Organizing, Part 2: S.P.A.C.E.

This is my bare bones method for organizing of any sort.  It has transformed my hectic world into a fluid & fun experience!  The S.P.A.C.E. concept is something I learned from brilliant organizing guru Julie Morgenstern, author of Organizing from the Inside Out.  This system reduces each item in your world to its purpose in your life, creating vacuous space and facilitating fluid function. YAY!

First, thou shalt analyze the area to be made magnificent.  Refer to Organizing Part 1: Get Real with Your Needs.

Sort

Pull out everything in the chosen area and sort strictly according to how you use each item....K....

Purge

Recycle, throw out or archive or store anything that hasn't been used recently.........Mmmmkay...

Assign a Home

Group the keepers according to how you use them and assign them homes where you use them.  Use sticky notes.  Now you will know what, if any, storage container-y things you might need to get.  Make a list.  *I will list my favesie organizers for different areas of the home in a future bloggy thingy.

Contain

Get the containers you need, put your goodies in them. Put the goodies where they go. Label them if there is even the slightest doubt about the obviousness of what goes where. Labels on people: Not Good. Labels on people's stuff: Way Good. *teehee*

Equalize

Keep up on the putting of things in their places day by day. Your system is set to make

that easy, so stay committed. A space for everything and everything in its space! 

Live it, love it, DO IT!!!  It will make your life so fluid.  YAY!!!

Organizing Part 1: Get Real with your Needs

You have to get real with what your needs are before properly organizing any space, especially your personal clothing closet because it's such an extension of you. This is time to get out a sheet of paper and actually list or bubble graph (my fave) answers to each of the 4 questions that follow.

What works for you? What are the areas you know you got it going on, both in life and in the area you are organizing? What about this space makes you smile?

What doesn't work for you? What are you consistently misplacing? Is there any thing you never have a place for? Is there anything that you can't do because of the clutter? How do the disorganized spaces make you feel? If people visit,

do you sketch out about what they might see?

What is super crucial to you? What makes you? What moves you? What do you need to have ready to go at any given time?

Why are you doing this? Make a list or graph or collage or something like that of all the blessed lightness you will enjoy when your space is organized. Hang it in the space until the project is done (or keep it up if its pretty).

Now you will have real intention behind your organizing project & it will be fun & enlightening, & long term functional. YAY!!!! 

Closet Upgrade

So I couldn't bear to post a before picture. Too much exposure. Just trust me, it was chaos. Random mishmash of plastic hangers has been over for a while.  I upgraded to black no-slip hangers a year ago. But since summer, everything needed resetting.

I hung tops, dresses and trousers on the low bar and sweaters and coats on the high bar.

I hung a jewelry organizer on the open part of the back wall. An over-the-door hook set hangs purses and scarves I think I'll want to pull this season.  I have a gazillion shelves, compliments of The Closet Lover.  I folded pullovers and hoodies and put them on the chest level shelf. Naturally, I put pants on the two shelves below the sweaters.

On the inside of the other door (they're french style, opening out) I hang my steam pressing pad- I steam most of my clothes before wearing.

I put luggage and out of season items I don't want to part with on the way up high shelf. Also, grubby work clothes have their own shelf, up high but in reach. I got cheapo adhesive hooks at AceIsThePlace and hung hats in any remaining spaces.  Petitioning the landlord & The Closet Lover to build me a shoe rack.

 Getting dressed is so easy breezy now.