Organize Your Closet
This week, you can
• Clean out and reorganize your closet
• Make a space for your soon-to-arrive maternity wardrobe
• Designate items for charity donation and/or giving to friends
CLOTHING TENDS TO BE an emotional issue
for most women. I often see clients hanging onto multiple-sized
wardrobes in the same closet. Hormones can cause some women’s bodies to
blow up and shrink down faster than tires in a tack factory. And that’s
just during menses or after a heavily salted meal! Now your body is
expanding for a different reason. This is the perfect time to clean out
the space so it will be easier to use for the next year or so.
After your pregnancy, even if you return to the
exact same weight you were before, it’s likely that your body is going
to redistribute your weight differently. So it might be time to take a
second look at those teeny tiny T-shirts you’ve been saving since
college. We need to make room for a fabulous new wardrobe. In a few
weeks’ time, we’ll tackle the rest of the bedroom. You’ll have a true
sanctuary by the time your baby comes home from the hospital.
STEP ONE: GETTING READY
First things first: see if a girlfriend (who
isn’t pregnant) can volunteer to help be your hands and feet today.
Don’t feel guilty if you need to sit down during this process. You’ve
got the toughest part to play: making decisions.
It doesn’t help if you are ready to let go and
your partner isn’t. You’ve got to make unfettered decisions about your
stuff. Let me say that again for emphasis: your stuff. No one should toss another person’s things without permission unless the person in question is five or under.
It’s time to gather your supplies and get started.
You’ll want several heavy-duty garbage bags to hold clothes for
donation as well as items to be tossed. Most people also find things
that need to be returned to loved ones and friends. And of course we’re
likely to encounter a few items that were surely meant to live elsewhere
in the home. Set aside a few hours one day for eliminating and
distribution; a few hours of shopping on another day to pick up any
supplies you need; and a final day to put the pieces of the puzzle
together. You can also shop online or send a friend out to shop for you.
Be sure you have healthy snacks on hand and lots of water. If you are
feeling at all nauseous, be sure the food isn’t highly aromatic.
DAY ONE: ELIMINATE & CATEGORIZE
You have two main objectives today. You want to
create space in the front of your closet for the maternity clothes you
need to purchase. (I’ll have guidelines for you next week covering every
aspect of the process: shopping, borrowing, and of course organizing.)
And you need to keep nearby the items that will serve you from your
current wardrobe until you get to the “final expansion.” Think billowy
sundresses, for example. Your other objective is to get the clothing
that you weren’t even wearing before you became pregnant out of the
house. You don’t want to live with the clutter. Nor do you want to be
tempted to sneak a few items back into the closet. Trust your instincts.
The most creative and expansive step in the Magic
Formula (eliminate, categorize, organize) is eliminating. Don’t be
surprised if you’re more tired than you anticipated when you’re done
today. It won’t be from the physical labor involved. Decision making
wears all of my clients out. It’s an important skill to have and there’s
no better time to practice than today in your closet.
Of course the Magic Formula isn’t just about
tossing things out permanently or setting them aside for several months.
It’s also about putting the items you are keeping back in your closet
in related categories. When I teach the Magic Formula in my seminars, I
always use the closet as an example because we all have at least one and
clothing categories are pretty universal. To wit: tops, sweaters,
jeans, slacks, suits, shoes, and so on. Wondering how to make the
clothing categories functional and beautiful? Read on! I’ve got the tips
and tricks professional organizers use listed below.
Before we start, an important note. Do not remove
items on hangers. If you pile them on your bed, you will only succeed
in wrinkling the ones that return to the closet.
Immediately pull off and throw away the plastic
covers that have come home from the cleaners. They seal in the
chemicals, some of which may be carcinogenic. You don’t want to breathe
in those chemicals the next time you wear that item, especially if it
has been covered for several months.
Now look for empty hangers and remove them all.
Throw away the cheap wire ones that come home from the cleaners with
you. They destroy clothing over time.
Next, I want you to work one section of your closet at a time. Mark off about a foot
of hanging clothes with your eyes and pretend that whatever hangs in
that area is all your closet holds. Look at one item at a time. Most
things you will have an immediate reaction to; when you aren’t sure, ask
yourself some questions. When was the last time I wore this? Is it
still in style? Does it look good on me? Does it represent a special
time now past?
There are organizers who will tell you the “rule”
is to toss one item when you purchase something new. Still others will
say if you haven’t worn something in six months or a year, it should go.
I think these rules are arbitrary. If they work for you, that’s great.
Use them. But the reason you haven’t worn something is usually
lodged in something emotional. You can make a better decision if you
figure what bonds you to this item. If it’s an experience or a special
time in your life, for example, do you have a photo of yourself in the
item? Why not put that photo in a scrapbook or a small shadow box
instead. Attach a swatch of the fabric. You’ll have a fitting memento
without clogging up your closet.
Items that are frayed, hopelessly out of style, torn, or stained should go into the trash bag immediately.
Items that are decade-specific and in good
condition can be donated to the local community theater (gigantic
shoulder pads or wide bell-bottoms, anyone?)
After you are finished with the hanging clothes,
go through your shoes. This is usually a big task for most women. Be
fearless when it comes to eliminating items like sky-high heels. Your
feet are likely to grow larger over the course of your pregnancy. And
unless you are in politics, the entertainment industry, or the upper
echelons of business, glamorous evenings out are probably over for a few
years. They will be replaced by days at the park and the zoo. Hang on
to the shoes that offer good support.
The next big category in your closet will be
handbags. Do you really need twelve black purses? You’re on a roll.
Don’t hold back now!
Most women have large sweater and scarf
collections, especially if they live in a four-season climate. Check for
moth holes, stains, and other signs of wear. If you have expensive
cashmere, consider taking some items to a tailor for repair. If these
are inexpensive garments that are past their prime, pass them on to a
charity. By the way, if you don’t already have a favorite charity, call
around and see if there is a women’s shelter in your city. You’ll be
helping someone start a new life.
If you have been working in corporate America,
you probably have a collection of suits. Are you going back to work soon
after the birth? If you plan to take several years off, consider
donating your suits to Dress for Success. You will help a woman enter
the workforce by giving her a beautiful suit to wear for her interview.
When you are ready to return to work in a few years, you’ll probably
want a new wardrobe. Save one or two suits at most if you have several.
After clothing has been eliminated for charity
donation or set aside for friends and family, you can start
categorizing. Go back to your closet and look at the items you wish to
keep but know you won’t fit into for quite some time. You might as well
put these away for a bit. You need the space for that maternity wardrobe
you’ll be creating soon. Space bags are a wonderful way to store these
things. Place your clothes in the bag and suck out the air with a vacuum
cleaner. Your clothing will literally shrink before your eyes. When you
need them again, just open the bag. It has the same type of closure as a
zip-top food storage bag. Voila! Nothing has been ruined. It has been
waiting to serve you again.
There are space bags that hang in the closet and
others that are flat and can be stuffed on a high shelf. The only item
that doesn’t work well in a space bag is one that is designed to “puff
up.” Think comforters and pillows and you’ll get the idea.
Alternatively, if you are blessed with a large
walk-in closet, you might simply store items you wish to keep but won’t
be using in the far back. Perhaps you have a large home with a guest
room closet you can commandeer for this purpose?
STORING OTHER ITEMS
In the best of all possible worlds, no closet
would house anything except clothing. In reality, I usually find a
mishmash of all sorts of items. The most common are fans, small weights,
memorabilia, and photos. What’s a new mom to do? If there is no other
logical place for such items to be located, store them in your closet as
discreetly as possible. Most closets have a huge space between one
existing shelf and the ceiling. Create a second shelf by placing a brace
on each side and laying a piece of lumber across. Your local home store
will cut the lumber to your specifications. You can leave it plain,
cover it with decorative contact paper, stain it, or paint it. I vote
for plain. This high shelf will enable you to put miscellaneous items
away until you are ready to deal with them.
Try and break the “I’ll just shove this here”
syndrome. It’s not something you want to teach your child. Rather,
cultivate the art of making decisions. Use the Magic Formula when
deciding the fate of every item that enters the home. Ask yourself, “Do I
really need this?” If the answer is “Yes,” the next question is “Do I
have other related items?” When you identify the right category, work
the new item into the system. It seems huge to you now because it’s a
new way of thinking. Give it a few weeks and you’ll find it will become
quite simply how you process information, whether it’s a new purchase,
the incoming mail, or that thingamajig in the back of your closet.
REGINA’S TOP 12 CLOSET ORGANIZING TRICKS
What do professional organizers do in a closet? I’m going to give you our top
secrets to help you make your closet more functional and beautiful.
Decide which ones you’d like to employ. If a purchase is necessary, The
Container Store is my favorite source for products (and I’m not a paid
spokesperson!). First, their quality is outstanding. If you purchase
cheap or flimsy products, you’re going to have to replace things
frequently, and over time you’ll be wasting money. Second, if you
discover you need more of a particular item, you can bet The Container
Store will still carry it in six months or a year. A mishmash of
organizing tools in a closet can make it as crazy as an unorganized one.
Here, in no particular order, are a few of my favorite things when it comes to closets.
1. Use one type of hanger throughout the closet
for uniformity and visual appeal. Wood hangers do the least harm to your
clothes. There are other great choices: hangers (originally from the
Home Shopping Network and now in stores) that have a sticky fabric that
prevents garments from falling off, tubular hangers, and thin, clear
plastic ones.
2. Face your clothes in the same direction,
preferably facing the door if it’s a walk-in closet. This is how
department stores make their apparel appealing and easy to find.
3. Group related items: Shirts, slacks, jeans,
suits, and shoes all go together. This cuts down on time when you know
what type of garment you need.
4. Arrange all groups in color order. This gives
the closet a restful appearance and makes finding items within a
category a snap. If something isn’t where you expect it, try the laundry
or the dry cleaners. I use the following order: white/off white;
beige/brown; blue/ purple; pink/red; yellow/green; gray/ black.
5. If you really want a closet that looks like a
pro did it, within the colors arrange by “style.” For example, with
blouses I do sleeveless, short sleeved, then long. I keep patterns
behind solids. If your head just exploded at the idea of giving this
much attention to clothing detail, don’t worry. Just keep those colors
together!
6. Shoes need to be off the floor. Over-the-door
canvas shoe bags are great for sneakers and exercise shoes. Expanding
shoe racks are great for shoes with any kind of a heel. Those evening
shoes you’re going to save for the next time you get to dress up like
Cinderella can go into an acrylic shoe drawer and sit on a high shelf.
Or, if you have several pairs, you can stack several shoe drawers on the
floor of your closet.
7. Avoid hangers that hold multiple pairs of
slacks. When you are in a hurry, you will reach for one and three will
fall to the floor.
8. Sweaters can be stored in stacks on the shelf
or in acrylic sweater drawers. Some people like sweater bags. If you go
that route, be sure you get the ones with a clear front so you don’t
have to unzip the bag to view the contents.
9. There’s a wonderful item called a shelf
divider that will keep your categories separated. But you need a wooden
shelf to snap it onto!
10. I like my purses lined up in color order and
I use tissue paper so they keep their shape. I keep the tissue inside a
cloth bag (the kind that some shoes and many purses come with). The
tissue goes in and out in one piece.
11. If you don’t have a light in the closet, try
one or two of the battery-operated, portable lights you can stick on
the wall. It’s so important to be able to see your clothes. And if you
are blessed with a light, use a good-sized bulb. Black and blue look an
awful lot alike in a dim light!
12. Finally a word about closets with sliding
doors. They are a nightmare, aren’t they? You would best be served to
remove the doors and put up a simple bamboo shade. You can lower it when
you expect company and keep it up the rest of the time. This will give
you added incentive to stay organized as the closet contents are clearly
on display. If you must keep the sliding doors, arrange your clothes in
the order you put them on. That way you won’t be returning to a section
over and over. Each door will slide once.
PUT THE PUZZLE TOGETHER
I’ve had many clients walk in to see their newly
organized closets and burst into tears. They tell me they wish they
could sleep that night in the closet because it’s the most restful place
in their home. It may sound lofty, but you’ll have the same reaction
when you have followed these simple directions. Again, please do ask
someone to come and help you. This project is exhausting even when you
aren’t pregnant.
But in a few months when
your baby has arrived and you need to move like greased lightning,
you’ll be so grateful you took the time to organize your closet. The
time you save will quickly outstrip the time you spent working on this
project. And there’s another perk hidden in this project. Children
aren’t born organized. They learn the skill from their parents. You will
organize your child’s closet using the same guidelines and techniques.
And she’ll just naturally grow up an organized person. Now doesn’t that
just make you want to jump up and switch out hangers?
