Customizing Clothes Storage Ideas {the closet project}

The first step of the closet project (and the subsequent, life changing steps afterward) was simply purging and organizing.  Although I had The Dream Closet in mind as my inspiration, I had to figure out how in the world to first address the practical issues of our clothes organization scenario.

For those of you who have just joined me on this little blog journey, you might not know that our master bedroom started out looking like this:

See that little door on the right hand side of the picture?  That was the “closet”.  However, it tilted down with the angled roof-line, and really didn’t serve a practical purpose as a closet at all.  So, we removed it in favor of being able to actually walk in the space…

When we were all finished spiffing up the space, it looked quite different (you can read all about that here).  One thing it had going for it was some built in storage areas on one side.

They, however, had become an issue.  I had put my “off season” clothes and shoes into totes and shoved them behind those doors.  Problem was, as the seasons changed, I never found time to “switch over” my clothes.

I couldn’t find a thing anymore.  It was time to give something else a try.

I found this handy dandy organization sheet, and decided to follow some of its advice.

{Source}

I first took a deep breath and put every item of clothing I owned in piles on the bed.   Along with the things I knew I’d keep, I had a pile to give away, a pile to throw away, and a pile I put directly into a tote (for the day I’d perhaps be small enough to wear them again…).  It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would.

Then, I began the process of putting the keepers away in a way that would make better sense.  I didn’t have room in our closet armoire (outside the door of our room) for piling sweaters in like colors, so I stacked them on shelves in the room.

It works just dandy!

And, in the cupboard below the sweaters, I lined up my shoes and bags.

Thank heavens I don’t need to stand on my head and rummage through a tote to find them anymore…

And the closet (outside our bedroom door)?

Now it only has the clothes we actually wear in it. {What a novel idea!}  I put mine on white plastic hangers, and my husband’s on wooden ones.

Watching those fashion blogs with “capsule wardrobes” made me realize a person doesn’t need a ton of items of clothes to look put together!  That’s when I signed up and began my own “Get Your Pretty On” journey.   (You can read that whole saga here.)

Tomorrow I’ll be back to show you how I decided to find a little more space for a little more pretty…