Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Closet...

Finding clothes to wear has been a challenge over the past four years. As I finished unpacking my clothes into the giant walk in closet (there are two closets in our room and Paul took the smaller, more reasonable one... Yay!  Leaving this one for me in hopes that I might be able to control the boxes of clothing he hauled across the country....) I realized that I really shouldn't have any difficulty "finding something."

Because, really, this is an obscene amount of clothing.  I will explain the reason, shortly, however.

After Paul and I moved the first time, from the Bay Area to far Northern California, I got rid of about 75% of the clothes I'd hauled around for the decade before we met.  Boxes and boxes and boxes.  My problem had been that if something fit, I kept it and so I had everything from horse t-shirts and wrangler jeans I'd worn when I was twelve to tube tops and mini skirts from college (ugh).  However, in the past couple of years the closet has grown again.

Here's why.  I have clothing that fit when I'm way above a "large" in maternity clothes and I look like this:


And clothing that fit when things (hopefully) go (more or less) back to normal and I look more like this:

Perhaps the biggest challenge, however, are all those sizes in between, going both up and down.  My plan in the newly organized closet, however, will hopefully make the repeated up and down process a tad easier.

I put the clothes that are in the middle sizes (or "current sizes"), and the maternity dresses that fit when I'm pregnant and when I'm not, all down below.  Clothes that I have that I'd like to alter in some way to fit are all along the back, along with my business suits and jackets.

Up above there's a shelf for sweaters (why did I bring all my sweaters to Florida?!?!?), a shelf for clothes of a size so small I may never wear them again (but am hopeful and have thought when I go to put them in the donation box that maybe, just maybe, I will someday wear them... although most of the clothing in the 0-4 sizes have been given away, a few are hanging on through the closet purges and these mix with the overflow of maternity on this particular shelf), and the back shelf, which as I already noted spills onto the other shelves, and is by far the largest.

With the exception of the maternity clothing most of the outfits here are hand-me-downs or from garage sales or are from pre-2006 when I still had a "clothing budget" (or at least thought I should and spent money on clothing...).

Down below are bins of baby blankets that will rotate in and out, quilts, a shelf with cubes for underwear and knick knacks and everything else that couldn't find a home elsewhere (tools, super glue, and that sort of thing) and shoes.

And hopefully the organization will mean that the "I have nothing the wear" moments are few and far between as clothes rotate up into storage and down into the "these fit at this moment in time" categories...

Now to get ready to take Sadie to her second dance class and to (hopefully) swing by a demonstration at the local Planned Parenthood with Paul's classmates...

7 comments:

  1. I know one of the ways I keep my closet organized is to make sure I only buy what I absolutely *love*. I have some things I can wear while pregnant and while not (cute skirts with stretchy waists), and everything else maternity is packed up in boxes until God decides it's time for baby #2! Everything else I have hung up in the closet, and if I don't absolutely love something I give it away...sisters, friends, or donate it...I find that once I've actually gotten rid of the clothing I don't miss it as much as I feared I would! :)

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  2. I think that part of my problem here is that there isn't any place to put boxes! These were all in boxes in the garage/shed before we moved, but here there's a closet for Paul, for me and for the girls and so everything got unpacked. I shouldn't complain though because it's way more space than we used to have!

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  3. I know about women and clothes, so perhaps this suggestion is of no value to you, but a number of years back I made a donation to the Salvation Army, and then one to Purple Heart. Since then, both organizations give me a call at least once a year saying they are coming down my street and "Do you have anything for us?" (PH is coming this Tuesday)

    I made a rule to always say "yes" to their call. And then to make it possible, I made another rule: no matter how much I like it, I'm likely to wear it again, or even if it's brand new, "If I haven't worn it in two years, I give it away."

    That has helped keep my closet and drawers somewhat compact, and current. And helped me keep a proper perspective on "things."

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  4. My husband and I share a closet and all my clothing from every season fits in my side. I like to stick to basic bottoms (black skirt, black/white flower skirt) and bright tops/ sweaters to change things up.

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  5. We don't have a lot of closet space at our house, so I've taken to rotating out the "summer" and "winter" clothes (as best I can...we really don't have seasons here in the PNW!) and storing the off-season clothing in bins.

    Plus, I follow the rule that if 1) I don't love it enough to make room for it and 2) I think it would look better on someone else, I put it in the pile for either giveaway or the next ladies' clothing swap party.

    If you make it to the PP rally, let us know how it goes!

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  6. WOW I'd love a closet that huge! Although we moved a few months ago, and my current closet is alot bigger than before (two doors now but not walk in)...
    I think you should pack away the clothes that you don't wear all the time, (maternity, sweaters, too big or too small, business suits etc) .. then you can enjoy seeing the clothes you can wear. You'll also have more space to buy new clothes! hehe.
    I love peeking into other women's closets! So fun.

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  7. hey! by any chance, where you live in florida- is it naples near ft myers? i lived in ft myers my entire life! we moved to texas 3 1/2 yrs ago but boy i miss home! let me know privately if you want. funny huh? we each have a sadie and now this!

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