Adding a Second Closet Rod and Hacks for Purging!

He moved from a HUGE amount of closet space in his old house which let him just keep adding…

…never having to get rid of a single item…

HE HAS A LOT OF CLOTHES LOL.

I am aware that not everyone (maybe not most people actually) enjoys purging and organizing as much as I do…

Ever since he moved in though he’s been meaning to go through his clothes and do some purging.

With us tackling the master bedroom it seemed an ideal time to take out two birds with one stone. His master closet needed to be emptied so I could add another closet rod so, perfect time to do some purging!

A couple of years ago I found amazing cloth storage bins on Amazon. (I wanted to empty out the guest bedroom dresser for other storage and also to open up a drawer or two for guests.)

These bins are huge, tough and they’re only $20 for three of them.

I just used one in my own closet actually.

I stashed away all of my wraps, high heals, fancy clothes, skirts, dresses and the few articles of clothing I’m keeping for sentimental reasons. Its all still on hand in our crawl space but there was just NO REASON for any of that to be taking up space in my daily life (or on my own closet rod) when I almost never wear any of it.

A great tip I heard to help purge clothes: Flip all of your hangers around at the beginning of the year and then, after you wear a piece of clothing, make sure its hanger is flipped the other way when you put it back.

In a few months you can see at a glance just how much of your closet you’re actually even wearing!

We live in northern MN and our weather can easily swing from -40 to +100 over a year’s time so I think it goes without saying we’re going to own more clothing than people who live in milder places…

(I know several folks who lack closet space so they literally bin up and store either their winter or summer wardrobes depending on the time of the year.)

Lodi and I both have Day Job Clothes, Work on the House Clothes, Look Nice Going Out Clothes, Be Comfortable Going Out Clothes, Sleep Clothes and the dreaded Saving For a Funeral and / or REALLY Need to Look Nice and Respectable Clothes and we have clothes in all of those categories that will work in either -40 or +100 degrees…

Not to mention we also have clothes we’re holding on to for sentimental reasons that we will NEVER wear so why on earth are they taking up space for what we DO wear?!

And I think we all tend to have a few pieces we wear most of the time and any extra clothes after that just take up space.

I lowered the first closet rod to 44 inches above the floor.

I used closet rod hangers and was able to put them into studs so I didn’t need to use sheetrock anchors.

Lodi really liked the shelf in his closet for pants so I gave him an even deeper board to accommodate that.

Ready to fill his closet up!

But first, time to purge!

Lodi asked for my help with going through his clothes so I met him armed with a big black garbage bag and one of our cloth storage bins.

I set him at the opposite end of the room and held one article of clothing up at a time.

I believe I learned this tip from the show Hoarders: When purging DO NOT TOUCH IT if you want to be objective.

He had three answer options, “Wear it (pile on the bed), Keep it (in the bin for long term storage) or Donate it (black garbage bag).”

He also had my total support to not get rid of a darned thing if he didn’t feel like it – I am not a slave driver lol.

In the end he filled two garbage bags to donate and an entire bin for long term keeping. He eliminated over HALF of the hanging storage space he had previously needed and now has an excuse to even buy himself a couple of new shirts lol.

One thing I struggle with myself when purging is if its still “good” it seems terrible to get rid of it – especially if it was expensive.

However, when it comes to clothing I have broken my frugal ways because if I don’t like it the fact is I WON’T WEAR IT no matter how much I paid for it. And I think that’s true of just about everyone!

I keep a garbage bag by my closet.

If I put on an article of clothing and hate it for ANY reason – then it goes in the bag.

It does not pass go.

It does not get to collect $200.

It goes directly in the bag.

Once the bag is full I tie it up and donate it the next day.

I am not allowed to look in the bag or touch anything in the bag.

Its a system that works great for me!

Another thing I do too is I force myself to purge a very old article of clothing for any piece I want to add. I also have just so many hangers and won’t buy myself more lol.

(I also found wonderful velvet hangers I splurged on last year and I totally love them.)

Besides the added hanging space in his closet he also “adopted” the  old ladder I had upcycled years ago. With the makeover of our master / second floor happening I moved the ladder here to change up my own closet, having no idea it would be so useful to him.

I’ll add hooks down the side of it so he has storage for hats besides the great storage he has now for belts.

Lodi no longer needs any space down in the guest bedroom both because of the awesome job he did purging and also because of the second closet rod now too.

Another perk is that now, with the guest bedroom closet empty, there’s space in there to add a small television for guests too and all of Lodi’s clothes are finally in one spot!