It’s been almost four weeks since I began my journey of rebuilding my wardrobe. I never planned on taking so long to get back into the series after the first installment, honestly. I thought that once the process started, it would start falling into place pretty quickly (I’ve even had outlines of what I needed to include in the posts since said two weeks ago!).
[Step Two] Organizing the Closet
There are a few rules to follow when it comes to organizing you wardrobe.
1) Do what works for YOU! Trying to model your closet according to someone else’s system that may not necessarily make sense to you will not help you in creating a workable wardrobe…for YOU! If it doesn’t make sense to you, then you lose all method in the madness. It makes it difficult for you to see all of the potential in your closet if your closet itself becomes an enigma.
Here are some of the basic questions I asked myself when I developed my organization system.
- Am I a “types” person, who needs to see different types of clothing (shirts, pants, jeans, dresses, sweaters, sweatshirts, jackets, etc.) grouped together in my closet? YES!
- Am I a “colors” person? Do I need to see similar patterns and colors grouped together? YES!
- How do I order these groups in a way that makes most sense to me? My closet is your typical, linear closet (with areas difficult to reach). This creates a challenge, as not everything is equally accessible. So I had to make a decision on what to put closer to the center of the closet (more accessible) and what to put further inside/to my side of the closet. For me, I need to have the types of clothes that I tend to wear more often to be better accessible. So I put my jeans/pants and t-shirts in the center area of the closet and then follow the pattern of dresses, sweatshirts, sweaters/cardigans, jackets/blazers, and then school sweatshirts as I move further into the recesses of my closet.
2) However you do it, make sure you can easily see all items you own. This is important because if you cannot see as much of your closet as possible, you tend to forget what you have…and then end up purchasing more. Of course, this seems contradictory to what actually happens in my closet (where the inner recesses makes it difficult to see what is hidden back there).
Still, I have come up with tricks to make best use of what I have at the moment.
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| It’ll do…for now… |
- With limited visible space, I had to use hangers that would take up as little space as possible. I fell in love with the slimline, camel colored hangers (like ones sold here), which I use for most of my clothes (minus pants and jeans, for fear of creating unwanted creases). These help in reducing the space normally taken up by hangers and allow me to see more of my closet them I otherwise would. It’s almost magical.
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| Purses…belts… |
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| …scarves…t-shirts… |
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| …and jewelry… |
- Of course, my wardrobe doesn’t JUST live in my closet. When it comes to things like athletic-wear, accessories, bags, etc., I tend to use drawers, hanging shelves, crates, and other creative ways of storing such items. But the premise remains the same – one must organize and put these items into said storage compartments in a way that makes them easily accessible and readily visible. The more you are able to easily see, the more likely you won’t go out and try to “replace” things you already have.
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| All lined up, ready for action! |
- Being a Korean-American (born to 1st generation Korean parents), I still follow the age-old traditions of removing my shoes upon entering my home (well, most of the time…sometimes I cheat and wear shoes around, on carpet no less…rebel!). This means that both my husband and my shoes are housed right next to the door (or within near immediate vicinity of) and readily visible in the open shelving system.
3) Always return items to its rightful place!! This is the final rule of closet organization. I normally do not have issues with this, since, again, I am so “Type A” that leaving clothes hanging on chairs, strewn over the foot of our bed, or lying on the closet floor almost literally cause me heart palpitations. However, I have seen the disaster that could come from not putting things back in its rightful place. First, you lose your systematic process of being able to create outfits (since it’s all strewn about and not so visible anymore). Second, you can more easily lose those key, staple items you so love by not properly putting them away in their appropriate places. Third, it makes all the hard work you put into revamping your wardrobe all for naught…not to mention it makes it doubly difficult to revamp it for the next season.
