📍Closet Progress Photos

I love progress photos.

I recently decided to start uniform dressing, which means that a portion of my closet is going to be leaving me soon. This is a very good thing for a few reasons. First and foremost – uniform dressing will answer my question of “what will I wear today?” And second, this means that I feel great about 86ing non-uniform clothes that I haven’t worn in a year or two. Third, who doesn’t want more space in their closet?

I hope that my closet clean out and simplification will inspire you. For the record I do have an ample sized closet that can handle my clothes, but what’s the point of having so many occupied hangers and “nothing to wear?!” Nul point.

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The decision to start uniform dressing serves a few goals:

No more wondering what to wear
No more random clothes coming home
Reclaim physical closet space
Reduce hangers in use
Change remaining hangers to matching stainless steel

Each goal holds equal weight – so I am excited to start meeting them.

After thoughtful consideration I chose my style uniform, which has always been a favorite; white top with black bottoms. It’s more involved than that, so much that I devoted an entire post to it; ☞ How to start uniform dressing.

The short version is that choosing a style uniform is wonderful. And with a vision of the future I can better deal with past decisions. So now I am taking progress photos as my closet changes too.

The following photos are taken on the first of the month. Like all transformations the change will not happen overnight; new habits take time. Welcome to my closet!

↑ So many things that haven’t been worn in two years! So many different hanger types!

↑ My dream is to have most of my daily clothes hanging on the top rod. Undershirts are folded in the dresser, sweaters are gently rolled into hanging canvas organizers, then dresses and skirts are hanging in a perpendicular section.

↑ I want to reduce my hanging shirts, but I love these breezy long-sleeves in the summer! I might reverse the hangers this summer to help me slim down the collection.

↑ Last month I realized that the hanging pants are the LAST pants that I consider wearing. My pant drawer (the middle drawer as pointed out above) is my daily go-to.
So I’ve decided that

• pants will be folded in drawer, NOT hanging on upper rod
• upper rod will be better for hanging purses and small shoes
• less-loved shoes should be sold on Poshmark

I just bought some organizers to facilitate my new dream, I can’t wait to show you a change next month.

↑ The new organizers are what I needed to straighten things up.
The three-cavity sweater hangars give me six small shelves. Current contents are (1) sweaters, (2) sweaters, (3) sweaters, (4) striped shirts, (5) white shirts, (6) chambray shirts.
I also got a purse hanger so I could get some totes off the floor. And you can see that I still have a few things hanging, but the biggest epiphany was removing so many other hanging shirts to make room – I haven’t worn them in a while, so I might put them all on Poshmark. Or not? I love them, but don’t wear them, so I am divided.

↑ I also added the gray 2×10 organizer. Originally I wanted to use it for my Tieks and small shoes, but found better utility as a trouser organizer. As noted above I use one column for non-leggings that fit now, and the other column is for the pants that are too small right now. My leggings live in a drawer in the built in dresser.
For those curious folks – my pants are rolled in a way that I can easily see the interior label, so if I want something specific it’s easy to find.

This month I will continue lightening my closet
I list things first on Poshmark and try to sell first
If unsold for a month, I remove the item and donate to my local Goodwill

↑ Few changes this month. I’ve already donated two boxes of clothes, mostly from the dresser, because I’m cleaning it up (inside and top). I decided to 86 a drawer full of “meh” pants so I could fill it up with casual totes and flat pouches that flop when stored upright.

My Poshmark patience is waning already, but only because my sales have been lagging – of course this is just a silly personal problem. A casual seller like me shouldn’t be expecting steady sales without steady work.
I am feeling the need for a new pair of shoes, so I need to get back to my old rule; of “one in two out” for everything new now. I paused that rule when I was pregnant and postpartum, but now that I can wear normal clothes again I have pieces (like ill-fitting khakis) that I am comfortable donating because I have no need of khakis in my illustrious stay-at-home-mom-blogger-podcaster life. Hello leggings as pants.
I should re-arrange my top bar to be seasonally appropriate.
I wish I had retail-style face-outs. I’m going to brain on that thought for a bit, because while it’s an unusual style for homes, I prefer them, AND I’m the landlady…so I can make whatever changes I want my future renters to have.

↑ Obvious decline since last update. I’m one of those people who needs to make a huge mess before organizing a space.

As noted, I’m having a hard time letting go of stuff.
It’s definitely coming from a money-spent place. I have at least 20 blouses from Express that I haven’t worn in years, and don’t need to wear…but they were $20-$60 each and it feels like I’m throwing away money. I don’t know how to get out of my scarcity mindset.
95 percent of the time I can get away with leggings and hoodies because I am a stay-at-home-writer and my dress code only requires that I can walk over a baby gate many times a day. Otherwise, I rent a gown twice a year, then sometimes attend retirement or change of command ceremonies where “Sunday best” works just fine.
I need to either
- Make a “No-Jeggings Ceremonies” wardrobe capsule
- Rent outfits for said no-jeggings ceremonies
Upon writing (one of the reasons that I love blogging!) I think that a special event wardrobe capsule would be best for me (I’ll still rent gowns). I can keep two tops and two bottoms that I super love, then donate the remainder to my local law school’s closet (it’s professional-only clothes for shiny new lawyers who cannot yet afford professional clothes. I’m not a lawyer, but I like to think that women using that closet have risen above adversity and just need a little boost to launch them and their careers).
I’m watching The Home Edit’s show on Netflix, and the idea of “choose the item or choose the space – nobody gets both” really resonates with me. There’s a lot of my closet that I would rather have the space than the item, so I just need to get to work.

↑ Sorry about the lack of updates during 2021 and 2022, I was busy being super stressed with a toddler in a pandemic with recently diagnosed ADHD – whee!

I have just enough order in my life now that I am ready to totally upend EVERYTHING. Follow this blog if you’re interested in watching me (a maximalist American) move to another country. Attempting the Perfect PCS, Take Five.