Clutter Busting, One Space at a Time - First up, my closet!

What day is it???? HUMP DAY!  Happy Wednesday, good people!  I hope everyone is having a good week.  Mine is hectic, I have some life changes going on that are sucking up all of my time...  

I'm surprised no one asked about my class (remember, I posted about the class I was taking at church?  you can read that post here).  Anyway, I am more than halfway through and the class has been a great refresher for me and I've really been enjoying it and meeting the people in our small group.  We have 4 classes left and then I believe we get a certificate of completion.  Yay!

So anyway, today we're going to talk about clutter busting... I am generally an organized person and I love thinking of new ways to be organized.  However, I am prone to clutter and there are spots of clutter all over the house (I was much more type A before kids though).  I can't stand it!  But, the reality is that when you actually live life, you don't always have a pristine house.  Now note, there is a difference between cluttered and nasty (I don't do nasty - ok????).  But clutter, yeah!

So in the midst of trying to calm my environment these days (trying to keep the stress down, stay off blood pressure meds and all of that stuff) I am trying to bust the clutter around here. First up, my closet.  

My closet and I have a love-hate relationship.  It's the smallest closet space I've had in a while and it's been challenging to maintain order.  Today I'll share the products I use to organize and where to purchase them and just general tips that have worked.  

So we'll start with the ugly - the before pictures:

This is the basic view from the doorway, just a box...

This is what happens when I don't rehang my clothes...

This is my shoe solution, but some are missing...

And here is where the missing shoes were!

This was just more general disarray...

More clutter and disorganization...

Some purses and the side of a jewelry holder...

This was what was hanging on the outside of the closet door!

And the corresponding clutter beneath said closet door...

As you can see, my closet had grown quite out of control!  It was getting to the point that I couldn't find anything so I took some time (a couple of days) and really set it right (including some purging).  

When we moved to this house 3+ years ago, I took the opportunity to color code my closet and that has been great!  I am all about space-saving solutions so I've researched and through trial and error found some products that work great for tight spaces.  Ready to dig in?  Let's go.

My closet is a square box.  Several rails were added to accomplish the system I had in mind.  There are two rails on the left (upper and lower), one full rail across the back of the closet and one rail on the right.  Shoes are at the top of each shelf (except the lower left one).  Purses are behind the door on an organizer, on the wall on hooks and inside of a chest.  Some of my costume jewelry is in a hanging organizer in the closet.

The upper rail on the left houses skirts and pants.  Skirts are organized by season and color, when possible, and hung on multi-hangers to save space (the official name is the chrome four-tier skirt hanger).  Those things are wonderful!!!   They each hold four skirts, but only take up the space of one hanger!  Here is what they look like:

They are great!  I have a total of 13 of those, and I could really stand to get about 2 more because I have some skirts that are not on them.  I purchased them from Bed Bath & Beyond, see them here.  

Pants are next to the skirts, and they are also organized by season and color.  I use a similar multi-tier hanger for them, each holding 5 pairs of pants.  The official name is the chrome swing-arm slack hanger.  

These were the very first multi-hanger things I purchased, back in like 2005 and I've just added to them over the years.  I have a total of 11 and I could probably stand to get at least one more.  I purchased them from Bed Bath & Beyond also, see them here.  

Here is the newly reorganized upper left rail with everything put away:

Moving on to the lower rail, which houses what I call "specialty" tops, sweaters and jackets by color.  Those are primarily on those slim velvet hangers (I've been in the process of converting my closet to those since about 2010).  So it wasn't too bad to clear up, just needed to put things away.  On the top of that rail is where I stack jeans (I don't own that many and don't wear them often so it was easier to stack them than to waste one of my special hangers).  The majority of those hangers were purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond and are made by Real Simple (although I have mixed brands over the years).  The Real Simple ones are hands down the best... It is absolutely worth the extra to buy the box of 50. Here is what they look like and you can purchase them here. 

  

This photo shows the optional clips you can add to the hangers.

And here is everything put away.  I pulled the jeans out a little so you could see that they are on the shelf below the skirts and pants.

Next is the back rail.  That is where the button down shirts go and the beginning of my suits and dresses, all color coded.  The shirt hangers, which again hold multiples, are from Bed Bed & Beyond, and you can see them here.  Their official name is the venetian collection rubber and black 5-tier blouse tree.  I love these too!!!  I have 10 of them.

Now for the suits and dresses.  Everything is color-coded by main color, separated by patterns and solids (I know, I know, it's very Type-A).  I start with whites and go all the way to navy on that back rail. You can see most of that in this photo.   

And finally, there's the right rail, which continues the suits and dresses, but houses gray and black.  You can see that in this photo.

Now, let's talk about shoes.  I'm a girl, so I have a LOT of shoes.  I found a solution back in 2005 that I continue to use (in conjunction with some other things).  They are clear shoe boxes from the container store.  I absolutely love them!  I also use them in other areas of the house to store things.  They stack great because they have grooves on the lid to keep the boxes from sliding off.  I label mine with clear labels.  You can see them in the photos below and purchase them here.

These are the regular ones; here are the men's.  I use them for oversized, platform shoes.  I am able to get two pairs in sometimes, which is great! You can purchase them here.

I have 92 of the regular shoe boxes and 3 men's shoe boxes in the closet, and another 25 in the office/craft room. Here they are all stacked up nicely before I put them in the closet (had to get the shoes back in the boxes first) and then in the closet:

What to do with flats & flip flops??? It is summer, so I'm wearing those. Flip flops go in a little basket I repurposed from elsewhere in the house and flats go on the floor under the back rail (still working on a permanent solution for those):

So in the move, I also decided to give up my sock drawer.  I don't really wear socks, unless it's to the gym - I mostly wear tights or go bare-legged.  I do wear nylons sometimes.  So I purged my socks and moved what I kept, along with my nylons, to this neat zebra basket that I picked up somewhere:

And then there's that other things that give women the blues - purses.  We all have too many and there's always the question of what to do with them????  I have a variety of tricks I use but still need to work on it some more. 

Behind the door, I have these purse organizer things I saw in a magazine and picked up from Bed Bath & Beyond back in 2009,shop for them here.  They are great for small purses and clutches, but not so great for larger bags.  

More purses are on hooks behind the door:  

And I found this great wicker chest at Home Goods last spring, that I put my less used purses in. See the photos below and a similar one here :

A word about me and purses.  I have quite a few of them.  But I've been buying purses since the mid 1980s when I was in high school (remember Barnett's in Evergreen Plaza where you could put purses in layaway???), and I pretty much have all of them, except those I've already gifted to the Tween.  So that's why I have so many...

So that's the end of my journey through my clutter-busting project in my closet.  I'm sure there will be more in the weeks to come as I continue to purge.  But at least my closet is together!

So what about you, do you have clutter in your home?  How do you get rid of it?  Holla @ Darvi!  Be Blessed!