Decluttering Your Closet through Smart Clothing Purchases

Does anyone constantly struggle with the state of their closet like I do? It feels like a never-ending battle to both keep things organized and actually find stuff that I want to wear. In the past 12 months I've removed many more things from my closet - including virtually all clothing items purchased in the 1990s - than I've added. And honestly? I think the sheer number of things I used to have was keeping me from making good clothing choices. I think that closets are another one of those things where "more" doesn't necessarily equal "easier". Even though Cher had an awesome closet, she still had a hell of a time deciding what to wear every day!

Who didn't want Cher Horowitz's closet in the 1990s?

What I've learned about my closet and my clothing in the last year is this: the way to keep your closet under control is to closely monitor what goes into your closet - if you don't buy it, you don't have to worry about it! I've cut down on the things I buy by ensuring that the majority of new items adhere to one major rule: multi-seasonality!

Perfect example: I need a cardigan for summer; I also need a cardigan for winter. Why not choose a cardigan in a color close to neutral, and a style that can be worn alone (summer) or layered (winter)? The short-sleeved cardigan from Anthropologie above can be paired with shorts and a tank-top for a light summer look, or layered under a turtleneck for a warmer winter look. One piece, multiple ways. Now instead of needing 2 pieces, I've found a cute way to get by with just one.

I love love love patterned and embellished skirts, which are a little trickier to get so that they are wearable in both summer and winter. However, I've found that patterns using browns and lighter grays (as opposed to black and darker grays) as their neutral are more versatile for varying seasons. The example above is a brown and yellow skirt: for summer, play up the yellow and throw in a complementary color of accessories (I chose blue). For winter, play up the neutral tone, and work in the pattern's colors in the accessories. Again, I've found this works well with patterns that have lighter neutral tones, as opposed to the heavy black and dark gray that tends to scream "WINTER!" no matter what.

So when you're shopping, buy pieces that can be used in both summer and winter - you'll save space in your closet and keep more money in your pocket! Happy shopping!

Project 7: The Closet

This weekend was super eventful, which I'll post about later, but for now -- the closet! I've wanted a functional closet that was actually decently organized for awhile now, but with the lack of a dresser, it was really hard. So, with the completion (and now use) of the best dresser ever, I was able to make my closet organized, clean, and functional. Hooray!

Before:


After:


I basically took the huge thing of plastic drawers out, leaving one on the floor for my workout clothes (which I consolidated to one drawer in a previous poat), and then added a plastic sweater rack that holds my pants and yup, you guessed it, sweaters! I'm lucky that our apartment already had that really convenient shelf for my shoes. So now, my closet doors shut, everything has it's place, and we're all good! Hooray!

Project 6: The New Dresser!

So, I bought this sweet dresser from Costplus (when it was on sale, of course!) to coordinate with the nightstands. Even though I messed it up a little bit (the top is on backwards... oops!) it still looks MUCH MUCH better than the plastic drawers and tubs that Matt and I had each been using since college!



Isn't it pretty?



Just to prove that it's actually being used! Matt has the top two drawers and I have the bottom one. The drawers are HUGE, so I managed to fit everything from my old set of three plastic drawers into my one drawer on the bottom!

Project 5: The Workout Drawer

My task for this evening was figuring out what the heck was going on with my workout clothes drawer. Seriously, there are things in there from middle-school (which was over 10 years ago, ps). Well, anyway, you can't organize something if you don't know the extent of the problem, right? Well, above is the scariness that ensued when I lined it all up on my bedroom floor! That's right, you're looking at 7 pairs of basketball shorts. A like, 6 pairs of running shorts, 5 pairs of spandex, 2 running skirts, and 14 t-shirts. Yeah.

Haven't decided what I'm keeping yet and what needs to go... but I think I'm going to purge everything that's been in that drawer since high-school (which is less than half of it, so not that bad). I mean, all I really need is one workout outfit per day, right? :D

Project 4: The Books - Part One

I spent most of my weekend doing laundry and other things that don't necessarily require new organization (and really don't photograph well -- sorry, but no one's getting before and after shots of my mopped floor). This is mostly because Matt and I will be taking a trip for over a week, beginning next Saturday, and need to have things cleaned and in order because we'll be having a house guest immediately upon getting back!

So anyway, we've had three huge tubs of books cluttering up our "guest room" that I've been wanting to sort through and figure out. So, long and short of it was this: I made three piles - the first was an "I'm going to read this in the next year" pile, the second was "I either loved this book or it has super important sentimental value", and the third was for donation/reselling. Pile 2 is on the right, and Pile 3 is on the left (along with a ton of my DVDs that I really haven't watched since college).



And finally, Pile 1 went into the bottom of the nightstands that I put together last week. Since I do most of my reading in bed, I thought it'd be the best place.



Now I just need to figure out a place for Pile 2, and get the books from Pile 3 to Auntie's to resell.

Project 2: The Nightstands

One of the things that I've known for a while needed to be changed is the bedroom furniture, or lack thereof, that is currently in the condo. Our nightstands especially left something to be desired. Mine is the set of three plastic drawers ($15 at Target my first year of college!) that I've been using for over 5 years now - notice how everything is precariously stacked and falling off! Matt's is the black thing... I don't even know how to describe it.

Before



So after looking around at bedroom sets a little while we shopped for couches in late April/May, and constantly keeping my eye out for deals online, I managed to find these
on sale at Cost Plus World Market, complete with a free shipping offer. I'm a sucker for free shipping, lets be honest, and I oggle the dark wood stuff at World Market every time I'm there, so it was a no brainer!

After


Everything fits, and they look so much nicer too! I couldn't be happier.

Donation Time!

I'm a big believer in donating things to those in need. This goes especially for thrift stores that tend to employ people that would otherwise be out of a job, and use parts of their proceeds to support programs for the needy and impoverished. Collecting items from around the house to donate also serves as a wake-up call to myself by putting me in my place about my own materialism, and reminding me that I need to use my hard-earned money for better things than a fashionable pair of boots (from 6 years ago), etc.

So last night, I took the two bags pictured above to Value Village. They contained... about 1/3 of my wardrobe - just about everything in my closet that was purchased in or before 2004. I brought Matt with me, and he also donated 2 bags of stuff that he's had in the trunk of his car since we moved 4 months ago.

And then, as our reward for our good deed, we got delicious take-out Thai food and went o home to watch the Olympics and thunderstorm for the rest of the night. Hooray!