Organization Project 1: The Closet

Oh Container Store/Elfa sale catalog, you taunt me with your perfect and beautifully color- coordinated closets. I only have to fill out the form in the back and with your magic computer, you will transform my closet into so harmonious a space that it will be a zen experience just to open the door. And at 30% off, too. Well, I'll give your magic computer a whirl, though even at 30% off the Elfa elves (surely the come with elves and not just shelves?) may be beyond my resources.

I'm starting with my closet, which currently looks like this:


This is not the biggest project I have in terms of stuff, because as you may notice, I'm not exactly a fashionista. However, it may be the most challenging in terms of using the space most efficiently. The closet is under the eaves, so it's deep, but the sloping ceiling makes it a challenge to use the space in the back, except for storing summer clothes and wrapping paper. And I'd like to empty out my chest of drawers and be able to put all my sweaters in the closet, too.

So, I went through everything in the closet, tossing, purging, decluttering, detoxing, and in about an hour I had an empty closet, a 30 gallon trash bag of clothes for Goodwill, and my husband's side of the bed covered in clothes. Fortunately, he's on a business trip this week, which is motivation to get this done before he gets back.

And now the closet looks like this:

During this process, I came to discover that I have some seriously ugly clothes and shoes. What have I been thinking? But, that's another project.

I measured the space, I hung up the short clothes and measured their width, hung up the long clothes and measured, filled out how many socks, bags, belts, sweaters, t-shirts and everything else. Tomorrow its time to take all the info to the great closet wizard and see what they can do for me. I just hope they don't tell me to hang all my clothes in the front and store all my out of season clothes in the back.