Makeover
might be a strong term for what we actually accomplished. But after living with the mess that was our
master closet since we moved, it felt like a makeover to us!
When
we moved the main objective was merely to get the clothes in a closet. No rhyme or reason as to how, things were
just hung on the rod and we went with it.
It didn’t take long for my patience to run out with our current system
but I simply had to bide my time to rectify the issue. I read several articles, blog posts and
organizational gurus ideas about how to organize a closet before I began. Originally I had big dreams for color
coordinating the different sections but as I looked at the grand scheme of things, and thought about myself I realized that would not work for me.
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pre-makeover
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pre-makeover
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The
first step though was to take everything out of the closet. Every hanger, basket, shoe, belt and scarf
was strewn about the bedroom. As I
looked at the sheer amount of clothing we owned I was more than a little
overwhelmed. I sorted the clothes into
two piles. One pile was all of Coach
Husband’s clothes for him to sort through.
The other pile was all mine.
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clothes on clothes on clothes
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I
looked at each piece objectively and asked myself three questions:
1) Do you love this piece?
2) How often do you wear this
piece?
3) Will you miss it if it is
not a part of your closet in the future?
If
two out of the three were a negative response it went into the discard
pile. If I answered positively to the
majority of the questions it went back into the closet. Instead of color coding I organized my closet
by type. A section of dresses, sub
categorized into maxis and shorter dresses, skirts, work pants, jeans, long
sleeved shirts, short sleeved, sleeveless and then my game day shirts. Yes, there is a section in my closet
dedicated to game-day attire. Such is
the #coachswifelife.. Formalwear was a
separate category at the very back of CH’s side of the closet.
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skirts ,dresses, pants & jeans
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shirts & game-day attire
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I
also am very picky about my hangers. I
despise metal hangers with a passion and it does not help my hatred that Coach
feels those are the solution to all issues.
The man had three to four pairs of khakis on a metal hanger. The horror cannot accurately be described
using words. I threw away all metal
hangers and replaced any attire that were previously hanging on metal on
studier hangers. One day I hope to have
all my clothes on the same time of hanger.
Sadly that is not a reality quite yet.
Once
I finished with my clothing I moved on to accessories. Scarves, shoes, and belts were tucked into
new baskets {that match!} and placed on the top shelf. Summer shorts and swimsuits were also tucked
away in a basket on the top shelf. I
found a precious hook rail during a
random Target run that CH installed to hang my monogrammed baseball hats &
favorite beach hat on.
Then
came the biggest challenge of all.
Having CH wade through his things.
CH hates to get rid of things. We
are talking the man still owns undershirts from when he was in high
school. While I appreciate his ability
to stretch a piece of clothing there are things that moved from his parents
house, to a college dorm, back to his parents, into two different apartments,
across multiple states for graduate school, and through two moves as married
people. Of all those times, I have never
seem him wear these items and some even still have the tags on them! My large discard pile must have inspired him
though! The man was chunking items
faster than I could keep up! We moved
things from the terrible hangers of death to nicer hangers and I categorized
his side of the closet in a way that works for him. He found several pairs of colored khakis I
had bought him long ago for work that he hadn’t seen all year with great
glee. His students are going to think he
received a whole new wardrobe for Christmas.
He topped off his closet clean out by going through the overwhelming number
of beanies, baseball hats and outerwear that comes from playing for a Division
1 football team and being a graduate assistant at another. He gets some major props for having a
cheerful heart and letting go of items!
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CH’s side
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CH’s side
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Once
everything we were keeping was placed back in the closet I turned my attention
to the discard pile. We have two
different stores in town that “buy” your gently used clothing. I sorted items into a pile for each store I
thought might purchase ad then a separate pile that was strict donate. CH took the sell backs and received some cash
that we will turn around and use for “fun money” in the coming months. Anything that the stores did not take we
added to the donate pile which was dropped off this morning. Finally CH fixed the light fixture that has
been out since the day after we moved in.
Eventually we will replace the fluorescent monstrosity with a chandelier
we found hiding in the attic when we moved in.
CH said that was a job for when my Daddy was in town because me “helping
with wiring” makes him nervous.
I
was so inspired by the makeover I actually ironed all of the clothing that has
been sitting in a laundry basket for almost 2.5 years of marriage that
afternoon. Maybe I will convince Coach I
would make a pretty good stay at home wife/mom yet.
Biggest
take away from this project? If there is
a part of your home you aren’t loving, take the time to envision what you do
want it to look like and go for it! I
could have easily put this project off or done a halfway job but the end result
was well worth the total of six hours (3 for clean out/organization and 3 for
ironing…) it took to compete the task.
The closet is now one of our favorite places to be.
Till next time y’all,
