Closet Redo: Oh, What a Mess!

The before

I know it has been awhile (a long while) since I've written anything on this blog, and I apologize for that. Life has been quite the journey that I did not intend for it to be, but life isn't always what you want it to turn out to be. But that isn't the post that this is to be about. This is about closets, and one that has been pretty much ignored since the day I moved in. 

Sure, I've made attempts, and the little cubbies and storage cubes are signs of those attempts, but they were half hearted and not really well organized. 

So, today I am tackling what needs to be done, and it is all thanks to my water heater's decision that it wanted to start leaking water. But luckily, after taking everything out, I did discover that there was no water damage in the closet, so that was a blessing in disguise.

After clearing out everything

The photo above is the before picture. As you can see, my walk-in closet in my master bedroom is pretty dinky. It is only 60" deep by 66" wide. Not a lot of room to work with to be honest. When I bought the house, there were only three shelves in the closet. On the right was one set high for longer items, and then two in the back set parallel to hang shorter items. Well, in my disorganized state when I moved in, I did not utilize those shelves very well, and wound up with the mess that encompasses my closet as it sadly stands today. 

The four 3 shelf, stackable shelves are remnants of my college days when I needed more space in my dorm closet. The two door cabinet and the 9 shelf cubicle are two items I purchased a little over a year ago in an attempt to organize the closet. As you can see. It didn't work.

I have way too many clothes

One of my major issues with my closet isn't so much the "lack of" space, but the amount of clothing. I have too much, as noted by the amount laying on my bed (a queen sized bed) in the photo to the left. I love clothes, but not all clothing loves me. My weight has drastically fluctuated over the past two years, and so has my wardrobe, which is not a good place to be. I have too many clothing items in my wardrobe that do not fit, are not in good condition, or I do not really like. Those are three items that waste space in a perfectly good closet of any size.

So, that is why I pulled everything out of my closet this afternoon. I needed to take inventory of what I have and do a major purge and put everything back properly and not haphazardly.

So, how do you do this? Well, funny you should ask? I didn't decide to do this overnight. I've been planning and researching how I was going to do this for awhile. I also made plans on what I needed to accomplish this, how much time and energy would be needed, and the stamina to do it. Oh, and the tools.

Stylicious is a great tool

One of the tools I found quite by accident was an application called Stylicious. It is a free app on Android and Apple that allows you to catalog your entire wardrobe, including shoes and accessories. It is kind of a way to allow you to shop your own closet using your smartphone and put together looks without having to throw everything on your bed in the process. It is kind of like Polyvore, but with things already in your closet.

I spent a lot of time researching small walk-in closet ideas using Pinterest, even creating a board specifically for that topic. I found one that looked almost identical to mine and it gave me wonderful ideas on what to do next, and inspiration on how to transform a drab space into something fabulous. Almost as if it were my own little boutique. It is your space, after all. You can do whatever you want with it, even put a chandelier in it to dress it up even more! Some of the ones I viewed had done that and had even gone further with faux fur stools in corners! Oh, and don't forget the mirror!

Time to get started

The one thing that surprised me the most out of this was that the amount of actual trash was low. I mean, that little pile in front of my chest of drawers (not that black and whit fur ball in front of the dresser, that's Sampson). But I know that there will be more, as there will be purses that are on their last leg, accessories that have run their course, shoes that just don't have a step left, and clothes that are better off as dust cloths. 

But now that the closet is empty, it is now time to get busy and get it done right! I'm hoping that by the end of the evening there will be another blog (wow, two in one day) showing off the finished product, but that is not a promise. It is a hope, because I don't know how much energy I have in me at the moment. I just want that bed cleared off before bedtime tonight.