be wrinkle free and that’s easier to achieve with hangers.
As for my most recent closet purge, I’ve decided to donate or sell several pieces I’ve hung onto for a long time, but could not ever see myself wearing ever again. Some things just didn’t fit anymore. And other things, I no longer feel like myself wearing, ie. clothes I’m no longer comfortable in because it feels too young now (like my army trench coat dress and some white pants I never wore). After one of these closet cleanouts / purges, I always feel a little better. Lighter. Free-er. More me. Each time, I think, ok I hope I’ll make better decisions so I won’t have to do this again, but this process will probably never end, as I’m, and we all are, always evolving, and our closets have to keep up with that.
I’m curious, how do you arrange your clothes? And as time goes by, are there any clothes you couldn’t ever see yourself wearing ever again?
Dr. it girl 
I am a big believer in *move first, purge later*. Not that I don’t donate/curb/gift many, many things before moving to a new city or home, but that the fine tuning happens after the move. I always feel as if the after-effects of the move produce a fertile moment to rethink my connection and orientation to my *stuff*.
Your closet looks so nice … and I’ve been loving your recent outfit posts.
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Moving definitely lends a fresh eye to your old things. It’s so much easier to let go of the old and stale while in a new place. And thanks for the support!
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I recently moved too and that was the impetus for cutting my shoe collection in half. It was much easier in the new place. I could probably never wear those paper thin ballet flats ever again.
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same! I need thicker soles these days.
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My wardrobe and non-work clothes overlap quite a lot, so just I just sort by type (tops, bottoms, dresses). for tops and dresses, I arrange them by sleeve length. I fold and roll all my knits and jeans and put them in drawers. Since there is only one season where I live, I don’t have to worry about having to rotate between seasons either, so everything is pretty much there throughout the year.
I like having a clothes rack for stuff I wear regularly and multiple times between washings, such as jeans and most trousers, and my denim jacket. I usually pull out what I want to wear the next day, so that I don’t have to rush in the mornings.
I too, think I can never wear ballet flats again – my feet can’t take the thin soles and low vamps. Short skirts seem to be a thing of the past too, although I still wear shorts. And although I still wear my low-rise jeans from my college years (they work perfectly fine with my long shirts and knits), I doubt I will buy new pairs in the style (if they come back in fashion).
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now that i’m back in LA, the seasons aren’t changing anymore either. It makes things a lot easier, although maybe I’ll start to miss scarves and boots eventually.
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There’s very little overlap between my work and personal wardrobes, but I don’t currently separate them in my closet or dresser. (I used to though, but a lot of my sweaters get use both at work and on weekends, so it became a bit impractical.) I also get the right side of our shared closet, and K gets the left. I started out with half of our closet but my things slowly creeped into part of his half, so now I have almost 2/3s.
Like Lin and Liz mentioned, I’m also pretty much done with wearing ballet flats, especially if I’ll be walking anywhere, though I still might wear Cole Haan ones to court. (Though the ballet flat-looking Rothys manage to have just enough cushioning that they can be worn as commute-and-office shoes, but I rub holes in them almost as quickly as I do leather flats, it seems.)
As an aggressive declutterer, I’ve also found that closet editing seems to be a longtime process, one that’s not amenable to being anywhere close to done after one big session, if only because I have a hard time letting things go, even when I’m pretty sure I won’t wear them again. I’m always right when I feel that way about something, I often end up finally donating or sending them away two or three years later, without ever having worn them again.
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