Closets
What Season Is It Today?
It’s hard to know how to dress when the weather can’t make up its mind what season we’re in. I did my laundry yesterday, and I observed that over the past week, I wore one turtleneck, three long-sleeved shirts, and three short-sleeved shirts. There were two pairs of shorts in the load as well. We went from winter to summer (with a short stop at spring) in less than a week. And today we are back at winter.
I feel very fortunate that I have easy access to all of my clothing, regardless of the weather. That enables me to pivot from cashmere and boots on Sunday to shorts and sandals on Wednesday. But this doesn’t happen by accident.
I decided that I wanted to write an organizing tip about this, but I knew I had written about it in the past. I searched the archives on my web site and then I found it: “Making Our Closets Work Year Round.” I wrote that post on April 5, 2010, which was a surprise to me. I thought the seesawing weather was a more recent phenomenon but apparently it was common enough 16 years ago that I was motivated to write about it.
In that post, I gave some advice that I think is still sound: “As you make your spring transition this year, I recommend that you spend some time reviewing all of your clothes and getting rid of those that you seldom wear. This will free up space for the items of clothing that will help us through the awkward transitions between seasons. Identify which winter clothes you didn’t wear at all, or wore but didn’t enjoy, as well as the summer clothes that you forgot you had and really aren’t looking forward to wearing. Give those away, and use that empty space to keep more of your off-season clothes accessible.”
You can read the post to learn strategies about what to do if you still don’t have enough space to keep everything at your fingertips. Some apartments really are too small to keep all of your clothes available at the same time. But having fewer clothes helps a lot. The less you have, the more you can keep accessible — and the easier it is to find what you are looking for every time you get dressed. Having too many choices really doesn’t make you happier.
Where Do Your Keys Go?
When I first became a Professional Organizer and began working from home, I discovered that my husband often left for work and then returned a few minutes later because he had forgotten his keys, his wallet, his work ID, or his transit card. I set up a tray for him in the entryway closet so that he could place his items there when he got home at night and then easily refill his pockets again in the morning.
This tray has a tendency to get cluttered, as his pockets sometimes contain business cards, receipts, visitor passes, meeting badges, prescriptions, etc. This has the effect of obscuring the things he needs to put back in his pockets the next morning, and when that happens, he forgets to take stuff with him. I remind him every few months to clean out the tray and remove any extraneous items.
I decided recently that there were two things we could do to help ameliorate this problem. The first was to make sure that the tray was at his eye level. He’s a lot taller than I am, and I suspected that he was not able to see it as well as I could. So I rearranged a few items in the closet and moved the tray up to a higher shelf.
The second solution was to get a new tray that has dedicated spaces for his various items. The current tray was just one big flat space. I measured the existing tray, as well as the size of his different items, and then combed the internet for a tray the right size with adjustable sections. I found one on Amazon that fit the bill.
Here’s what the original tray looked like in the closet:
And here’s a bird’s eye view of the new tray, with a place for each item:
He has rearranged the layout a few times to better position the things he uses at home, such as his iPhone and his glasses. But it’s much easier for him to find what he’s looking for. And if he encounters an empty section while he’s loading up to go outside, it’s easier to realize that something is missing.
Do you spend too much time looking for your keys when you are trying to leave the house? If so, then I recommend setting up a solution near the front door, whether it’s a tray, a drawer, a hook, or a wall organizer.
Keeping The Numbers Down
Apparently, I did not get the shoe gene that many of my clients have. I own very few pairs of shoes. I have a shoe bag in my front closet that holds 10 pairs of shoes, and all my everyday footwear fits there, spanning all four seasons. In addition to those ten pairs (a mix of sneakers, shoes, and sandals), there are three pairs of boots that live on the floor under the jackets: one for rain, one for snow, and one for winter warmth.
(Full disclosure: I do have a few pairs of shoes that I keep in a closet in another room because they are worn so infrequently: dressy shoes, water shoes, and tap shoes. )
One of the ways that I keep my shoe collection small is to only buy a new pair when I need it. As I mentioned in a recent post called The Burden of Ownership, my warm winter Ugg boots were leaking so I replaced them. I didn’t need to create space for the new boots because I donated the Uggs and the new boots went right into their empty spot.
But as I mentioned in the post Don’t Buy It Unless You Need It, a year ago I ordered two pairs of shoes from my favorite shoe manufacturer because they were going out of business. One of them was a direct replacement for a pair I was already wearing (which I got rid of), but the other pair was an addition to my wardrobe.
It didn’t come up as an issue until recently. I generally rotate between two pairs of season-appropriate shoes, and I leave those out by the front door. However, since I’m wearing nothing but boots these days, I want to put all other shoes in the shoe bag. The problem is that I’m out of slots.
So I’ve decided to take one pair from my shoe bag and move it to the closet with the infrequently-worn shoes. What pair did I select? My workout sneakers. I used to wear them twice a week when I worked out with my personal trainer, as we used to do part of our workout in the hallway outside my apartment. However, during the pandemic we moved all of our activities indoors, and we never went back to the old way. Since I’m working out on my living room rug or on a yoga mat, I am doing it barefoot.
So the workout sneakers went into the other room, which gave me a great opportunity to review my infrequently-worn shoes and remind myself what I have. And in the entryway closet, I relocated or tossed a few other things from my shoe bag so that only footwear remains there. (No insoles or bags.) The extra pair of shoes now has its rightful space.
Having all my everyday shoes in one place — and arranged so that I can see them all — ensures that I don’t forget what I own. Less is more!
Take Your Own Eras Tour
Are you familiar with The Eras Tour? It was a concert tour undertaken by superstar singer Taylor Swift in 2023-24. It was, incidentally, the highest grossing concert tour of all time.
In Taylor’s lingo, each era referred to one of her albums. But we all have eras in our lives, and it’s always valuable to take our own eras tour through our possessions.
We may define our eras by the major milestones in our lives: childhood, college, single life, marriage, career changes, relocations, parenting, empty nest, retirement, etc. For many years, my husband and I have referred to events as happening B.E. and A.E. — Before Emily and After Emily, with Emily being our now-grown daughter. More recently, I’ve defined events occurring as pre-pandemic or post-pandemic. You probably have your own language to describe your eras.
Here’s what’s valuable about taking an eras tour through your possessions. Something that you used a lot during an earlier era may no longer fit your lifestyle. For example, I have clients who worked in an office pre-pandemic but now work from home, necessitating a different wardrobe. Or perhaps you’ve had a complete career change, and the books and equipment that were useful in your old career are no longer needed.
We all have clothes that fit us in a previous era but no longer do. Even if they do fit us, they may be embarrassingly out of style. Perhaps you have a kitchen full of appliances that represented an ambitious cooking era of the past. You may have a lot of gear for a sport you no longer play. Are you a woman who used to love high heels but can no longer tolerate them? That era is gone, although the stiletto heels might still be lying around.
You might want to keep some memorabilia from each of your eras, but most of the stuff you no longer use is just living rent-free in your home — and in your brain. Take your own eras tour through your stuff and figure out what you can let go. Make space for the era you are in right now!
Are You Wearing All Those Clothes?
When the season changes, I am always excited to rediscover the clothes I haven’t worn in many months. For the summer, that means short-sleeved and sleeveless tops, as well as shorts. (I have a few dresses for when I have to get fancy, but otherwise I’m not a dress kind of gal.)
At the start of this summer, I found myself gravitating towards my favorite summer tops. I went for the ones that were the most comfortable and the most flattering. After a while, I started wondering why I still had some of the others, because I wasn’t wearing them. So decided to wear all of my tops in order and make a decision about whether to keep them.
My summer shirts live in two places. Most of them are folded and stored one of my dresser drawers. For years I have been folding them so that they stand up. The short-sleeved tops go on the left, the workout t-shirts on the right, and the sleeveless tops and workout shorts go in the middle. When I do laundry, the clean shirts go in the back, so the ones I haven’t worn recently are always in the front.
I started wearing the short-sleeved and sleeveless shirts from front to back. I identified a couple of them that weren’t as flattering as others and I plan to donate them. I also have short-sleeved and sleeveless blouses hanging in the closet. I’ve now worn almost all of them, and have put a few in the donation pile.
I also had an interesting experience with my dressy pants. I wear jeans most of the year (blue or black) and only break out the nicer pants when I need to be a little more dressed up. I wear those nicer pants so seldom that they tend to collect dust. I solved that problem by getting some dust covers for them (see my post Clothes You Don’t Wear That Often.)
I recently decided to put on a pair of nice black pants for my anniversary celebration. The first pair I put on were less comfortable than I remembered. I decided to try on all of my nice pants to see which ones still felt good. I ended up giving away three pairs of pants. I am thinking of giving away more, since those pants are worn so infrequently.
Are there clothes you own but are not wearing? (Hint: if they still have tags on them, that’s a good clue. One of the pants I gave away still had tags on!) Try the exercise of wearing everything in order. See what feels comfortable and looks good. I guarantee that you will find some things that are ready to check out of your home. Life is always easier when you have more room and fewer choices.