31 Days to a More Organized Life : Day Two : Master Bedroom Closet, Part One

In case you missed yesterday's introductory post, let me remind you of the intention I set for this series.

In my humble and non-expert opinion based on the opinions of many experts, one of the major steps toward a more organized and orderly life is clearing out the clutter. You know... the unnecessary crap that most of us continuously accumulate and then form an even-more-unnecessary connection to, making it that much harder to get rid of it. That is my personal definition of Class A clutter.

Obviously there is also Class B clutter, which I would define as the sometimes necessary stuff that we bring into our lives/homes/cars/purses that without proper management ends up being very difficult to distinguish from Class A clutter. This would be things like bills, school papers, basically anything important and made of paper, clothes, home decor items, toys, etc. You get the idea. If we let it pile up and take over, it will... take over. I may not be on the waiting list for an episode of "Hoarders" but I certainly have my problem zones. This leads me to today's subject: the master bedroom closet.

Were you hoping for some good and shameful before pictures?? Then today is your lucky day!

This is one side of my closet, unedited (the mess and the photo). In this picture it doesn't look too extreme (to normal people that is - all the organizational experts would be breathing into a paper bag by now) but in reality it's holding all sorts of dark secrets. See that blue bag on the floor - behind it is some sort of compost pile of decaying flip flops that I haven't worn in who knows how long and at this point I'm still not sure what's in the blue bag either. Half the clothes hanging here either don't fit or haven't been worn in ages... probably because they don't fit. Clearly I'm saving them because I think that at some point I might fit into something I wore in 2007 before I had my first baby and I would obviously want to wear it again in 2013 should it actually fit.

This is the other half of my closet. You can see how well this space is being utilized. The striped basket hold swimsuits and lingerie and is currently overflowing. Again more bags. Whatever is in those either wasn't worth taking out or is being saved for some special day when I feel like going on a treasure hunt while getting ready in the morning. The dresser holds most of the essentials: underwear, socks, pjs, as well as being a great spot to rest bags full of crap. The plastic bag hanging above the dresser... yep that's my bustier from my wedding. I need it to be easily accessible, you know, for all the times I wear a bustier in my day-to-day life. Oh and just in case you were wondering, that little purple box is full of bra pads. I haven't been nursing in a year, but in case one day my boobs start to spontaneously leak, I'm covered.

This little gem is a bridesmaid dress I wore in 2009. I wanted to use this as a specific example of Class A clutter. It's not a horrible dress overall. It's black, not brown like it looks in the picture. It was comfortable and relatively inexpensive as bridesmaid attire goes. BUT, I hated how it looked on me. I love the bride, I loved the wedding, I loved being a bridesmaid, but this dress made me look like the prow of a ship. I will NEVER wear it again. Like ever. And yet it is still hanging in my closet, taking up prime real estate in a house with minimal storage space. Do you see my point?

So that leads us to the great closet purge of 2012...

I filled two Ikea shopping bags to the brim! In case you aren't familiar with Ikea, those are two big. ass. bags. I purged like never before. I got rid of clothes that had miraculously made the cut through several previous purging sessions. I also tossed out all the annoying wire and plastic hangers you get from the store or the dry cleaner so it's all just white plastic. It looks so much more uniform and neat already. I'd love to replace all those and do all wood hangers, but I'm trying to keep this fairly budget-conscious.

One important note about purging old clothes. There are going to be things that you have kept because of memories attached to a certain item. I have these too and it's up to you whether they make the cut. I have a couple things that I saved simply because the nostalgia was too strong for me to put them in the big blue bag. Notice I said "a couple things" not "every t-shirt I wore in 1998." Use discretion, but don't discount sentimental value.

There also might be some item that doesn't currently fit, but has lasting value. Maybe it's a simple and classic LBD or your "skinny" jeans from before the kids came along. I saved one pair of jeans that I loved before baby #2 that I really hope will fit again soon. And they are still in style enough to wear. So I saved them from the donation pile for now. Feel free to spare one or two items as a reward to yourself so you can one day say "They fit! They fit!" Otherwise, be ruthless!

Tune in tomorrow for the revamped and reorganized closet reveal!