Chaos to Order

I thrive on being organized.  I’m the type that needs to have a clean workspace before I can work, otherwise I’m distracted.  I am in love with the Container Store and think that if I made a career change, I’d love to be a professional organizer.

But when it comes to our master bedroom closet, I knew it was something I wanted to tackle.  It’s not terribly unorganized, but plastic drawers and cubes just weren’t working for us.

My long dresses were starting to invade the left closet, which is Tyler’s.  And the cubes on the right side were leaving grid marks on the clothes that were at the bottom.  And I was running out of space for other items, causing me to make larger piles where it was harder to find stuff!

I enjoy dressing up, shopping and the like. and over the past year after creating a clothing budget, I’ve really tried to fill the holes in my closet and I want to display them nicely since I’ve spent the money on them.

So as an early Christmas present to each other, the hubs and I got ourselves a fancy closet organization system!

We got this set at Menards, which allows you to pick and choose the pieces that fit for your closet.  We took a day off recently and got this project done over a long weekend.  Saturday we spent some time taking everything out of the closet and painted it. Then on Sunday, assembled it and installed it. On Monday, we went through all our clothes and put them in their rightful spots.

And ta daaaaa!  Look at this beauty!  (Clearly, it makes me giddy.)

Tyler had to make some special cuts to allow for the rod at the end so I could hang my long dresses.  It works perfectly and is now on “my side” too!

Getting dressed and putting together outfits is so much easier now!  I am able to see exactly what I have and am able to keep items nicely stored.  Plus, I can identify where there are holes in my closet and what I have too many of (for me, that’s tees and tanks.)

In terms of organizing, here are a few tips:

1)  Make it accessible!
If you can’t easily get to an item, you likely won’t wear it. I love that I can grab what I need in two seconds flat.  I also plan to get some hooks made to go on the inside closet wall to hold all my jewelry.  Right now, it’s hanging on the back of my door and isn’t very accessible at all.

2)  Organize by type and part with the items you don’t wear!
Here, I did all skirts/pants at the bottom, and along the top rod, I organized by color and type (so tanks/shells by color, then blouses, then cardigans, then blazers, etc.)  Do whatever makes sense for you but have some sort of method to the madness!  You can also do the trick where you put your hangers backwards at the start of the year and as you wear an item, you put it back in your closet with the hanger facing the right way.  Then, after a year (or whatever time frame), you donate or get rid of what you haven’t worn!  I did that and it really helped me see what I wasn’t wearing even though I thought I was wearing it…funny how that works!  Consider selling name brand items on eBay or at consignment stores.  You can also donate items to your local Goodwill, Savers, etc.  Or, you can even host a clothing swap, which is something I’d love to do at some point! Just make sure you have the right tax tool handy since most donations come with a tax deduction. Ginny also offers some good pointers on how to utilize your closet.

3)  Invest in some quality hangers.
I can’t tell you how much space was saved by using the same hanger.  I got these black fuzzy ones that grip everything and are very space efficient.  They came in 35 packs from Costco for $11, which was cheaper than TJ Maxx or Marshall’s (but these stores carry way more colors!)  Plus, the uniform hangers make for a nice, clean look.

What tips do you have for organizing your closet?

To view our other DIY projects, click here.