BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Organization Closets

Have you ever done anything special with your closet - there are closet systems which cost a fortune. Have you DYI and put together?

Hi Angie. Yes, I have done a lot of really good stuff with my closets.

Link7881, Just want to welcome you to the forum, We hope that you will enjoy your stay!
Rosie

They are classy alright. We have a walk in and when the house was built I thought it was huge. It has steadily grown smaller over the years.

Those closets are classy.

I think it is definitely true that no matter what you do to your closet, it will get filled up.

What we find works better is to whittle out the clothes you have When we look at our closet, there are clothes in there we simply don't wear. Every once in a while I hang everything up in there "backwards" - with the hooks pointing out rather than in. Then as we wear things we put them back in normally. It becomes very clear in a few weeks which things get worn, and which just sit there all the time.

If you're not ready to sell or donate those things yet, box them and put them in the attic. But it's silly to have your active closet filled up with things that aren't being worn! It takes up space and takes up your decision time as you have to wade through things you'll really never wear

The other day I worked on my closet. I love t-shirts and got rid of a bunch of them. How many t-shirts can one girl really need?!

Lisa, I've boxed up clothes in the past. But rather than place them in the attic I write up a list of what's in the box, place it on top of the clothes, tape the box shut and date it. It then sits in the closet like that for one year. If I haven't opened it in a year, I take it to Goodwill, open it, and take the list home with me. The list helps me know what I've donated (when I find myself looking for "that one shirt I used to have") and helps to price things for tax purposes. Time to do that again, I think. I have a bunch of kids' clothing that my kids probably won't ever wear again! ~Kelly H.

Kelly, that is great. I like that idea, and Lisa's of turning around the hooks.

I don't think putting a box in the attic is a good idea - anything that goes in an unseen space, like attic, basement or shed, generally just ends up staying in there until one moves, if ever. :-)

Connie, It's interesting how tee shirts just accumulate. They seem so safe, neutral and useful. But then you get to the point of never actually wearing more than a handful of them.

I see lovely new-looking teeshirts at Goodwill all the time. I just keep a few at home and head to Goodwill if I need a new one. :-)

I put this on my to do list - clean out a closet.

We had a whole discussion a while back about tshirts. I pretty much live in tshirts but even so, how many can I possibly need! There are people out there who only have one or two shirts total for their entire wardrobe. To have 30+ tshirts seems a little excessive smile

So every time BigBrother BigSister comes around (about once a month) I try to force myself to give away at least one item in a room. It was easy at first but now it's getting harder.

Bob is even worse. I have his closet open, his hooks all backwards/forwards for easy reference and a storage box right next to the closet. He just won't move items from the closet into the box!

Tonight's task was to organize the linen closet which holds all our extra supplies and travel gear and so on. It was a giant mess. We bought a bunch of the super-cheap plastic storage organizer boxes and I just sat there and labeled and sorted things. It took an hour but now it is SO much cleaner and sorted. We have an entire bin just of dental stuff! How many spare toothbrushes do we need! See, this is what happens. But a lot of them are loose so I can't really donate them. Maybe Bob can use them in his garage area.

I use toothbrushes for cleaning...

To clean a closet is on my task list. I just haven't been home long enough to tackle one.

A few days ago I got tired of the closet mess in the bedroom. That is "Bob's closet" and for a few months now I haven't been hanging his shirts or tshirts back up. So they're all in a pile on the floor. Meaning everything in that closet hasn't been worn in probably 3 months.

I took EVERYTHING out of the closet and put it in the spare bedroom. Then I hung up whatever was on the floor. The closet is SO much cleaner! Amazingly so! We'll see if he ever goes into that spare bedroom to look for something. My guess is he never will.

Keep in mind he already has an "office room" with a closet where we'd hung all his second-tier shirts. He hasn't been in that office closet in probably a year. So I think we're at the point where we can give away everything in the office closet. Then we can move all the newly removed shirts into that closet. And then see in a year if he's gone in there (again)

I think that all sounds very reasonable, actually. It's very hard to get rid of things - even if they are never ever used. With this plan, he can have 'proof' he has not sought out the 'office clothes' in a year and that they can go and be cycled through with the second batch that he doesn't wear. Excellent! :-)

Then in a year you can do it again...until he only has what he wears and wears what he has. A no-stress plan.

i think a year is a totally reasonable time period to say, "this isn't something I actually use."

Plus, going a full year does give a person the chance to go through the season's changes to make sure.

It is not really fair to throw a beloved wool sweater out in June because they are not wearing it!

That was exactly my thought too Michelle. If something isn't worn in the summer, that's not a good test of its value. It could be winter clothes!