An Organized Closet

Before we get to my latest closet update, I feel like it would make sense to go way back to 2014 where I started to try and get my bedroom closet organized.

Spring 2014 Updates:

Blog post from April 2014: My Underwhelming Dream Closet

At the time I was using an old metal mesh cube organizer that I had bought when I was in college. These shoe racks over there on the left side, those were the latest and greatest I could find at the time. And it was a mess.

So, I went to The Container Store and bought two of their 12-Pair Shoe Organizers (find them here for $39.99 each) and one of their handbag organizers (they no longer carry the one I have, but this 8-pair shoe and purse organizer for $39.99 is quite similar).

I put everything together in my closet and it was an improvement. Not a huge improvement, but an improvement.

Fall 2014 Updates:

Blog post from October 2014: A Closet Purge & a New Plan

Within 6 months my closet had exploded into a mess again. I had way too much stuff shoved in there and the shoe racks weren’t working super well for me. I decided to do a massive purge and stack the shoe racks (I bought these safety wall straps from Amazon so that they weren’t a hazard for me or Jack). Then, I put clothing on either side of the shoe tower. It’s hard to tell, but there’s a little bit of space to the left of the shoes.

I made another small change in November 2016 (My Laundry Situation) where I added a second small laundry basket for items that needed special care. But other than that change, my closet basically looked the same until last month.

January 2020 Updates:

So, here’s what I was working with. My shoes were still happily living in the shoe racks and I still had the two laundry baskets on the right and one extra one on the left for clothes that need to be donated. My pants lived up top in that white rectangle organizer. My dresses are all the way to the right side, then skirts, then a random mix of stuff that I plan on wearing some time soon.

To the left of the shoe tower is all of my cardigans, sweaters, and blouses. You can barely see any of them, because they are all SHOVED in less than 2 feet of space. At some point, I also installed these mini LED tap lights — one inside the closet on the left and one on the right.

This setup still was not working for me. I thought and thought and finally I decided to see if adding some drawers would help. I went out and bought the ASKVOLL 5-drawer chest from Ikea for $79

I took everything out of my closet and moved the shoe tower over a few inches to the left. Then, I built the case of the ASKVOLL and stuck it in to see how it would fit:

It left less room for my laundry basket situation, but I had just enough space for one to the right and one to the left of the shoe rack. Then, instead of hanging all my blouses and sweaters back up, I rolled them Marie Kondo style and put them in the drawers. By taking the majority of my tops off hangers, I saved a TON of rack space. So now the clothes that are left hanging have plenty of room.

So, what is left: skirts live on the far-right side of the closet, then tops that tend to wrinkle. On the left-hand side are my dresses. Pants and casual sweaters are in that upper rectangle organizer. The drawers contain: short sleeve blouses, long sleeve blouses, cardigans, sweaters, and sweatshirts. Everything is Kondo rolled, so I can easily see exactly what I have. On the floor, I have my regular laundry basket to the right and hidden to the left is my special care laundry basket. Unfortunately, I had to lose my ongoing donation basket. So that is living in our spare room for now.

Here is the new after:

While it certainly is not the walk-in closet of my dreams, it is so organized that it makes my little Type A heart happy. Everything has its place and I can easily see all my options when I’m getting out my work outfits for the week.

Here’s everything I’ve used at this point to organize:

• The Container Store 12-Pair Shoe Organizers, using 2: $39.99 each
• The Container Store 8-Pair Shoe & Purse Organizer, similar, $39.99
• Safety wall straps (connected top 2 shoe organizers): $17.95 for an 8-pack
• Mini LED tap lights: $10.99 for a 5-pack
• Ikea ASKVOLL 5-drawer chest: $79.00

I’m currently really happy with how everything is working for me, but only time will tell if I hit on a better design in the future!

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