COLOURFULWORLD

Sunday 2 August 2015

Rainy weekend Wardrobe Organisation




A few weeks ago during a rainy weekend I decided I needed to sort out my wardrobe.
Every day I struggled to choose what to wear...

Now, my wardrobe is only about 1,30 wide!! Yes, just that narrow, and I have quite an extensive wardrobe too. Although I don't buy many clothes, I still have clothes from many years ago and I feel very attached to my things when I like them.

I also have lots of bags and they were hanging from a "coat rack" on the door and others in a box on the top shelf of the wardrobe, and every time I wanted to change my bag it was difficult to get to them so high up. Apart from holding the bags the high shelf at the top was useless.
My winter tops were in the small plastic drawers. Luckily there's no need for bulky winter coats, although I brought a few from Portugal with me and I keep them in the spare room wardrobe, which happens to be bigger than the one in our main bedroom...


                      BEFORE
The wardrobe was messy, handbags were to high to be reached... Here I had already removed a few clothes

 After removing the clothes, I removed the rail, then attacked the shelf with a hammer, removed it and painted the interior with the same colour as the rest of the bedroom. I also removed the rails attached to the door from where I hung bags and belts and painted the interior of the door.

Painted and almost ready for the makeover
 After that it was time to put in a new and slightly wider rail (the other had been attached to the shelf) attached to the side walls, right at the top of the wardrobe.
Then I bought a small cheap 5 shelf unit and put it in the middle leaving a gap either side.
I bought 3 boxes and put scarves in the top one, winter wraps in the middle one and stockings and in the bottom one.
On the left shelves I put my turtleneck pullovers, and a couple of bags that I still need to hang up.

The clothes were all sorted by colour - from white to black - first all the shirts/tops, then a few hangers with my skirts, then a few hangers with trousers, and to the left are the longer dresses that fall in the gap left by the little shelf unit.

                      AFTER


I bought a few transparent hooks that could hold up to 1kg and stuck them to the door and let them sit for 1 hour according to their instructions, before I hung my favourite bags on them. 
I also bought a battery operated light that is set to switch on sensing movement, so that if I have to get dressed in the dark I can actually see my clothes.

On the side of the shelving unit I drilled some holes and screwed metal hooks and I have hung the small purses. You can see that on the right in the above photo.

My favourite bags hanging on the door of the wardrobe - do you like my two cork bags (middle left)?
The transparent hooks used to hang the bags
The battery operated light with motion sensor
I feel so much better for getting this sorted, managed to get rid of 4 or 5 items of clothing that I never wear, and now every time I wash and iron an item I put it in the same colour order as before.

I also sorted through our chest of drawers, and folded my t-shirts instead of having them on top of each other which makes them more difficult to access. 
I used cardboard for the dividers, but I've now bought some white mdf board and I'm just waiting for my husband to cut it to size. (I'm not afraid of tools and power tools and can use most of them, but the electric saw is just too scary for me).


T-shirts sorted in the chest of drawers


Update - About a week later a couple of the transparent hooks started falling off, one of them falling in middle of night scaring the hell out of me when the bag hit the floor!
I have now glued those to the wardrobe with "Liquid nails". Not sure if it was because the door was freshly painted, or maybe I should have cleaned the area with alcohol?

Anyway, it's an improvement of the former wardrobe! What do you think?

If ever we buy another house it will only be on the condition I can have a walk-in wardrobe, and I'll be in Heaven!!  :) :) :)

14 comments:

  1. Thanks, with such a small wardrobe the possibilities are limited!

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  2. You did a great job and it is a lot of work too. I always have to change the summer and winter clothes once a year and that is a good reason to arrange everything again and get rid of some clothes and shoes.

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    1. Thanks Marianne, yes it's still a lot of work to sort clothes out! Of course with the change of seasons it's a good idea to sort through what you use and don't use.

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  3. Uh, by golly, that´d scared me off like crazy, too, in the middle of the night making noise ;-)
    Well done, I sorted out last year - sadly I don´t really find a place to hang my bags, got a typical German "Schrank". Do you "roll" the t-shirts?

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    1. I folded them in half and then in half again. I had thought of putting some hooks on the wall next to the wardrobe to hang my bags (I actually saw that in a film recently) but my husband wasn't too keen on that, all the drilling and then having the bags on display either...l

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  4. Sami - I was going to say hat's off to you for all this organisation your t-shirt collection looks better than the knicker drawer at Victoria's Secrets... but then maybe until you get your WIR maybe we should all keep our hats on!! Looks great and I bet it inspires you to wear newly found clothes?
    Wren x

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    1. Thanks Wren. Yes I did "find" some clothes that I like and hadn't worn for a while and some that I disliked and are now in a box to be taken to the Salvos. I keep on wishing for my walk in wardrobe...lol

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  5. That looks lovely - I feel so much better when I have sorted my closets out.

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    1. Quite true Gill, it seems a weight has been lifted and I feel happy when I open that door and things are neater.

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  6. Looks fantastic Sami, this is something I really need to do too!

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  7. I wish I was more organised overall! Glad I managed to start somewhere and now I think I will carry on bit by bit...

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  8. Great job! You do deserve a walk in wardrobe though. One of the advantages of moving all the time is to keep my clothes to a minimum, but they still wouldn't fit in your closer ;)

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    1. Thanks Sara, I think it must be one of life's luxuries to have a walk-in wardrobe!!

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