Closet help

[flying_babyb]

How do people fit all there clothes, books and other things in there closet? Mines a disaster now. Never again am I swicthing rooms. any advice?

 

[HelenePA]

Keep only what you need/wear.Dont keep stuff just because one day you "might" wear it again, "might" fit in it again. If you dont need it give it away, throw it out.

 

[flying_babyb]

i did that lol. My problem is I must keep a houseful of stuff in my room till I move. Grrr.

 

[JennaTX]

I heard this hint a few years ago which might help you with your clothes.

Hang everything up in your closet with the hanger backwards. After a full year has gone, whatever is still hanging up backwards, get rid of it!

 

[flying_babyb]

I dont own anything worth hanging. Im a college student who teaches kids. Nice is not in my vocabualary.

 

[HelenePA]

How about space bags? Pack up all your seasonal clothes in one. It should save you some room.

 

[flying_babyb]

seasonal clothes? what are those? I dont really have seasonal clothes. Its long tee or short tees.

 

[HelenePA]

Tank tops, shorts, bathing suits = seasonal clothes. I'm sure your not wearing them in wisconsin in November

 

[nataliela]

Pull everything out and put it on the bed. If you are planning on moving soon, then pack up everything you won't need until after the move.

If space is an issue getting stacking hangers or layered pants hangers.

If you have a lot of folded clothes, then you can buy canvas shelves that tie onto the bar in the closet. It will add more space for folded clothes.

Line up your shoes, don't have them all thrown in a pile.

Put anything that you do not need quick access to, like purses, hats, and other items in a box and put it on the top shelf

 

[Cool-Beans]

I don't know about "people", but I started setting some things aside in a spare bedroom to donate and whatnot. Soon the spare room took on a life of its own. It's in a shambles right now. I've been referring to it as "the hell room" for a couple years. The door is usually closed. It's horrid.

You have inspired me, OP.

I'm off to clean out the hell room. Thank you. And wish me luck!

 

[flying_babyb]

I wish you luck. My hell room looks no better than it did at 3 am when I went to bed. I was gonna move soon but now its all kinda hinging on if I find my dream place cause I can stay on the lease here till may if i chose, or my roomate will let me off the lease since her Dfieance moved in and well i dont like him as much as she does.

 

[HelenePA]

Line up your shoes, don't have them all thrown in a pile.

Better yet get a shoe holder that goes on the back of your door. I believe you can get them for a few dollars at the dollar store.

Right now my hell room is my cellar because I'm planning a huge yard sale in the spring... so until then everything is in containers down there. I'm just glad no one goes down there but us

 

[flying_babyb]

Our second hell room is our garage. We got all the stuff I bought to move out there. My shoes are in two piles in crates. ONe is dress and one is other. LOL

 

[asta]

I know it sounds like a luxury but hands down the best money I have ever spent on my house was to pay The Closet Company to come in and redesign my closets. I started with my own and it made such a difference in fitting everything in and keeping everything organzied that I ended up paying them to come back and do my children's closets, the kitchen pantry and the garage.

 

[flying_babyb]

i rent so theres no real perminae solution

 

[lovemygoofy]

Whatever clothing you haven't worn in 3-6 months needs to be tossed. Don't save the "I'm going to wear someday, I'm going to fit into someday" clothes. They get lost in the piles and create more clutter.

Buy all the same color socks. If one gets hole in it or lost or whatever, throw away 2 socks so you have the same amount of socks. Everytime I buy any new underwear, I get rid of some of my old.

I have a walk in closet that I share with my husband, who possibly owns more than I do. We have 3 plastic double drawers next to each other and a tall 4 door against the back of the closet. I also have a special hook on the clothes bar for my husband's ties and belts.

Over my closet door, I have a shoe hook that holds about 20 pairs of shoes. I also hang my belts and scarves on it. Over the back of the bedroom door, I have hooks for overcoats, scarves and hats. The bathroom door has hooks for pajamas and robes.

I have a container in my closet that holds all my purses, wallets, and clutches. We have some simple cheap tables bought at kirklands $20 each for night stands and I still use my cheap bookcase(think walmart cheap) to store books. If you don't have room for all the books, it maybe time to weed through them. Keep your favorites or whatever pertains to your work and pass on the leftovers.

The biggest thing is to clean out what you are not using or enjoying.

 

[Disney Doll]

I swear by those closet reorganizing systems, like California Closets. That's an expensive one, but we have some local companies that do basically the same thing for a lot less $$$.

I also go through my stuff in Spring and Fall and ruthlessly get rid of stuff that no longer works. I donate it to charity so I feel like I am doing good.

This Spring, I went through and discovered I had about 12white t-shirts. Plain white t-shirts. Why, you may ask, does anyone need 12 plain white t-shirts??? Well, the answer to that question for me was "I don't", so 9 of then got donated. Haven't worn something in a full year? Out it goes unless it is a real classic like a navy blazer and it still fits. I have tried to pare my wardrobe down to classics (black, navy or khaki pants) which can be updated with a few cheap "funky" pieces every season, depending on the fashions of the minute. Plus, if you only have 2 or 3 bottom colors and they all sort of coordinate, then everything in your wardrobe will coordinate with each other, because you will buy your tops to match your pants. Makes stuff easier to pack too.

In a couple of weeks I am going to a conference. I am bringing black, gray and black pin-stripe pants & a black blazer. So every top I bring will coordinate pretty much with all my bottoms and my jacket. Dress it up with some matching jewelry, pins etc. I will bring a couple of short sleeve and a couple of long sleeve and do some layering if necessary.

 

[bumbershoot]

flying_babyb, since you're a college student that rents, you just have to organize what you have.

In all of my college days I never once put books in my closet. I always ALWAYS had at least one bookshelf, and let's be honest, once I got out of the dorms I had at least 2 smaller bookshelves. Once I hit chiropractic school and was in my "motel 6 suite" style apartment (the bedroom/bath/vanity looked just like a little motel room, but then it had a living room/kitchen tacked onto it) I had about 4 bookshelves. If it had ONLY been the bedroom area, I actually could have fit my stuff in; it would have been crowded, but with the bookshelves lining the walls I would have been fine.

So bookshelves are definitely important.

As for clothes, I've never been the type to get rid of stuff. I was wearing bright pink low-heeled shoes from my 8th grade commencement for at least 10 years. And when I have donated stuff that I liked based on the "if you haven't worn it in x amount of time" theory, I inevitably deeply regret it later. So I won't tell you to do that, b/c I don't believe in it for some personalities.

I'll also mention that space bags do NOT clear up a lot of space. In fact I think the room my space bags are taking up is MORE than what the items inside were taking up before. They are big, bulky, have to be accessible b/c they have to be re-vacuumed every so often. You can't store them in certain ways or you'll damage them, etc. I wish I'd saved my money to get the new cubes instead, b/c maybe those are better. But the non-cube ones aren't giving me lots of space, they are just taking up new space!

When you move, if you're in a roomie situation, try to work with the roomie to carve out some space outside of bedrooms. It's always nice, and more family-like, to have bookshelves in the living room, so that things are easy to grab to study on the couch. And it just looks cozier. My junior year of college I lived with 3 other women that I rowed with, and two of us were in nearly the same major so having our books together was nice. Duplicate books of course, but still kind of fun. If I'd had to keep all my books in my room it would have been a bit sad. You do have to TRUST your roomie for that, of course.

Good luck in organizing!

 

[aprilvaca04]

I don't know about "people", but I started setting some things aside in a spare bedroom to donate and whatnot. Soon the spare room took on a life of its own. It's in a shambles right now. I've been referring to it as "the hell room" for a couple years. The door is usually closed. It's horrid.

You have inspired me, OP.

I'm off to clean out the hell room. Thank you. And wish me luck!

This sounded like me and my house until I read the part about going off to clean it that's not happening this weekend end. I'm hoping to do that eventually, maybe the next 3 day weekend????

 

[flying_babyb]

I have two bookshelves in the house now, one upstairs and one with textbooks downstairs and I still have spillover. too sick to do anything with my room now. Ick I hate feeling crappy,.