Happy almost Friday, y’all! I’m coming at you from my closet with a post I never thought I would do in a million years. There are two (probably silly) reasons why I thought I wouldn’t share a peek into my happy place aka our closet.
First, I have never, ever, ever, ever been considered an organized, neat or clutter free person. My mom is probably going to pass out when she reads the title of this post! I am a hoarder, I hate to throw anything away, I am beyond guilty of ‘I’ll do it later’ syndrome and I usually spend a long time trying on outfits just for them to end up on the floor. If you haven’t gotten the picture yet, I am a clean person but I am not a tidy person. *Someone please say I’m not the only one?!
Second, I often feel we don’t have a ‘Pinterest’ worthy closet. Let me explain, I love our closet. I am so thankful for the size and shelves that were here when I moved in. There is plenty of room for my current season clothing + current season shoes & accessories. I am by no means complaining at all. However, compared to other celebrities and bloggers who are living in their forever homes may have a boutique style closet & more like the ones you see on Pinterest. I felt like people would not care to see my closet when they could look at lavish, rooms turned closets but then I remembered this is real life and hopefully a very helpful post for some.
Now, let’s get down to the (not so) dirty details!
I got super lucky when I met RJ. He is so organized. Seriously, you would laugh if you saw our pantry, no can or box out of place #EyeRoll. Dating him for over 5 years, this is one of the better traits that has rubbed off on me. I’ve learned life is easier when everything has it’s spot. You spend less time keeping things clean and more time living, having fun. Yes, Please!
Let’s start with the clothes. I keep all my dresses, rompers, skirts and jumpers hanging on one rack on the right side of my closet. On the left you have a rack with my blouses, jackets, sweaters- depending on the season, tees & tanks –these are dressier, I keep my ‘college’ tees and workout tanks somewhere else.
I keep everything in a certain order.
I do everything in the same color order no matter the item– Black, white, grey, blue, green, red, pink, orange, yellow, brown. I will add odd colors in-between, i.e. turquoise between green & blue or coral between red & pink, etc.
For the right rack: Following the color code, I start with black rompers, then black tank dresses, black short sleeve dresses, followed by black long sleeve dresses. Next I repeat the order with each color. Once I finish this I move on to jumpers (long rompers), maxi dresses and then skirts. Since I don’t wear skirts as much, I double them up on hangers to save space.
For the left rack: I follow a similar order. Starting with black I do tanks, tees, and then long sleeve tees or sweatshirts. I repeat this with all the colors. I keep my dressier shirts and blouses out though and then I repeat with those starting at black sleeveless blouses, black short sleeve blouses, black long sleeve blouses etc. Repeat with all the colors. I like to keep them separate from my ‘laid back’ clothing because it’s easier to find what I’m looking for. I finish this rack with my jackets, following the same color code!
So, now we have shorts, pants, jeans and workout clothes left!
For shorts: Once again, these are my casual and dressy shorts. I keep my Nike & PJ shorts in a dresser in our bedroom. I have two piles on the shelf above my dresses. In the first pile, I keep all my color shorts. I stack them by color but I keep my denim shorts on top. I wear these the most so they are easy to grab. In the second pile, I keep all my neutral shorts. I also stack these by color but keep my white shorts on top, they’re my favorite shorts I own so I like to be able to grab them quickly.
For pants & jeans: Next to my shorts, I keep two piles of pants and jeans. In the first pile, I keep my pants and white jeans. The other pile I keep jeans. I hardly ever wear these in the Summer but I like to have them around, just in case.
For Workout Clothes: I used to keep my leggings and tanks in my dresser with my pajamas, nike shorts and ‘college’ tees but when I moved in we moved RJ’s old furniture to the guest room and bought new bedroom furniture. As a bribe compromise for new furniture, I gave Babe extra drawers in the dresser. I now keep two baskets on the floor under my dresses, one has two piles: my pajama pants and my leggings. The other basket holds all my workout tanks. This is a great storage solution if you don’t have much dresser space because it keeps things neat, tidy and out of the way while still easily accessible!
One of my biggest tips for keeping your clothes in order is to remove your hanger every time you wear something. It will help keep your racks free from clutter of empty hangers + when it’s time to put away laundry, you won’t have to go searching for the hanger. If you don’t have a free spot to hang them, try placing them at the front of your rack or in a basket in the closet.
Now, on to the fun stuff.. Accessories!
I definitely think I have a problem when it comes to shopping accessories. I love how they can change any outfit and work so well with different pieces. It’s no surprise that sorting them all and finding places to store them was a little difficult.
For Shoes: When I moved in RJ originally gave me the spot in the picture above for all my clothes and accessories.. LOL!! After some negotiating I equally split the closet between the two of us. I definitely told him to move it when it came to this shoe rack! I’m lucky to have ample storage for my shoes but if you are a little tight I suggest buying a huge plastic storage box and storing pairs you don’t wear as often under your bed! If you do have shelf space, I like to keep mine separated by style of shoe (flats together, tennis shoes together, heels together, wedges together), I also like to separate by color.
For Bags & Hats: I suggest keeping bags in their dust bag, which is something I’m bad about. Since I’m often pulling bags to shoot or changing between totes to clutches for events, I find it annoying constantly using dust bags. You can’t see because it’s covered in hats but we have a very long hook system on the wall. It has around 14 hooks total. I use these hooks to hold my crossbody bags and then I place the hats on the hooks over the bags. I use my very top shelf for duffles and bags I don’t carry every day. I place clutches, wallets and smaller cross bodies in one of my bigger bags on the shelf. I bought this side table from Target (it’s only $25!) and I place my most used bags on it. Also from Target, I have the wooden wall attachment that holds my most used clutches and wallets + hooks to hang my scarves and bandanas. I also keep my headbands in here!
This side table seems unimportant but I really don’t know what I would do without it. I mentioned this above for the bags but it also holds a small bin where I keep camisoles, slips and our steamer. Behind that bin, I keep a box of jewelry that I hardly ever wear. Most of it is costume jewelry for actual costumes (I love them parties!!). Under the table I keep my beach bag and a plastic bag where I’ll place clothes that no longer fit or that I find I don’t ever wear, then at the end of each month I’ll take this bag to be donated. I also use it as a step stool to reach my top shelf. It keeps me from just tossing things, messily, onto the shelf.
One part of our closet that I do want to change is our hangers! We registered for new hangers recently and I cannot wait until they all match. Not only will this make it easier for us to see everything in our closet, it will also look much neater and put together. You cannot beat the price on the plastic hangers though, we grabbed this pack of 20 hangers for $2 at Dollar General! I think wanting new hangers means we’re officially growing up, ha!
I know this is a lot of information at once, I hope it helps some! Please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have. It’s not a perfect system but it’s very easy once you get it in place. Putting away laundry is my least favorite in the world, anything that makes it a little shorter or easier is a Yes, Please! in my book.
If you like organization posts, I can share more! Next week I’ll be sharing tips and tricks for using every inch of your house to it’s fullest potential while still keeping it stylish. I hope you have a great Thursday, just remember tomorrow is FriYAY!
Ps. I’m linking some of my favorite pieces below but if you want the link for something specific, please let me know!
Pps. Today is the first day of the #Nsale or Nordstrom anniversary sale, where you can get brand new Summer and Fall items discounted — think Tory Burch boots $200, designer bags up to 40% off and more! I’ll be pulling my favorites for you all week, no worries. 😉
