That's a large pile, and that's a lot of clothes. The picture is actually deceiving, because in real life the pile is way more impressive. I didn't do a typical before and after photo shoot with this one like I would normally attempt to do, but I will show a couple post-closet organization pictures. My only before shot is of one of my dresser drawers.
Yep. That's real.
The closet wasn't terribly unorganized, but after you clean out that many articles of clothing, a closet deserves to be freshened up a little bit more.
Organizing tools I used:
-Before, my scarves were all stuffed into one box and kept on the top shelf. As you can see, I own a whole lotta scarves. And I wear them a lot. So getting them up and down from the top shelf as a 5'1" person was super annoying, but the bigger issue was that I never bothered to dig too much for new scarves. So I'd just wear the same three scarves over and over because they were on the top of the box. Now, they're all individually hung by shower curtain rings that are looped through the wire shelving. Now they're all out on display so I see them easily and will wear them all. They're also arranged by color, which was a whole new concept for this girl but was carried throughout the whole closet.
-Before, old purses were tossed into a messy pile on that same top shelf. Now they are also hung on the bottom shelf on those same shower curtain rings.
-Before, my skirts were hung by being folded in half to drape over the hanger. I always hated this, because they'd be super thick and bunchy and hard to see when you're browsing your closet, but I couldn't figure out how to do it differently. Until one glorious day when I saw skirts hung by the waistband from hangers by clothespins on Pinterest. And I thought that was pretty genius, so I did it.
Why I'm glad I did it:
When I was going through my clothes trying to decide what to put into the "getting rid of" pile, I tried everything on. I literally tried every piece of clothing on that I own, regardless of whether I thought it would fit or whether I thought I liked it. That's the problem with having too many pieces of clothing: you collect and collect and collect and instead of cleaning out the old stuff you just get more stuff, and then you go to get dressed one day and are 100% convinced that the only outfit you look good in is in the hamper because you wore it yesterday. And honestly, that's just not true. It can't possibly be true. So I tried everything on and saw it all with fresh, new eyes. If it fit and looked good, I kept it. If it didn't fit or I didn't like it, I tossed it into the pile, no emotional attachment allowed. I was truly honest with myself about what fits and what doesn't as well as what I like and what I don't. What's the point of going through all this if I'm going to keep a lot of clothes that are just going to go back into drawers or on hangers that I won't pay attention to again? By doing this, I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe. I got a thousand ideas for how to wear my clothes differently and how to pair them with each other in new ways, and I have no excuse to whine or be down on my options because I know for a fact that everything I own right now fits me and looks good on me. It's so exciting...I got a whole new wardrobe for free! (Actually, I'm planning on getting at least some money from Plato's Closet by selling that massive pile, so it's like I'm - hopefully - getting paid to acquire an entire new wardrobe!)
I'm also glad I did this because I took an oversized, ridiculous wardrobe that's been collected and added to since I stopped growing in the seventh grade. I've gotten hand offs from my sisters and roommates, I've thrifted, and I've Black Friday-ed with the best of them, and the result is a million articles of clothing that I never wear. Articles of clothing that take up space, have been moved at least seven times, and serve me no purpose. And now that all those unnecessary articles of clothing have been removed from the equation, I have a much more logical wardrobe. I had four black cardigans. Four. Yes, they're all slightly different, but I just don't need four black cardigans. No one does. I have been collecting jeans for YEARS, and yet I was able to whittle myself down to four pairs that fit and are comfortable and provide more than enough of a variety style wise. I'm realizing that there is so much beauty in having a smaller wardrobe that is more useful and practical than having a big one just for the sake of having it. I've always struggled with getting rid of something because of the "maybes": maybe one day I'll figure out how to make that skirt look cool, maybe one day I'll fit into those jeans again, maybe one day...it doesn't matter. If one day I am the size of those pants that I'm getting rid of, I can buy a new pair of pants. For now, it makes no sense to keep them. Or the black cardigans.
Clothes are a sensitive area for most women. We can love a shirt one week and feel obese in it the next. We get caught up in every new trend that there is because we get tricked into thinking that nothing we have at home is good enough anymore. I'm not suggesting (at all) that we should ignore fashion and never buy a new piece of clothing, but I am saying that maybe we need to spend more time becoming best friends with the clothes we already have that flatter us and make us feel confident. The clothes that we forgot about because they were buried under a mountain of other clothes that should probably be sold to Plato's Closet. I'm totally smitten with my "new" wardrobe, and I'm super glad that I finally made the decision to find it hiding in the mess.
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