How I Re-Organized My Closet with The Home Edit

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After five years of living in my apartment, my closet was a hot mess. It’s an amazing closet I’m not going to deny that. But holy crapzola, it just turned into a mess that I couldn’t control. I absolutely love organizing things, but between blogging, working, and all the other odd jobs, I just didn’t have time to actually sit down, come up with a plan to organize my closet, and then actually organize it.

Being that I’m type-A though, I couldn’t handle my closet anymore. I couldn’t find my shoes in the massive pile on the floor. I actually couldn’t even walk into my closet because of the pile of shoes on the floor. It was bad.

But, The Home Edit (who I’ve been obsessed with on instagram for a while) announced that they were offering twenty percent off of their DIY services. When I heard that, I think it took me about two seconds before I decided that this was the perfect solution for me. I immediately bought the package and decided it was time to do the cleanout. So let’s get into how all the magic happened.

How I Re-Organized My Closet with The Home Edit

Figure Out What Your Needs Actually Are

So the first thing The Home Edit had me do was fill out a survey talking about what I actually wanted and needed out of my closet. I also took a look at what aspects of my closet are actually working.

For me, it came down to a few important points.

I value form and function in a space

I can’t just have a space look pretty. For me, there’s no point of me having a closet that looks pretty if I can’t actually use it or can’t easily grab anything. But, I don’t want to have a closet that’s incredibly functional and ugly. After all, I still have to look at my closet all of the time. I go into the space everyday. Plus, I love how my clothes and shoes look, so they shouldn’t be put into a space that’s ugly.

For me, I need a solid balance of form and function in a space for it to work.

Some parts of my closet were working

My closet wasn’t a complete lost cause! My shoes may have been a mess, but how I had organized and sorted everything that was hanging up was perfect for me. Here’s an example of how I organized my dresses: work, casual, party. Within each of those categories, they were then organized by sleeve length, then color. Tops were organized by sleeve length then color, and cardigans were organized by color. Skirts were organized by type.

I’m losing money by having my closet be this messy

My closet was so messy that I couldn’t find anything. You know what happens when you can’t find anything? You assume you don’t own it, so you buy another one. And that keeps happening over and over again. It’s a money waster.

Follow the Plan

With the survey, I present The Home Edit with the layout of my space and the full measurements. After a few days, they came back to me with a full plan for an organized closet and a list of things I needed to buy. I’ll admit, it took a few weeks to pull together all of the things for my closet. But once I had everything, here’s how I went ahead with organizing my closet.

Pull Everything Out

My friend (and blog photographer!) Kim came over to help me and we pulled EVERYTHING out of my closet. Literally everything. Including hangers and the random things in there that weren’t even clothes. Yes, the piles were alarming.

Vacuum and Dust

It was necessary.

Go By Category and Keep, Toss, Sell

Part of the reason I also did this was because I knew that there were a lot of things in my closet that weren’t going to go back in. They were either going to get thrown out or posted on poshmark.

Hang It Back Up

As I went through each category, everything that didn’t go into the toss/sell pile got put back onto a hanger to go back into the closet. I would then hang up each category into the place that The Home Edit suggested.

DC woman blogger with Old Navy faux suede skirt

Get the Shoes Off of the Floor

This part was my favorite suggestion! The first was to install this elfa over-the-door contraption with baskets attached to it. It’s so much better to hold my flats than my previous over the door shoe holder. Why? Well this one holds SO MANY MORE PAIRS OF SHOES! Plus, I can use the top to hold some of my clutches.

For my heels, wedges, and loafers, they had me get a number of plastic shoe boxes to store on the built-in shelves on the upper part of my closet. It’s completely brilliant! This stops my shoes from getting dusty (which was a major problem), my floor stays clean, and all of my pairs of shoes stay together. Now, the one thing I did decide to do (which went a little against what they suggested) was to keep some of the shoe cubbies that I had already had. They ended up fitting in nicely on the smaller shelf and work well for the smaller shoes.

Hang Up the Purses & Scarves

The last brilliant thing they did was suggest I buy purse hangers and a scarf hanger. I ended up having to move them from the originally suggested spot, but they’re working brilliantly! It’s easy to find my purses and sort through my scarves.

The Non-Clothes Things: What I Kept and Tossed

I mentioned earlier that there were a handful of things in my closet that were there because they had nowhere else to go. Or they were being semi-useful in my closet. So here’s what stayed and here’s what left.

Bookshelf

I thought I was being all brilliant with a bookshelf and using it to store bags and folded sweaters, but it was taking up more room. It was also making more of a mess. Purses were falling out and I couldn’t actually find anything in there.

Laundry Basket/Sorter

This was a new-ish addition to my closet, but it’s one that I love. It has three different dividers and it’s excellent. But if I had to put it anywhere other than my closet, I have no idea where it would go. I’d probably have to toss it. Luckily, The Home Edit said to keep it in the closet!

Over the Door Shoe Sorter

You know those shoe sorters you can get from target that you hang on the door? They have little baskets you can hang your shoes in, but it only fits like 24 pairs of shoes total? Yeah, it was time for this to go.