Organize Clothes

We're nearing the point where we can move our bedroom back into our master bedroom. In case you missed it, we've been sleeping in the living room since about July, but we did paint our bedroom and pick out a closet organizer.  Sadly, the closet organizer was not up to our standards so we are going to take it back.

So since our next project is tearing out existing floor and putting down a new sub-floor, it's time to get one of the biggest organization projects to date and one that strikes a little fear into my heart - the clothes.

Right now, I'm currently enjoying about 3-5 different categories of clothes:
1. Maternity wardrobe
2. Summer wardrobe
3. Work wardrobe
4. What actually fits wardrobe
5. A size or two too small wardrobe

This was housed in a few different ways:
My Dresser (a stunning Mission-style dresser from BG Furniture, Canadian made), 1 Rubbermaid bin, 5 random moving boxes, 1 hanging rack.

I started with dresser and emptied the entire contents on to my bed.

It felt a little overwhelming.

Each drawer in my dresser is lined with scrapbooking paper and it always makes me smile. It's a really simple way to line your drawers and have it look really cute.

I used two laundry baskets to sort - one for my maternity clothes, one for my too-small clothes, and piled the out of season clothes into a clear under the bed roll tote.

I tried on literally everything I own. 

After a few hours of work, we're left with this:

Steps for success:
1. Try everything on. I mean, EVERYTHING!
My mom used to make me do this every year at back to school time to find out what we needed to get. It cuts way down on impulsive spending because you know what you need to make your wardrobe better! Plus, along the way, I always find new combinations of outfits I might have not thought of before.

2. Store out of season clothes out of sight.I don't know about you, but in Alberta in winter, there's really no call for shorts, therefore put them away! I usually switch my sweaters with my shorts every year once the seasons change.

3. Ask yourself if it's really going to work for you again.
In this purge, I actually had to give up quite a few blouses from my work collection because of breastfeeding the ladies are a different size, and even when they are back to their new normal, some of my shirts just aren't going to work. Ditto on things I've been keeping out of nostalgia or clothes that are just too "young".

4. Ask yourself how many you really need.
I have a lot of pjama's. I like pj's, and when I was pregnant I was very sick a lot, so they represented comfort. I purged a few older pairs because I just didn't need that many pairs of pj bottoms.

5. Get rid of clothes that don't make you feel good or that you don't love.
Or that aren't flattering! Get a friend or your spouse to tell you ruthlessly what is good or not if you can't tell for yourself.

One step closer to a new bedroom & closet :) What are you organizing today?