Hi Deborah! Chas always has the best answers! I find the hardest part of any project is just getting started! LOL! Removing everything and maybe even painting the closet a fun color always gets the project off to a great start! Good tunes playing loudly helps too! :)
I had someone come in for a quote on building a custom closet. My take-away from the experience is what is best is what is best for you.
You have to decide what gets stored in your closet. No one can do that for you. Then design the closet to hold the things you want in there. I am a fan of Closet Maid products. Generalized kits are available to suit the dimensions of your closet and all parts are available at Home Depot so you can make your closet do what you need. The components are sturdy, mostly metal, and in the big scheme are less expensive than having someone build a particle board closet for you.
Hi, Deborah. There are tons of tutorials on this. The answer for you will depend on your own layout, how much you have to store, and if you have a particular look you wish to go with. Before you start to take on this large project of the Big Purge, a simple "test" is to take everything off the rods and turn the hangers around backwards. Get three bins, paper bags, boxes, or what-have you, and put everything into one of three (or 4) piles - basic piles are 1, keep, 2 donate, and 3 discard. I had a 4th pile for fabric good for rags. If you have expensive items and the time and energy to manage it, you may want a "sell" pile instead of or in addition to a donate pile. Some items like scarves and purses and ties might also go into a pile for the playroom dress up box if you have little kids at home. Then as you wear the item and put it back, you will see fairly quickly what you actually do wear and don't wear. If you get an item out and put it on then have reasons you don't want to wear it so you change your clothes do NOT put that item back. You have established a donate or sell box: put the item you chose not to wear into that box. If you have to push past two purses to get to one you actually want, concider putting the items you passed up in a donate or sell box, too. After you've thinned the wardrobe through natural elimination, you can take on the "big purge." The first step is almost always to survey what you have. Get out anything that is still on the hanger backwards on the rod. Look at each and decide if it is something you need. Be ruthless. Just because you bought it and paid good money for it doesn't mean you have to continue to own it. Just because it was a gift to you doesn't mean you have to continue to own it. Just because you wore it to a special event doesn't mean you have to continue to own it. Okay, you might need a small pile for keepsakes, but only if you have room! Some criteria to help you sort items. If it is on the hanger backwards because it needs repair and you passed it up, Be honest. If you can not sit down and sew on the button or repair the seam that is giving out, and you are not willing or able to send it to a seamstress for repair, put it in a donate pile. If it really in bad shape, make it rags or discard it. Next, why have you passed it up? Bad fit, not flattering, so far out of style that is beyond retro, or just the wrong color? Donate or sell. Worn out? discard or rags. A piece you bought from the clearance rack b ecause it was beautiful and in case you are ever called to go to a cocktail party - be honest. If you need the space more than you need the dream, donate or sell. A little harder to decide are seasonal items. You may not have worn these items because you started in the spring, and the weather simply hasn't been cool enough. If you are not sure if you will wear this item again, try it on. If you are not sure, try them on. Not for the body you hope to have in 6 weeks when you do a juice cleanse or the body you had 6 years ago. Today. Does it fill an actual need? Do you like it? Feel good in it? Does it reflect you? Does it need repair? The answers to these will tell you which pile it belongs in. When you are done with the stuff still backwards on the hanger, start with the stuff you actually wear. You may be familiar enough with most of these to know without ever taking them off the hanger that you can leave them hanging. If you are not sure, try it on. Same as with those out of season items. Like? Fit? Re lect you? Need repair? Be ruthlessly honest with yourself. go though belts, hats, scarves, purses and shoes. Do NOT put shoes in your closet that hurt your feet. Life is too short for shoes that make me limp. If you share a closet, do this together. I've been married 40 plus years, and he doesn't care. He would wear the same shirt he had in college and the same three pairs of blue jeans ever day to any event, so I have to use my own sense of his style for him or this would never get done. Of course, he has only 5 shirts, 4 pair of blue jeans, two sports jackets and a pair of dress shirts and slacks, so it doesn't take long on his side. (: After the purge, is complete, get out of the way anything you are not going to keep. Get the donate items out to the car now so you don't pull a dress or two out because you might still be invited to the Whitehouse. If you ARE invited to the Whitehouse, buy something new. Clear out the rags/discards by putting them where you keep rags or actually discarding them now. The items you can sell need a home until you get that done. Set a deadline, and if you have not sold the item by the deadline, carry it to the car to donate. Now that you have space to work, get everything out of the closet and sort it according to season and use. Work clothes, weekend clothes, casual, etc. Whatever fits your life. I have "grubs/garden/paint/project" and "town" clothes. Your life is likely more elaborate than mine. Look at the space you have. You can start with paper bags and upgrade later to baskets, boxes, or other storage. I eventually got Closetmaid cubes and cloth boxes that fit the cubes for storing many items. I also got a shoe storage cube. I think it may have been designed to hold wine bottles, but it works for us. How much money you have to invest in storage, whether you can build your own shelving, and so on will be totally dependent on how you manage such tasks. You may want your shoes on display, which would have different solutions. Check pinterest or this website. Hometalkers come up with really cute and usefull solutions. My last bit of advice is keep the process going. When you hang up the "keep" items, put them backwards again. If at the end of a year, you haven't turned an item around, get down to why you kept it and whether you still need it. On the rags and sentimental items. Set a limit, and don't keep anything that doesn't fit into your limit. I have a bag of rags made from a pillow case in the house and one in the garage. If something doesn't fit into one of those two bags, I feel a bit bad, but I discard it. On the sentimental items, think about ways to possibly display and honor those items. The sweater granny made but you dont wear? Give it to someone who will wear it and wish them as much joy with it as Granny brought to your life, or possible keep a small bit of it to put in a scrap book, or make a pillow out of it. If you can't honor it or see it from time to time, why did you keep it? A button in my jewelry box is all the reminder I need to smile about the shirt I wore on my first date with my life's love all those years ago. Take good care, and remember it is not the stuff in your closet that makes you happy. It is the memories in your heart.
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I'm so excited to answer this one - I just did this to my closet a couple weeks ago and am so happy with the results. Here is a link to my posts and maybe some of my tips will help you - https://www.hometalk.com/diy/bedroom/closets/closet-organization-and-hacks-37469282?r=2
Closet Organization and Hacks
I use these shelves in my closet for folded sweaters and tops. See this site for picture https://www.walmart.com/cp/storage-organization/90828
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v_jUJSxF5E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v_jUJSxF5E
Hi Deborah! Chas always has the best answers! I find the hardest part of any project is just getting started! LOL! Removing everything and maybe even painting the closet a fun color always gets the project off to a great start! Good tunes playing loudly helps too! :)
I had someone come in for a quote on building a custom closet. My take-away from the experience is what is best is what is best for you.
You have to decide what gets stored in your closet. No one can do that for you. Then design the closet to hold the things you want in there. I am a fan of Closet Maid products. Generalized kits are available to suit the dimensions of your closet and all parts are available at Home Depot so you can make your closet do what you need. The components are sturdy, mostly metal, and in the big scheme are less expensive than having someone build a particle board closet for you.
Hi, Deborah. There are tons of tutorials on this. The answer for you will depend on your own layout, how much you have to store, and if you have a particular look you wish to go with. Before you start to take on this large project of the Big Purge, a simple "test" is to take everything off the rods and turn the hangers around backwards. Get three bins, paper bags, boxes, or what-have you, and put everything into one of three (or 4) piles - basic piles are 1, keep, 2 donate, and 3 discard. I had a 4th pile for fabric good for rags. If you have expensive items and the time and energy to manage it, you may want a "sell" pile instead of or in addition to a donate pile. Some items like scarves and purses and ties might also go into a pile for the playroom dress up box if you have little kids at home. Then as you wear the item and put it back, you will see fairly quickly what you actually do wear and don't wear. If you get an item out and put it on then have reasons you don't want to wear it so you change your clothes do NOT put that item back. You have established a donate or sell box: put the item you chose not to wear into that box. If you have to push past two purses to get to one you actually want, concider putting the items you passed up in a donate or sell box, too. After you've thinned the wardrobe through natural elimination, you can take on the "big purge." The first step is almost always to survey what you have. Get out anything that is still on the hanger backwards on the rod. Look at each and decide if it is something you need. Be ruthless. Just because you bought it and paid good money for it doesn't mean you have to continue to own it. Just because it was a gift to you doesn't mean you have to continue to own it. Just because you wore it to a special event doesn't mean you have to continue to own it. Okay, you might need a small pile for keepsakes, but only if you have room! Some criteria to help you sort items. If it is on the hanger backwards because it needs repair and you passed it up, Be honest. If you can not sit down and sew on the button or repair the seam that is giving out, and you are not willing or able to send it to a seamstress for repair, put it in a donate pile. If it really in bad shape, make it rags or discard it. Next, why have you passed it up? Bad fit, not flattering, so far out of style that is beyond retro, or just the wrong color? Donate or sell. Worn out? discard or rags. A piece you bought from the clearance rack b ecause it was beautiful and in case you are ever called to go to a cocktail party - be honest. If you need the space more than you need the dream, donate or sell. A little harder to decide are seasonal items. You may not have worn these items because you started in the spring, and the weather simply hasn't been cool enough. If you are not sure if you will wear this item again, try it on. If you are not sure, try them on. Not for the body you hope to have in 6 weeks when you do a juice cleanse or the body you had 6 years ago. Today. Does it fill an actual need? Do you like it? Feel good in it? Does it reflect you? Does it need repair? The answers to these will tell you which pile it belongs in. When you are done with the stuff still backwards on the hanger, start with the stuff you actually wear. You may be familiar enough with most of these to know without ever taking them off the hanger that you can leave them hanging. If you are not sure, try it on. Same as with those out of season items. Like? Fit? Re lect you? Need repair? Be ruthlessly honest with yourself. go though belts, hats, scarves, purses and shoes. Do NOT put shoes in your closet that hurt your feet. Life is too short for shoes that make me limp. If you share a closet, do this together. I've been married 40 plus years, and he doesn't care. He would wear the same shirt he had in college and the same three pairs of blue jeans ever day to any event, so I have to use my own sense of his style for him or this would never get done. Of course, he has only 5 shirts, 4 pair of blue jeans, two sports jackets and a pair of dress shirts and slacks, so it doesn't take long on his side. (: After the purge, is complete, get out of the way anything you are not going to keep. Get the donate items out to the car now so you don't pull a dress or two out because you might still be invited to the Whitehouse. If you ARE invited to the Whitehouse, buy something new. Clear out the rags/discards by putting them where you keep rags or actually discarding them now. The items you can sell need a home until you get that done. Set a deadline, and if you have not sold the item by the deadline, carry it to the car to donate. Now that you have space to work, get everything out of the closet and sort it according to season and use. Work clothes, weekend clothes, casual, etc. Whatever fits your life. I have "grubs/garden/paint/project" and "town" clothes. Your life is likely more elaborate than mine. Look at the space you have. You can start with paper bags and upgrade later to baskets, boxes, or other storage. I eventually got Closetmaid cubes and cloth boxes that fit the cubes for storing many items. I also got a shoe storage cube. I think it may have been designed to hold wine bottles, but it works for us. How much money you have to invest in storage, whether you can build your own shelving, and so on will be totally dependent on how you manage such tasks. You may want your shoes on display, which would have different solutions. Check pinterest or this website. Hometalkers come up with really cute and usefull solutions. My last bit of advice is keep the process going. When you hang up the "keep" items, put them backwards again. If at the end of a year, you haven't turned an item around, get down to why you kept it and whether you still need it. On the rags and sentimental items. Set a limit, and don't keep anything that doesn't fit into your limit. I have a bag of rags made from a pillow case in the house and one in the garage. If something doesn't fit into one of those two bags, I feel a bit bad, but I discard it. On the sentimental items, think about ways to possibly display and honor those items. The sweater granny made but you dont wear? Give it to someone who will wear it and wish them as much joy with it as Granny brought to your life, or possible keep a small bit of it to put in a scrap book, or make a pillow out of it. If you can't honor it or see it from time to time, why did you keep it? A button in my jewelry box is all the reminder I need to smile about the shirt I wore on my first date with my life's love all those years ago. Take good care, and remember it is not the stuff in your closet that makes you happy. It is the memories in your heart.
i think you already ask the question