If At First You Don’t Succeed, ReDo!

Oh, these autumn days, filled with bits of sunshine, warmth, light breezes, cool evenings… I do love autumn – it’s one of my favorite times of year! It probably has to do with the many wonderful colors of the changing leaves, being able to dress in layers, and of course, all the wonderful fun holidays and events that happen, like Halloween and Thanksgiving. It’s a great time to go through your closets and drawers for the semi annual wardrobe swap out, from Spring/Summer to Fall/Winter. It’s also the perfect time to reevaluate what you have in your wardrobe, deciding what stays and what goes while you swap out for your seasonal favorites. Funny enough, as I’ve also just discovered doing my own swap out, it’s the apropos moment to assess how you store your clothes, and if you’re using your space efficiently while maximizing your existing storage units, drawers, spaces and facilities. Let me tell you what I mean…

When I moved into my loft in July, I was pretty well set on how I was going to store my things. I mean, it was a much smaller space compared to where I moved from and I was fully aware that I would be downsizing my belongings, wardrobe, and other unessential items in my life. But what I’ve come to realize – and this is something I feel is pretty universal – is that when you move into a new space, you have a preconceived idea or notion where things should go in your rooms: where you put your dressers and how you fill them; where you store your kitchen items for easy access; how your fill your linen closet with towels, bedding, and bathroom needs. This is all very well and good, but the funny thing I’ve realized is that once we put our things in their various storage places, we leave them there: we don’t ever (or rarely) revisit the HOW and WHY we inventory our belongings the way we do initially, and we never consider – or reconsider – IF there’s a better way to do it that give us more space, more efficiency, or helps us to pare down the unnecessary things we’ve accumulated. I know we all get to a point where we know we need to go through our stuff, get rid of junk and reevaluate all our belongings – I speak from experience – so I went through my own questioning of the WHY’S and HOW’S I squirrel away my cache and collections the way I do, and if I could find a better use of my closet and drawer space in ways that made more sense, gave me more room (or at least what felt like more room), and had a logical approach to my daily comings and goings.

During the downsizing of my old space to my new, I really did get rid of tons of clothes – nearly half or more of my wardrobe! Of course, being a clothes horse, much of it was duplicative, trendy, or unnecessary in one way or another. So getting rid of all the excess wasn’t that tough of a thing for me. However, once I took what I kept and tried to incorporate it into my new space – my new closet structure – it was definitely a bit challenging. But I took this challenge as an opportunity, and I started to figure out what I had, how I used it, and what would make sense for me in my new space. I took my various clothing genres (work clothes, jeans, t-shirts (short leave and long), sweaters, work outwear, lounge wear, shoes, etc.) and tried to figure out how I wore them, how I accessed them and what my day/week/month looked like as I utilized various garments from the lists. I realized, quite shockingly, that I was spending more time and taking more steps to get myself put together in the mornings for work or weekends, and that this time wasting habit carried over into how I stored and utilized my clothes, my soft goods, my kitchen accessories – pretty much everything! So just this past weekend, amid a busy and frenetic schedule, I deemed it important to retackle my closet and drawers head on and find a way to make things work better, more efficiently, and less… well, just less stuff! Another Purge! What fun!

My closet is pretty basic: three walls, some pre-installed Rubber Maid shelves on two of them, and that’s about it. To make more room, I added an additional shelf to the third wall, adjacent to the existing shelves, and purchased a three bin laundry system that has an ironing board surface, which I stored to the immediate right of the closet entry, so it’s easily accessed for both filling with dirty laundry and emptying when it’s time for the wash. I filled the bottom section of the far wall across from the entrance with shoe cubbies and shoe shelves storage units (and I proceeded to fill every bit of space there!). For my pants and slacks I purchased hangers that hold 5 pairs vertically per unit – I use these for my pants I don’t wear so often – giving me a bit more horizontal hanging space for other items. I took my jeans and delineated them by color (dark to light) and weight (lighter to heavier) and stacked them closer to the closet entrance as I’m most likely to wear them more often. I hung my sport coats and dress shirts toward the back as, like the pants and slacks, I’m less likely to war them, putting my polo shirts and short sleeve shirts closer to the front for easier access. Once I was able to add in my down vests and some track jackets, I found I had extra vertical space for a hanging canvas cubby for my my shorts and running gear. Now mind you, in the process of playing with my space, I was also able to downsize things along the way, revisiting my clothes during this reorganization to see what I could live without. Lo and behold, I found at least 2 boxes worth of items I no longer needed! And even make additional storage for luggage! What a great outcome! But this was only the beginning…

My closet success then led me to my drawers – another untapped source of organizational fun! While rearranging the closet, I decided to see if some of the things I previously had in the closet would work better in my dressers, and if things in my dressers could be downsized and rearranged to accommodate the things from the closet. Sure enough, all it took was some elbow grease, a few second guesses and a lot of refolding, and I was able to better utilize my closet AND dressers for my clothes, my life and the patterns I live, and how I relate to my time and space in my home. T-shirts, socks, underwear, belts, and all the things I keep in my drawers were now living along side things from the closet, like long sleeve t-shirts and sweaters. Really, it doesn’t sound like much but I’m telling you, I was able to streamline my storage, downsize my clothes, and give my home a sense of better organization and storage. I gotta tell ya, it was a great feeling, and now that my clothing situation is sorted out, my linens are next! Stay tuned for that ReDo!