It’s that time of the week again! Time to delve into my battered paperback copy of Hints from Heloise to find more useful tips and tricks.
This week, we’ll tackle the closet.
Heloise writes:
I had a funny thought the other day: What did folks do before someone came up wiuth the idea of closets? A friend of mine had the answer: “It’s not what they did — it’s what they didn’t… they didn’t worry about what their closets looked like.”
Isn’t it the truth?
So true. Heloise then goes on to suggest cleaning out one’s closet. Be ruthless, she says. Chuck out everything that doesn’t fit, ones that aren’t in style anymore, or things that you bought with the idea of wearing — but then realized it wasn’t such a great idea.
That’s the part I have trouble with. I’ve got so many clothes I have some kind of emotional attachment to. Generally it’s just my t-shirts. I have shirts from high school still. Yes, folks, I still have my t-shirt that I made for my Odyssey of the Mind competition in 1992. I’ve got my shirts from the various theatre productions of which I was a part in high school, including Oliver! and South Pacific, not to mention the fall One-Act Festival from when I was a senior. That is one of my favorite shirts, too, a long-sleeved black tee with the productions listed on the front in white. I also have two t-shirts from my residence hall my freshman year in college — one that says, “Looking for a good time? Go down on First East.” Heh. The other has a caricature of everyone from First East on the back. I love that one not only for its sentimental value, but also because it’s a ringer tee, and there is nothing I love better than a ringer tee. My real mom accidentally bleached it, however, which means the bands around the neck and sleeves are no longer navy blue. They’re now tan.
I don’t seem to have that attachment to pants or dresses. Maybe it’s because I express myself more through my shirts than through my jeans. And I hardly ever wear dresses. Why do I need to, as a stay-at-home mom?
OK, so now you have gone through your clothes. What next?
Hang them up neatly! Heloise suggests:
Hang all the short things — blouses, jackets, shirts — together. Hey, look what’s under them — more found space. You can fill it in with a small chest of drawers for accesssories and odds and ends. Or, if you’re organizing a his-her closet, you can install a second clothes rod and hang his jackets above her blouses.
Finally, hang your long clothes — coats, robes, etc.
Doesn’t everything look neat and nifty. Isn’t that closet lots bigger than you thought?
Let’s tackle the clothes rod!
From Alabama: “Take a few extra second to rub a bit of wax on the clothes rod and you’ll find hangers can be pushed back and forth along it lots easier.”
Well, that helps! But I think we have plastic rods, so it’s not that big of a deal for us.
Oh! Do you have a lot of purses/handbags? I have quite a few, but I let them stack up in my coat closet. I guess I shouldn’t do that. Heloise has a solution, though:
From Illinois: “I drove four small-headed nails in my closer wall and placed an empty thread spool over each. I then painted the spools to match the wall and hung my purses over the spools. This saves storage space and also looks very neat.”
That’s a great idea, if you have empty spools. I do, since I sew, but I don’t expect everyone to have that. You could also use wine corks! Lots of folks have lots of wine corks. I have my own collection, though I haven’t decided what I am doing with them. Maybe if I weren’t moving in 18 months, I would find a use for them in my closet.
So there you have quite a few tips to help you organize your closet. I need to do that. Every so often I clear out my shirts and make a pile for Goodwill. Maybe it’s time for you to do the same!
Please share any organizing tips in my comments. You never know when something you leave as a comment will help other readers!
Sadly, the four-nails-and-wine-corks hint wouldn’t do it for me, as I have about four hundred handbags. (I can’t help it; I have a sickness. Obviously it’s the whole womb-substitute thing. Leave me alone. Besides, Betsey Johnson, Marc Jacobs, Gucci, JJ Winters, Isabella Fiore, Beverly Feldman, Coach, Dooney and Bourke, Louis Vuitton, Spencer and Rutherford, B Makowsky and Ella Maiden make me purr. Also hyperventilate.) Anyway, I hang them (the bags, not the designers) on old school cloakhooks all around the dressing room. And the bedroom. And on the fronts of wardrobes. Also the sides of wardrobes. And on doors. Also I pile them up in big tall stacks I can’t even pole-vault over. (Plus anyway, I throw away wine corks. Goddess knows I don’t need yet ANOTHER collection of something to find storage solutions for…) Love, R xxx
Empty spools? Sewing? Holy jeebus! I am so very lost!
Hiss would need another house for wine corks. haha! I cleaned out my closet when I moved, although I don’t wear Tshirts often since I can’t wear them to work and I have quite a pile of them. I’m already doing what Heloise suggested, long things in one spot, short in another. easy.
I have a couple of suggestions. First, get one of those hanging shelf things (usually fabric) you can stuff all kinds of purses in those… Go on the internet and type in hanging fabric shelf to see what I mean.
and…….
You could make a quilt out of the t-shirts. You can cut the front and/or backs…hem them and then sew onto other fabric. It makes a great keepsake. You can also do that with the girls’ outgrown clothing if you have some special attachment to the outfits after they outgrown the outfits.
…as long as you don’t expect to have more babies….
I already have my closet set up more or less like that suggests, with the longer items at one end, etc. I would really like a closet organizer system and am thinking about buying one even though I’m in a rental. I am thinking about the cube-style thingies for my shoes and so on. I don’t have that many shoes, granted. It’s the principle of the thing.
I so love these posts.
This is also a very good motivation for me as I have been putting off organizing my closet for ages. I have so many things that I never wear or that are too small/don’t fit well.