Who else follows The Home Edit on Instagram? If you don’t (you should), the cliff notes version of what they do is organize your space so that it looks like it came straight from the pages of a magazine. The little baskets and bins, color coding, and labels instantly put me at ease whenever I come across one of their photos. I nearly asked for pantry organizers for Christmas after seeing the magic transformation they can have on a space (that was until I snapped out of it and remembered that our pantry is not a walk in one like most of what they organize and is instead a tall cabinet).
Fortunately, despite our house being old, the closet sizes are more generous than the pantry. If you remember from a while back, my roommate and I never actually stepped inside our house until after we had already paid the initial deposit thanks to her mom house hunting for us. Once we were set on living there, my roommate sent me photos and videos that her mom took of the space and along with that a text that said something along the lines of you can have the “master bedroom” (the room actually isn’t much bigger than her room but does have an attached bathroom) because you’ll love the closet. Well, Rebecca was right, I do love the closet!
My closet in Greenville was the smallest one in the apartment despite my room being the master bedroom since half of the space was taken up by our water heater. I had to get pretty creative with how to fit all of my clothes (because admittedly I definitely have more than I need) in that small space, so it is such a luxury to have some elbow room (quite literally since it’s a walk in) in my closet in Birmingham. Luckily, with my love of organization, I already had most of the storage pieces I put in it to make it feel like there is a space for everything. Now, my closet feels more like my own personal boutique as opposed to a cramped eye-sore.
The door of my closet is visible when you first walk into my room so although I tend to leave it closed, it doesn’t bother me to have it open on occasion since everything inside has a place. Over time I’ve acquired a lot of fun jewelry, so I was sure to bring my hanging mirror and jewelry organizer from PB Teen with me when I moved. Having all of my earring and necklace options in front of me as I get ready in the morning reminds me to actually wear the pieces I own and keeps them from getting broken or lost. On the inside of the door, I have a navy hanging shoe rack also from PB Teen that I store sandals, flats, mules, and other thinner shoes on to keep them off the floor. On the blank wall that the door opens onto I hung up a metal coat hanger that I use to hold various purses, tote bags, and duffels. They could be more organized (and some of them should probably be moved to the wicker basket I have on the top shelf), but it makes it easy to grab them when I am on the go.
The closet came with some built-in wire shelves, and I knew that I didn’t really want to mess with those even though they could have easily come out. Instead, I decided that those shelves would be the perfect place to put some of the foldable navy bins that I had from previous apartments and my classroom to store things that I don’t need as often. To the left, as you walk in, there are three of those shelves that I store items that I reach for more often. One of the bins holds hair styling tools like blow dryers and straighteners while the other holds my clean towels and washcloths so that I can easily grab a new one when I throw a dirty one into my Scout laundry basket that fits perfectly underneath. Since I tend to hoard extra hangers, I keep those hung on the bar above the top shelf so that they are organized and easy to reach for when I need to hang something up.
Next to those built in shelves are all of my hang up clothes. I like to organize both by piece and by color which may sound like a lot of work but has actually become a habit for me. I start with skirts and tend to hang two on each of the clipped hangers I have. Behind that, I have some of the pants that I have hung up instead of folded, and then I move into all of my tops. Within each color section, I start with tanks and move my way to short sleeves and then long sleeves if I have those before moving on to the next color (typing this out is reminding me just how Type A I can be with some things, yikes). My shirts continue to be organized that way until they are all hung up. After my tops, I have a few vests and then in the back corner have all of my jackets. The bars nearly intersect in the back making it harder to get to things, so the best way I’ve found to organize my jackets is to keep the ones that I don’t wear as often at the very back with the more frequently worn ones closest to my vests.
Underneath those pieces, I have two white shoe shelves that are stackable that I found at Target. There is something about shoes being neatly placed that makes a closet feel so organized. Space wise I have found that it works best to place the tallest shoes on top and to have shoes of each pair facing in and one facing out. I like all of mine to look neat, so I make sure that I the right shoe is facing out with the left shoe facing in on my shelves.
On the other bar, I have dresses and sweaters hung up following the same sleeve length and color cluster method. In the space, right before my dresses I often hang up clothing that I want to photograph for the blog but aside from that the method is pretty much the same. One thing that I am so glad that I did was place a storage organizer with bins from Target along the back wall of my closet to store smaller items like socks and sports bras as well as scarves, folded pants, and workout shorts. Keeping them in the bins makes it feel as though they are organized when in reality I usually just toss them into the bins. I do store a backpack and hat on top of that organizer underneath my dresses, but if I were looking to make things seem even neater, I am sure shallow bins would work well.
The remaining bins along the top shelf contain cleaning supplies, toiletry bags, soccer cleats (still haven’t been able to part with them even five years later), sunscreen, and other miscellaneous items. The wicker basket has become a catch-all for tote bags and travel items that I don’t use as often and honestly probably should go through to get rid of some.
That about sums up the entire space aside from the Scout rug I have on the floor to add some more color to the area that I used to have in a college apartment. I’ve included my organization essentials below for y’all in case you’re looking to get a head start on spring cleaning.
hangers // skirt hanger clips // pants hangers // shoe shelf // hanging shoe pockets // navy square bins // cube storage organizer // jewelry rack // laundry basket // small rug