When we moved in our room was like something you would find in a cabin. It had dark wood walls with a very strange built in dresser into the wall. The drawers barely fit and they were very awkward to store clothing in. I took them out, hung them on the wall in the laundry room for sorting clean clothes, and my father used some salvaged boards to make shelves for me.
This is actually the children's room but our in-the-wall dresser is the exact same. When I showed friend's our house after we moved in, half loved the wood walls. The other half agreed with me about painting them. They were very dark and I thought just a tad too creepy for someone with a very over active imagination.
Loaded with my clean clothing I started to make piles.
-Summer Clothing -to be put away in the attic
-Get Rid of Clothing
-Clothing to hang in the closet
-various piles of shirts, trousers, pj's etc..
When I go through my clothing I ask myself if I had worn it in the last year. If I hadn't and if I don't have any attachment to it, I'd throw it on the Get Rid of pile. Later, I'll take the get rid of pile and take it to the basement to my sorting table. From there I will see if I want to consign anything, give away anything to friends, and finally to the thrift store. Sadly some things were worn only once or twice. What seemed like a perfect fit in the thrift store, turned out to not work at all once I was home. Luckily I didn't pay much for the item in the first place so it isn't too hard to give it away. I also had a save pile. I found a sweater I bought at a thrift store in Chicago in 1996 a couple days before I met my husband. It isn't my style anymore but I couldn't quite part with it. I also kept a few other items. Not only sentimental items but also shirts I wore a lot. Think of how exciting it would be to go up in the attic with a mother, aunt, friend and look at their clothing from the 60's or 70's. Hopefully the children can look at my saved clothing and have a good chuckle, maybe even dress up for Halloween as a 90's girl.
Here's my after photo. Everything has been sorted. In the children's room I have thrifted wire baskets to store their clothing in. I made fun labels with stamp letters for each one. Eventually I'll have the baskets in here too. All of the baskets were thrifted. The paint on the walls were eco mistint paint from a local environment home store.
When I organize my closet I love putting them in order by color. I think it helps keep the clothing organized better and it just looks so darn pretty. You can't really tell the rainbow hue of my clothing but I start with red/pink/green/blue/brown/purple. Not exactly your classic rainbow but it works.
Skirts and white shirts on the bottom. The skirts have no magical rhyme or reason, just stuffed in there ready to wear this winter. Most of my wooden hangers are either thrifted or from IKEA. And this is what a 1927 closet looks like. Not too much space but enough. Because I have so little space in the bedroom for clothing, it makes a seasonal clean out really important. If the closet and shelves are too cluttered I tend to start leaving clothes piled on any available space.
Summer clothing going away for 6 months until the sun comes back.