A Place for Everything

A friend and reader recently asked me, "How do you have so many clothes?"

Well, the answer to that is simple: I keep buying them! (Most recent acquisitions? A pair of pink pants and blue denim capris for 6$ each)

A better question is, "How do you store so many clothes?"

Although I try to keep my clothing collection within reasonable limits by regularly selling/donating items that I don't like and don't wear, which means a constantly rotating collection of clothes, my fashion habit has still managed to take over half of my (large master) bedroom.

In case you were curious, here's the rundown:

On the far left corner of the western wall, the first thing you'll see is my closet. A few non-fashion odds and ends are shoved into nooks and crannies in the closet, but it is mainly used just for my clothes.

Open the door and the first thing you'll see is the hanging hook for hats, jackets, and my backpack. This is a standard or even large-size closet, but because it doesn't get much light, I typically reserve it for my less-worn clothes, plus the boring basics that I don't need to look at to know they're what I need. My off-season clothes go in two places within this closet: Plastic tubs on the floor at the left, and hanging on the far right, covered with a plastic bag. This closet is where I keep my swimsuits and other beachwear (in a crate on the shelf), purse collection (in another plastic tub) and shoes that are out of season or worn rarely enough that they are better kept in their boxes.

The rest of my shoes go on the shoe rack hanging on the outside of the door!

To the right of the closet, a freestanding jewelry box stands in a tiny narrow space. As of now (but not for very much longer is my guess), all my jewelry fits in or on this box, except for a few less-worn pieces that I keep in the black box at its feet.

Next to the jewelry box, because one closet is never enough, another closet! This is a freestanding wardrobe, and I love it because it projects out into the room, getting plenty of light when I need to pick out my clothes. I use this wardrobe to its fullest potential, keeping foldable shirts on the top shelf (It's rather deep, so I keep layering tanks and a few off-season just-in-case pieces in the back, and T-shirts and patterned tanks in the front.

Dresses, skirts, and nicer tops hang from the bar (and are so heavy they threaten to pull it from its attachment). Although you can't tell from the picture, these articles are arranged by type, then color, for fast outfit selection. On the floor level, some random junk is hidden in the back, while shorts sit in two piles (one for patterned and colorful, one for blue denim) in the front and jeans in another.

To the right of that is a tall dresser that I salvaged from the curb when some neighbors were moving out. It needed a little cleaning, but it became an invaluable storage spot for pajamas, leggings, athletic wear, and underthings of all sorts.

But the storage doesn't stop there, oh, no. Moving to the right, you can see the old pouch shoe storage that I have been using ever since the age of 10 (or thereabouts). 

I replaced it with the closet-door rack just last year when my shoe collection finally exceeded 15 pairs. Now I use it to hold my winter outerwear like gloves and hats, as well as my extensive collection of arm warmers. Since winter has ended, I'm trying to decide what's the best summer use for it.

So that's an entire wall of my room, expressly dedicated to the purpose of Unfashion!