Are you sick of everything in your closet? Use the 40 Hanger Closet organizing plan to pare down your wardrobe to the perfect essentials.
Maybe it’s a girl thing, or maybe it is just a “me” thing, but when my closet is organized, my life just feels a little less chaotic. Despite my best efforts, there are simply times where life gets hectic, like right now during this quarantine, and it feels easier to close the door than to keep it tidy. Thus, I organize my closet a lot. Too often, according to my husband.
He might be right, because I often wondered, with all this sorting and purging and re-folding and re-hanging, why does it always seem to feel like I never have anything to wear? I mean, obviously I could see that I DID have things to wear… there were countless blouses and sweaters and tee-shirts and dresses and jeans… oh, the jeans. There were plenty of things to choose from. So why did I hate most of it?
Years and years of “buying just to buy”, followed by another few years of buying things just “because they were on sale” left me with a closet full of clothes I didn’t really like, and with a closet that I kept re-sorting and re-organizing in the desperate hope that perhaps if it all looked better, I’d like it more. But it never worked. Despite a closet full of clothes, I would still only choose the few pieces I did actually like, while all the rest simply took up space.
I’m not proud of my bad habits, and I now realize how destructive those years of insatiable consumption really were. I am so thankful to finally be on a different path; one not controlled by always needing more. Even so, sometimes I would feel like I was constantly trying to dig out of the mess I made.
So I finally decided to take a more drastic approach with my closet. Inspired by my dear friend Edie’s closet tips, I invested in some very nice hangers—the cool skinny kind that are covered in velvet so your clothes don’t fall off. I only bought 40 because I couldn’t bear the thought of spending anymore, and I figured 40 would be enough to hold all the clothes I actually liked.
The rest had to go.
The process was actually was a lot easier than I would’ve thought. Honestly, I knew exactly which items I wore and which ones were just adding to the clutter. I filled 3 large bins with clothes that I wasn’t wearing. I wanted to donate them right away, but my husband convinced me to hold on to them for a few months, just in case I missed something.
Amazingly enough, in the months since this drastic purge, I have honestly never been happier with my wardrobe. Not only do I not miss the clothes I got rid of, I actually feel like I have more to choose from than I did before. Now when I walk into my closet I actually like everything I see. Getting dressed is a breeze, and keeping things neat and organized is much easier too. With only 40 hangers to work with, I am forced to keep things to a minimum, and anything new that comes in has to be something I truly love or it doesn’t make the cut.
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Thank you for this lovely post, this has really got me thinking about what can be done to organise a closet!!
Only 40 hangers...but you are right. I can't do chaos either and the worst time of the year in my closet is the change of season. There is always method in the 'madness', maybe you've convinced me to let go of a few items...
I love this. I have so much clothing it’s insane. I have a huge collection of Anthropologie rare dresses and multiples of my favorites. I’m trying so hard to part with them. It’s a big part of the clutter in our home. My hubs points out frequently that I do not wear these so I have put one on every now and then and wear it to the grocery store to attempt to prove him wrong. I need a friend to come get some without me knowing - like a couple a month so maybe I wouldn’t notice them missing. I love the white T-shirt as well. I quit wearing them when I was 17. I had my son then and deodorant stopped working on me and only my armpits sweat. It’s like a hormonal thing. As long as I can keep the stains out that would be awesome. I love that pic of you on your Doing it Scared book cover.
This is great motivation to purge before our next move! I've donated a LOT but now I need to go back through it once more. Then, it's off to the kids closets! Wish me luck!
Thanks for sharing, this is a fantastic post.Thanks Again. Great.
We have 4 seasons and extreme weather during summer and winter. I hate how I have to own tons of clothes. On top of all that, my weight oscillates so much
Where's the "after" pic?
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Well firstly, my wardrobe isnt big enough to hold forty hangers... lol. And I have about 12 items hung up, four tshirts folded, two pairs of jeans, two pairs of leggings, two pairs of shoes (one for wet weather, one for dry). And one coat. And I wish I could downsize more....