Closet Organization!

Originally Posted 3/11/11

**Warning**  Long post ahead!  But lots of pictures!!

I have been slowly going through my house and decluttering EVERYTHING!  I started with my desk (office space).  You can read all about it in Part 1 and Part 2

Next, I headed to my closet...

Well, before I get ahead of myself, I sort of organized my closet last fall.  This is how it looked before... 

I realized I needed to organize this space better.  I also wanted to move my chest of drawers to the closet to give myself more space in my bedroom.  Another thing I decided to do was move my jackets and fleeces to my coat closet by the front door.  Which gave me more space in the closet.

Coat Closet

Here's the chest of drawers added to the closet. 

I had a small bookcase that wasn't being used wisely so I put it on the top shelf to help organize my shoes.  Being that I'm a tall girl...it's perfect! I added some small wire shelves inside the bookcase to utilize all the space! 

 I put a basket in the closet to put all my flip flops in.  Living in Charleston, SC you can wear flip flops almost all year long! This wire shelving unit, I've had for.ev.er!  Just extra clothing storage.

I added this wire shelf to help organize my sweatpants and sweatshirts. 

I really LOVE having the dresser in my closet!  So much more space in the bedroom!  

  

So that brings us to now...after living a couple of months with my closet like this, there were a few problems.  First, I still had too many clothes and desperately needed to go through it all!

Secondly, I had to deal with this...

I could only open the bottom two drawers a little bit.  Very frustrating early in the morning!

Also, I hadn't really organized my sweaters very well and they ended up looking like this most of the time.

The top of my dresser had become a landing place for just about anything.

My scarf collection was taking over!

My bags and purses were out of control!

So the first step is admitting you have a problem! Check

The second step is the decrapificaiton!

I started with my dresser drawers.

The sock drawer...yes I have that many socks!

This is old Valentine wrapping paper that was put in when I first got this chest of drawers back when I was a little girl!

I found some cute drawer liner in Michael's dollar section! Much better!!

Color-coordinated socks!  Yep, I'm that girl and yes Mom, I did get rid of some! ;)

T-shirt drawer #1 before:

After:

T-shirt drawer #2 before:

How did I even close the drawer?

After:

I absolutely love organizing my t-shirts like this!  I can see them all and they don't get messy when I'm looking through them!

Long-sleeved t-shirt drawer before:

After: 

I obviously have a t-shirt problem!  And I got rid of a bunch!!

Next, I went through ALL of my hanging clothes.  And I mean ALL!  I tried on just about everything.  My criteria for keeping things were: Does it fit? And do I love it?  If I didn't love it, it went!  If it didn't fit, I asked do I love it enough to lose the weight to fit into it?  If not, it went!  I got rid of 3 bags of clothes!

My mom would be so proud!!  She thinks I have way too many clothes!  Which I apparently did! :)

I put all the clothes I was keeping on the huggable type of hangers.  The best deal I found was at Big Lots.  I got 50 for $20.  I had to buy two boxes.  Look at all my old hangers!

I then put all my clothes in rainbow order!  And I love the way it looks!

I had to keep some plastic hangers for my skirts.

I organized my sweaters 

I moved my dresser to the right side of the closet.  You can't even see it in this picture!

Opening the bottom drawer is SO much easier!

Plenty of room for my wire drawers.

I found the baskets at Big Lots.  They're perfect for my hats and scarves! Oh and my warm, fuzzy socks.

I hung my purses up since I had all this extra closet space.

Yes, that's plastic over my sweaters.  I knew my cats would sleep there, so I'm trying to keep the cat hair under control.  I just used an S hook to hang the purses.

So there you have it.  I told you it would be a long post!  Thanks for hanging in there!  I hope this inspires you to organize your closet...Spring is in there air and what a great time to do it!!