OO: Tips & Tricks: Cleaning The Master Closet, Part 2

Yesterday, I showed you the riveting Before & After of my master bedroom closet organization overhaul (OO). 

Today, I am tell you my closet cleaning steps!

• First, I remove all items that obviously do not belong; like that record player or the 300 boxes of tampons. About that... get ready for things to get weird. Scott read somewhere that if some type of Zombie Apocalypse or Armageddon happened one of the most important things for women to have, other than food and water, would be tampons. So, he thought I should buy a lifetime supply. Not really, but I am definitely stocked up. Since our master bathroom has been under construction for the last 2 years a lot of the under the cabinet contents have had temporary homes all over the house. They are finally making their way back to the bathroom vanity. Don't you fret, things get real weird again soon.

• Next, I make one area pretty. This helps to keep me excited about the cleaning and organizing. If I can find one area where most of the items are already together I will fold, organize or stack them nicely so I can look at that one spot and have an incentive to keep working.

Like...... Scott's boxers. Hello world, welcome to my husband's underwear drawer. I made the image super small so you couldn't get too good of a look. I am letting all of the weirdness fly in this post. So, I will go ahead and tell you how happy it makes me that his boxers are no longer a huge pile. Now, you can see every pair. The more I talk about Scott's boxers the weirder it gets, huh? OK I'm done, sorry!

• Now, I go through everything and group all like items. I always start in the messiest area and end up in the tidiest area.

• After I have been through all of the nooks and crannies of the closet I think about  the best location for each grouping.

• Undoubtedly, I soon find myself starting to wander again and ditch the closet, leaving it half done. To combat this I work on another project that will make me happy- like putting clothes in order of color or putting all similar hangers next to each other. I need these "fun" breaks every once in a while to keep my focus going strong! (I AM A NERD, AREN'T I?)

• As soon as I feel like mind-wander-itis has passed I get back to the important task at hand- finishing the closet!

• I do the final few sortings. Then it is time to fold, stack and tidy .

• And I am left with this:

After a good closet cleaning, there is always a huge pile right outside the door of things that need to go other places. So, I deal with that. But I usually like to leave that pile there for a few days so Scott and I can enjoy stepping over it every time we go into the closet.

There you have it! That's how the organizing machine in me goes to work on a closet! Aside from adding shelves and hooks all over the place I also make my own drawer dividers out of cardboard. Good thing we already covered the Scott boxer drawer. I'll just give you glimpse of the tank tops and hats drawer.

I can't get enough of Microsoft Paint. I like to give my photos a touch of the 80s! Is it possible that anyone else uses it as much as me?

Do you need more closet-cleaning advice? OK, I will give you a few more closet cleaning tips and tricks:

• Keep a few boxes handy. One for donation. One for "I want to keep it but I never wear it." And one for "this goes to someone else or another room in the house." I try to keep the "I want to keep it but I never wear it" box in the attic for about a year. If I haven't touched it in that time I will get rid of most of it.

• I have one entire closet in my house full of boxes and containers. If you have a ridiculous area like that take a peak at it after you have grouped all of your like items. See if you can find any containers that fit your new group of similar items to keep them nice and tidy.

• I have learned a few things from the show What Not To Wear. I don't always take their advice. But I do think about it every time I am going through my closet. Ask yourself 3 questions:
• Do I love this item?
• Is it flattering?
• Does this article of clothing help present the image I want to project?

If the answer is yes to all three then you can keep it!

• Matching hangers! They make your closet look fantastic! Slowly, I am replacing my old plastic hangers with wooden Ikea hangers. Recently, I heard about Huggable Hangers and may have to change things up. Huggable Hangers are slim and space-saving. They also help keep the clothing on the hanger.

image found here
You can buy knock-off ones here on Amazon.

Don't forget my initial tips on organizing like putting on some happy music and comfy clothes! Does anyone else have the organizing and de-junking bug?