My Closet Before & After Moving

After I moved, everything was a hot mess.

I mean it was a bit of a hot mess before, I was using no less than 3 closets for all of my things.

I basically just got all my clothes and things unceremoniously stacked and dumped all higgedly-piggedly into the closet.

I was graciously given the “walk-in” closet because my partner only has 20 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of chinos, 1 polo shirt and 5 grey shirts.

Yeah. He barely takes up half a closet.

Anyway, this “gem” (note the heavy sarcasm) of a walk-in closet was truly an awkward space because they had modified the original layout and gave the second bedroom more space but ate away at the walk-in.

So now we had this awkward, strange dead space in the middle the length of a closet. You couldn’t put anything on either side of the walls because there was.. no space.

BEFORE

Standing in the doorway, this is what I see:

See that floor? See how much DEAD SPACE THERE IS THERE?

It is completely crammed to the brim with my bags for now, but it is literally a dead zone. Nothing can be done, custom-wise or not.

Custom closet folks would come in and probably laugh at me if I said:

So.. can you do anything?

Anyway, these are my racks. All messed up. Nothing in order, it was utter chaos for my brain.

I couldn’t sleep at night, I was so annoyed with how unorganized it was.

After I tackled it, it looked like this & my partner had come up with a brilliant idea.

THE ROLLING CLOSET RACK!

It was a brilliant stroke of genius.

He had planned on ripping down the racks you see there, and putting up a rack or something and then having a rolling closet rack, but I told him I needed ALL THE closet rail space possible, so I proposed that it stay the same, but maybe we add a few more shelves up top later on to use up that dead space.

AFTER

This is what you see when you open the door now.

Then as you pull out the rolling rack, you see the whole closet and that dead space that now holds a rack:

Skirts then coats on the left with delicate knit cashmere sweaters on top that cannot be put on hangers:

Then you see more coats, dresses and pants on the other side with purses on top:

And the rack? GENIUS!

You have purses on top, my jackets, blazers and all my tops

More bags on the bottom holding files and so on

Close up of my jackets, blazers & tops:

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

ROLLING RACK = GENIUS

Ingenuity strikes at any moment.

This was really a great idea to get a rolling rack to use up that dead space.

The only caveat is I’m lazy and it’s kind of annoying as I have to roll out the rack each time if I can’t reach in and grab what I need easily.

THAT SAID… I got a whole other clothes rail out of it to hold my coats and tops semi-comfortably not to mention two other racks to hold things.

IT IS STILL A KIND OF TIGHT FIT

I am embarrassed to announce that it is still a bit of a tight fit.

I see that my clothes are not breathing and hanging freely in neat little 1/2″ spaces between the super slim velvet hangers, so I can tell that I basically have too much.

It does NOT look like this which is kind of my ideal…

So I think the only way to solve this, is to only buy for the amount of hangers I have, or less.

My pants are currently also somewhat hanging on this trouser rack thing but it’s annoying and I hate it.

I need to get more pant clips for the remaining spare hangers I own.

Whatever it is, I need to start treating each hanger like it has to hold the most precious of goods in a limited space which.. it absolutely is.

My partner turns to me and gives me the side eye, saying:

I think it’s time to stop buying now.

GURRRRRK! O_o

I CAN REALLY SEE EVERYTHING NOW

I can really see everything in my closet at once and I am starting to actually REACH FOR and pick out things I normally didn’t even notice in my other crammed closet.

Instead of reaching for my tried-and-true pieces and combinations, I’m spending time making up new ones now.

It also helps that I started on the StyleBook app and it has really opened my eyes to how many great pieces I have that I haven’t even reached for because I have been so lazy AND I haven’t seen them or have been easily able to reach them.

The belts are also now FRONT AND CENTER on the rack, the bags are laid out and easily reached on two different levels, and the scarves are displayed nicely.