Grand Ideas Re Closet Clean-up

Earlier on in my postings, I had a section about cleaning out your wardrobe -- about getting your wardrobe to "match" your awesome emerging "Bond Grrl" inside. In my Hellish Move (going on currently and all month long -- my goodness, this is just insane), here are some comments that I thought might be helpful on the "closet" front:

Closets are pretty satisfying to clean, because they are a small space. If you take a look in there and see that everything is a mess, then you know you have to clean it up. If it's dirty, you need to clean (or maybe paint) it. If it's overstuffed, you need to give some stuff away. You are not going to get some "Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" expansion out the back...so you're going to need to fit your belongings into your space, not imagine the space will stretch to fit your belongings! Here are some ideas to make it a little easier:

1. Use all the same sort of hangars. Hangars are cheap. You want to get the thick plastic kind, preferably with little "hooks" on an inside "upright" of plastic on the left and right, so that you can hang skirts by their left and right hanging straps on the inside of the skirt. You are going to need some skirt/pants presses, too, for the skirts/pants that don't have hanging tabs. I know it's an expense to go out and get all matching hangers -- but if they match and are thick plastic, they aren't going to get tied up together and bend/break as easily as the metal and paper ones that come from the dry cleaner. And besides -- it looks SO MUCH better!

2. Hang your clothes all facing one direction. One trick I did was to face all my clothes in the "opposite" direction than I normally do (I normally hang everything facing to the left -- but when I cleaned out my closet, I re-hung everything facing right). Why? Because if at the end of six months I still had something hanging in there facing to the right, it meant I hadn't used it in six months, which is a LONG LONG TIME. Granted, some things (like black tie clothes) might only get a wearing or two a year, but this at least gives you a head's up as to whether or not you're kidding yourself on if you're wearing everything in there or not!

3. Take one of the paper hangers from the dry cleaner, punch holes in it, and hang all your dress scarves through it. In this way, you won't need to fill a drawer with them, or a shelf. You will be able to see them easily, and they take up very little space. I generally do 6 per hangar.

4. Keep all your empty hangars together. As soon as you take something out to wear, put its hangar to the far left or far right of the pole -- no exceptions, every time. That way, you will always know where the hangars are when it comes time to put your laundry or dry cleaning away, and they won't get tangled up in the other hangars with clothes still on them.

5. Try to get your shoes off the floor, to make it easier to vacuum. I have mine on two shelves. If you have boots and they keep flopping over, you can keep those on the floor (as usually you will only have one or two pair) -- and you can put rolled up magazines in them to keep them standing up straight.

6. Your vacuum is your friend -- use the nozzles that come with it to go after dust! Funny story on this one -- I was trying to vacuum out the hideaway bed that my James has at his house, because we had company coming. I was just using the "tube" of the vacuum, because I never really thought the nozzles did anything. He took out the thin nozzle and fitted it on the end, and I'll be darned if it didn't pick up all the crumbs and cracks and crevices MUCH better than the "hose" alone. I definitely learned something that day. Use the right tool for the job!

7. Get rid of all your extra linens and towels. I was at a friend's house the other day -- her kids are grown, and so it's just her and her husband (plus they have a guest room). She was getting something out of her linen closet, and it was STUFFED -- I mean, so packed there was no room, floor to ceiling -- with linens and towels! My James and I are consolidating our houses right now, and we went through his linens and towels a few days ago -- sending to Goodwill all the towels that are a little frayed, linens we don't even like, etc. I kept thinking of my friend's closet. In reality, you only need 3 pair of linens -- TOPS -- for each bed in your house. You might REALLY only need like 1 pair for your guest bed, and then for your own bed, one (on it), one in your bedroom closet, and then a "spare" set in your linen closet. THAT'S IT! Get the rest out of there! If you think you will use the linens or towels for rags, etc., you might want to think again -- sheets aren't that absorbent, and towels usually shred. Just give them to Goodwill or, better yet, to your local Humane Society or veterinarian, or even, if you have one close by, a homeless shelter. All those places would be super happy to have your linens and towels, believe me! My veterinarian is ALWAYS on the hunt for towels and linens. Make space! Get rid of all that excess!! YOU CAN DO IT!

8. This is such a slick trick: Keep sheets folded into the matching pillowcase of the set. This way, when you pull out that "bundle," it has the fitted sheet, the flat sheet, and the extra pillow case(s) already in it good to go. No searching the closet for the pillowcase that got mashed into the back behind some big beach towels when you were trying to smoosh it into the closet.

9. Have only in-season clothes in your closet -- and before you take the out-of-season clothes out and put them somewhere out of the way (like in those boxes you can buy that slip under your bed), make sure you DRY CLEAN or LAUNDER everything. I learned this the hard way -- I put a bunch of winter clothes away last winter, and when I pulled them out last week, some of them have stains on them that have ruined the clothes! I am sure what happened (because there is NO WAY I would have packed "dirty clothes" away) is that a few of the items I might have worn once to a meeting for an hour or so and then put back in the closet, knowing I could get one more wearing out of the item. But I had maybe spilled something small, or the cat had jumped on me, or whatever -- and a small stain had gone unnoticed. Until it sat there for 6 months in storage! I lost a few shirts I really liked this way -- so be forewarned. Also -- beware of moths -- my James lost a VERY expensive suit jacket and I lost a beloved skirt and blazer to moths that got to our clothes when they were packed away. Throw in some moth flakes -- there are even some that don't smell awful any more. Or you can pack in cedar -- moths hate cedar.

Enough tips! It's LATE...I had a seminar today all day and then had to catch up on work when I got home at 6. Meaning -- it's after midnight now. OY!