Organization: Closets

July 6, 2017

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Do you have a gift for Organization?  It’s not a natural God-given gift of mine.  For me to have things organized takes serious and thoughtful planning, strenuous execution, and diligence to keep up the process.  

Because of my many chronic illnesses, we moved into our one-story town home over two years ago.  Within two days of moving, my hysterectomy took place.  This kept me from ever getting a good plan for organizing my home.  So, now I’ve decided to tackle some of the things that are messy, ugly, and driving me nuts.  The worst offenders in my home are the closets!

There is so much clutter and wasted space.  When you have downsized, wasted space is a terrible no-no.  Organization means that you need to utilize every inch of that space for good!  This is my purpose in this project.

Because of my pain and lack of energy, I’m doing 15 minute work projects.  This post today is showing two weeks of work. Some of the lifting and carrying has been done by Hubby, as I’m not allowed to lift anything over 20 pounds ( I had repairs done in my surgery).  Let’s start with the before and after photos.

This scary mess is our walk-in closet.  Underneath the hanging clothes are piles of shoes and purses.  The laundry hamper is over-flowing, too.  What a night-mare, and no way to vacuum!

I began by removing everything that was on the floor.  Since I knew the shoe boxes needed to go in the other closet on a shelf, I had to clean off a shelf.  So, next, I’ll show you the closet across from the walk-in.

 I took everything off the bottom shelf, which was out-of-season clothes.  Most of them were too small for me.  As I placed them on the bed, I divided them into stacks.  The stacks were:

1. Keep- but Store

2. Sell- Or Giveaway

3. Throw Away

4. Hang up in the closet

 The storable clothing and blankets were placed in space bags and stored under the guest bed.  This took a lot of the clothes out of our room and emptied up so much space!

 I went through all the shoes and placed them in the right boxes.

 Then I labeled them and placed them on the now empty shelf in the linen closet.  Now, they could be easily found.  This also made it possible to vacuum the walk-in closet and keep away dust.  This is so important to a family with allergies and asthma.

I noticed my scarves.  They were a huge mess, hanging across three coat hangers.  I couldn’t see most of them.  I decided to try something I had seen on tv sometime ago.

I sat on the bed and laid them out. I took one coat hanger and a plastic set of shower curtain hooks that we had from and old house.  We had purchased these at the dollar store and they were just the cheap, clear plastic type.  I laid them across the hanger and hung a scarf on each one.  When I was done the scarves were beautiful, accessible, and so organized!

 This looks better and takes up so much less room in the closet!

 Here’s the finished look for the walk in closet.  Now, we can actually find the clothes that we wear, and the clothes that don’t fit us are gone.  This makes more sense, doesn’t it?

 I continued to work on the linen closet, by taking things out and re-working them.  By adding some dividers that I already owned the spaces were more defined.  

When I had many small items that were to be saved together (gift items) I placed them in baskets.  This saved so much space on the shelves.  In the end, the shelves look better and I was able to put many more things in this closet.  I’m very happy with the results.  

Do you have some great tips for organizing your closets?

@2017, copyright Lisa Ehrman

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Lisa Ehrman

Lisa has been blogging since 2013, and loves sharing resources and ideas for living a simple life. To get free printables, bonus words, and more - sign up for the newsletter.

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