Sanity Saving Monday Tip: Closets that Multi-Task.

Some of my close friends have seen my closet in person, and can attest to the fact that it is quite small for what all it has to hold. Not only does my small closet need to house my clothes, it's also storage for bathroom supplies, purses, JD's clothes, and our linens. My sweet husband did install some clever shelving units to help with organization, but it's up to me to keep things tidy so that I don't become overwhelmed with all that I have stored in there. Here's a picture of my closet before I had time to actually sit down and plan some sort of organizational method.

Basically, my jackets and dresses were all hung on the left. Below them are plastic drawers containing our linens, and above are purses and my jewelry chest. Top right are my tops, beneath them are baskets containing bathroom supplies and meds. Bottom right are my pants/jeans hung with JD's hanging clothes. In front is a laundry basket with misc sweaters. Notice there is absolutely NO ROOM for shoes. At the time this photo was taken I was storing shoes under our bed. Not the best method, let me assure you. Just looking at this photo I feel stressed. There's no flow. A closet needs to feel relaxed and easy. A person should be able to open their closet and know exactly what's in there, not feel like things are stuffed in every corner. This closet needed major help, and after just 20 minutes of tweaking, here's how it turned out:

I made several changes that really help with the flow of the space.

 1. I organized all my clothes by color. I get dressed based on moods, so this is perfect for me. I noticed I have a lot of blue and pink colored clothes, which is also kind of interesting because I wouldn't consider those to be my favorite color.
2. I went through the all the bathroom supplies. I still need to store extra medicines/bathroom stuff in this closet, but anything that I haven't used in the past 6 months I gave to my mom. Why keep 15 bottles of travel sized shampoo?
3. I started storing my shoes on the floor of the closet. Before, I had all of my shoes under the bed in a Shoes Under storage compartment. I still use the Shoes Under, but just for my boots and winter shoes. I put all the shoes I'm wearing now and will be wearing in the spring on the floor of the closet. Not the most ideal really, I'd like to have a shoe rack to sit them on, but it will do for now. At least I can see all my shoes now and know what I have.
4. I organized the top shelf. Before, all the purses/misc items were just thrown up there. Now I have them arranged neatly and I bought a step ladder so I can access them more easily.
5. I added a "closet door." I didn't have any way to hide my closet before. It was just open and everyone could see all my mess when they came into the room. I used an old queen sized flat sheet and attached it to a curtain rod. Now I can just pull the sheet closed to hide everything.

The major difference now is that I feel more relaxed when I open my closet. Everything has it's own place and the whole flow of the closet just feels better to me.

How do you feel when you get dressed in the morning? Do you feel overwhelmed, or relaxed and confident? If you're stressed about your closet situation, take 20 minutes and do a little tweaking!