You say potato. I say po-tah-toe. You call it excessive. I call it organized. We can agree to disagree, right? Or maybe I can convince you that we don’t need to disagree at all.
See, I’ve been laughed at by many a friend who has seen my closet. They weren’t chuckles of disbelief at a chaotic mess hardly contained by a bulging door. Quite the opposite in fact. I think people nervously chuckled and thought, “Holy cow! Is she this anal about other things?” (The answer to that is no by the way.)
Hear me out. You should arrange the clothes in your closet by color. Yes, Roy G. Biv style. Just in case your elementary school teacher didn’t introduce you to good ol’ Roy, that means red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Obviously we’re missing white, brown, and black. But why would anyone go to the lengths of arranging their closet by color?
It makes picking out clothes faster, which shaves a little time off the morning routine. My mornings can always use a little extra time, so any shortcuts are a welcome addition. I usually have an idea of what color I want to wear, and I only have a small closet section to browse rather than the whole thing. I never have to ransack my closet looking for my favorite purple top because if it’s clean, I know exactly where to find it. Your closet will also look like a pretty rainbow, so there’s that.
I also recommend taking your closet organization a step further. Separate your clothes by season or likeness if you don’t have one set packed away in storage at any given time. Put short sleeves together and long sleeves together. Put dresses, skirts, and suits together. Put layering tanks together. Arrange each of these sections by color. It won’t take long to get used to your new layout, and I think you’ll love how quickly you can navigate the system and find what you’re looking for.
Just like you winterize your home and car to get ready for the changing seasons, you should evaluate and organize your closet in the coming weeks. Call it autumn cleaning if you will. Take the opportunity to pull everything from your closet, shake it all out, and clean the dusty corners. Set aside the articles you won’t wear again, and find somewhere local to donate them if they’re in good condition. Make sections of alike clothing and arrange them by color as you put everything back into your newly organized closet.
Is there anything missing from your closet, like warm layering staples you’re guaranteed to need? If you have a list of wardrobe items you’ll eventually need this winter (warm leggings for me), you can take your time price shopping or keep a look out for sales. Starting early will hopefully mean you’ll not be forced into buying full price sweaters in an overly crowded department store when the first snowfall catches everyone off guard. Instead, you’ll stay in with a hot beverage and bask in the light of your color coded closet.
What do you think: great idea or obsessive compulsive? Do you color code anything?
Photo courtesy of VARNISHdesign.
Is that a photo of your closet? I love the chandelier!!!! I’ve gone back and forth with organizing by color and type. Right now, I’ve got everything in there organized by item–all cardigans are together, all dresses together, etc. Seems to work well for me because I just visit each “section” to pick out my outfit. But maybe I’ll try color coding again now that I’m switching over to fall/winter clothes.
I only WISH that was my closet! Actually, my new apartment does not have lighting in the closets or in the hallway immediately outside the closets. I tried really hard to take a picture of my own clothes to show the world, but none of the pictures were blogable. Now that I think about it, that’s another way the color coding has been helpful. All the dark colors look similar in my closet without light, but I know what color something really is based on the section it’s in. I don’t have to pull items out into the light to see what color they are.
Our closet is organized by type of clothing (pants, blouses, dresses sweaters etc) and in each group by colour although I don’t follow the Roy G. Biv order lol.
Your system has the same effect though! I just find it fun to put it in rainbow order.
My closet is organized by color and sleeve length. I think it’s funny people are surprised by this – how else would we do it?!
Yes! Validation! Thank you =)
I tried organizing my closet by color. I think because I saw that Jessica Simpson had done it on the Newlyweds and I loved the look and concept of it. After my first trip to the dry cleaners, everything got messed up and I still have not gone back. I do try to really organize my closet two or three times a year for my mental health.
I’ve been doing it so long that it’s my natural instinct to put a shirt on a hanger and place that hanger in the right section. I don’t really think about it. I bet if your clothes are already on hangers from the dry cleaners it’s just too easy to open the door, scoot everything aside, and hang everything up together.
I usually organize my closet by colour but sometimes I get sloppy putting stuff away. I’m actually trying to preen it and take stuff out. I’m not ready to give some clothes away, because I’m not shopping anymore and may eventually need them when my others wear out, but I want my closet to be less congested. So I’m moving what I don’t wear often (coincident with my move to fall clothes) into the spare room closet. I usually wear the same stuff all the time anyways, so I wanted to give it a try and see if it makes it easier for me to keep it organized by colour!
Good luck with that! It sounds like you have some work to do. I bet it will be great to space out your clothes in different closets.
My closet is color coded! I started doing that a few years ago and just kept with it. It does make things easier. I keep my off-season clothes packed away, but my closet holds my most-worn clothes, while my dresser is a mix, so I do organize things by clothing type in there. I re-organized my boyfriend’s dresser last week, much to his amusement. I love organizing clothes! We’re not weird, right? =)
We are totally not weird! Will your boyfriend’s dresser stay the way you organized it? My husband’s closet doesn’t look anything like when I first put it together.
Wow. I don’t think I have enough clothes to bother organizing by colour! We have some shelving in our closet where I have piles for sleeve lengths, sweaters, bottoms, offseason, and then workout/painting clothes. I just usually pick the top of the bottom pile and the top of the “pick sleeve length appropriate for weather” shirt and I’m set!
It sounds like you’ve got your own organized system that’s working for you!
My wife and I have a starter home and the closets are SMALL. I use the closet in the office and she uses the closet in our bedroom. We bought a wardrobe for out-of-season clothes (i.e. sweaters during Summer) as well as for some of our dress clothes. It makes it a little less packed. One day we will have a walk-in closet!
Small spaces can be really tough to organize because you may not be at liberty to group alike items; they may just have to fit where they can fit. Usually the smaller the space, the more critical the organizational skills.
I’ve been arranging my closet by color since I was in high school. It does make so much more sense. Need a white shirt? Oh, hello there row of white shirts. It takes seconds when you’re putting your clothes away, and saves precious morning minutes!
I couldn’t agree more!
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