December 2012

An Organized Closet by Joe Organizer

As some of might know, I lost 25 pounds earlier this year and dropped two sizes. I’ve kept the weight off for 6 months now, so I thought it was about time I got rid of the clothes in my closet that no longer fit. WOW – what a chore.

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I’m now thinking this might be the most embarrassing newsletter I’ve ever shared!
My closet is always organized but it doesn’t always look so neat as you’ll see from the pictures. But my definition of organized is being able to find what I’m looking for in 30 seconds or less. So it doesn’t matter how neat it looks. I’ve never claimed to be Martha Stewart!

So step one was to go through all my clothes and make piles of them. I pulled out all the larger sizes and decided to sell some to a resale shop, consign some, donate some, and make a pile for a garage sale. I always recommend that if you have clothes in your closet bigger than what you currently wear you always want to get rid of them or else you’ll grow back into them. If they aren’t there and you start to put on a few pounds you’ll be more apt to work on losing weight then going to the store to buy ‘big’ clothes. From first-hand experience, buying smaller sizes is WAY more fun!!

I also eliminated some shoes that were outdated, or made my feet hurt or I just didn’t love or wore anymore. The resale store buys shoes as well. I had a few purses that I no longer use and added those to my garage sale pile.

One of my missions of the organizing project was to make more room because now that it’s fun to shop I’m finding myself purchasing more clothes (imagine that!). So I decided it was time to experience using Space Bags that hang up. It was SO amazing I cannot begin to tell you. I took 26 summer blouses and put them in a Space Bag and now they only take up 4 inches in my closet. The trick is that all the blouses had to be on wire hangers to fit as many in as you can. Plastic hangers are just too bulky and really limit the amount of items you can put in a Space Bag. I used a second Space Bag for my summer pants and skirts with identical results. If you look at the first picture where the fuchsia colored short sleeve blouses are that whole section is in the one space bag in the next picture.
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I also eliminated some shoes that were outdated, or made my feet hurt or I just didn’t love or wore anymore. The resale store buys shoes as well. I had a few purses that I no longer use and added those to my garage sale pile. I really like the shoe rack I use. It’s much simpler to keep my shoes neat then the one’s that you have to stand your shoes up on.

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When everything was said and done. I had a ton of space in my closet and everything was stacked so neatly. I’ve been working very hard at keeping it up on a daily basis. It will make it so much easier if I ever decide to organize it again!

I hope sharing my messy closet makes all of you realize that I’m not perfect even though I am a Professional Organizer!