2.5.11

Wardrobe Overhaul!

I LOVE a big project. The kind that makes a huge 'After' impact and leaves the 'Before' shivering in it's wake. An overhaul like this is not for the fainthearted, it takes a lot of time, patience, a fresh eye, ruthlessness and a little bit of cashola in some cases.

It's coming into the colder months here in Queensland, and as always, the wardrobe transition is bumpy. Hot days, cold nights, rain, wind and occasional blistering sun mean that at some point, every article of clothing I own needs to be accessible, from jumpers to shorts, dresses to coats. The absolute jumble this transition creates was the 'slap in the face' for my decluttering urge last week, and boy did I need it!


We have a double track, sliding door wardrobe, symmetrical and simple in layout. The double track system means that out of  3 doors, there are always 2 plain doors side by side, with the mirrored door in front. Those of you with something similar will know how frustrating this is, access wise. I can't put away my clothes at the same time as Hubs, and one part of each section is always covered by a door so I can't access my full hanging section at any one time. For this project and all of the photos, I was able to remove one of the plain doors. Oh how I dream of a triple track system!

Visually uninspiring for morning outfit choices, wouldn't you say?

Trying to be neat, I stacked all of my shorts on the top shelf this summer, but really I would have loved to hang them, to save on ironing. I love to iron, really I do. But the catch is, I I like to treat it like a leisure activity. That means, I do it when I feel like it (not necessarily when  I need that pair of linen pants). I might do one skirt, or decide to iron all of hubs uniforms, but the fact of the matter is, I iron on my own terms! Under the shorts is my make up station. The lighting is best in our bedroom for 'beautifying', and I'm excited to do a little Make Up Station Makeover in the near future :o)





Under the makeup station and a box of pj tops is this jumble of everything from scarves, to pj's, to handbags, to jeans. There boxes trying in vain to contain, the whole thing was a hot mess!

The shoe 'situation' is definitely my least favourite of the whole wardrobe disaster. The timber rack is old and broken. It got moved in here after we replaced it with a new one at our front door because at the time, that's what was available. There are more shoes than there is rack, and the shoe boxes to the right are not easily accessible or visible so I often 'forget' about certain heels and boots hidden inside.

Over on Hub's side, things are pretty dismal. Technically, he owns less clothing. But somehow he manages to make it look like the same amount, and throws in the occasional random tool just to keep things 'fresh'. The overturned shelves make for a truly shoddy attempt at re-purposing and therefore do not get used effectively. Randomly, some of our most important documents are shoved into a file folder you can just see, hiding under my maxi dresses, basically because the folder is bright green and I don't want it on display. I love green, but there is no green in our decor at the moment, so it stays hidden!

Hubs has every possible style of coat hanger known to mankind, and until the overhaul, I absolutely agreed that purchasing hangers when one already has plenty is not very thrifty! But I have slowly been striving for matching hangers to really neaten things up and I thrifted my way to the most versatile, affordable and aesthetically pleasing hangers on the block, to help our wardrobe be the best it can be! You'll see them further down.


So that's the 'Before Tour'. Uninspiring, jumbled and totally un-organised. A triple whammy of awfulness that I had lived with for the last year. Okay, approx 14 years give or take, if you include every wardrobe I've ever infiltrated. After devouring dozens of blog posts on wardrobe overhauls recently, I was excited to tear into my own so here we go!

First everything on the top shelf had to come out. There is actually acres of space up there, but the gap to access them is disproportionate, an unfortunate design flaw :o( Oh well, we'll make do!

Everything that was hanging...

...gets piled up on the bed. I now wish I had taken more snaps of the room during this whole process, it was impossible to move in there!

Shoes are removed....sooo many flats! I feel my most confident when I'm comfortable, so heels are a rare find in my stash :o)
Finally my side is completely clear, and gets a good wipe down!

We had some spare shelves left over from the build that were the wrong size, but Hubs cut them to size and they fit like a dream.

He did wonder if I might leave him some spares for his side....sorry honey, this girl was in desperate need!

One shelf just wouldn't budge, and upon closer inspection, I figured it was Tool Time!

A handy little kit that is just for me! My parents bought me this a few years back, and while it may not be a thing of beauty, it gets used on a weekly basis!

My favourite tool (next to the tweezers that are just right for extracting Easter egg wrappers from B4's nose) is my interchangeable screwdriver! A couple of quick twists and I had every shelf right where I wanted it!

Now to sort the contents of those poor boxes...

...Belts under control. Check! Scarves and PJ's followed suit and then it was time for a mad dash to the shops, Kmart to be exact!

At $3 for a pack of 12, these are the neatest little hangers. I may or may not have needed another three packets on top of these four. Let's not do the maths.

I also nabbed some affordable, adjustable shoe racks that can grow and shrink with my collection...

Nice!

At one point I tried to keep the shelves useful, but they were just taking up too much valuable Maxi dress space. They have since retired to the garage to wait for a new project!

Ta Da!! By the next morning, I achieved a pretty sweet outcome!

Shoes neatly lined up, and a perfect gap under my newly spaced shelves for my slippers! Some things are meant to be!

All of the boxes are neatly lined up, and slide in and out with ease. The little useless gap they leave feels like a waste of space that I really can't afford, so somewhere in the future budget, I will hunt something down at Ikea that fits snuggly and utilises every inch! I already had these, so for the moment I'm staying thrifty!

We grabbed some more of these great tubs from Ikea for storage. They are cheap, sturdy and stackable and we have slowly been 'boxifying' everything in the house with them. We even take them camping because they stack well in Hub's ute and have proven to be water tight! They are a perfect fit for the top of our robe, and keep our out of season clothing neatly stored.

Ahh, I get such pleasure seeing things match!

But I also have a few of these great stack hangers for my t-shirts and cardigans.

Hubs side has seen major changes and looks miles better, with just a few more things yet to improve below his hanging space.

Mostly matching hangers!

Some smaller versions of my boxes corral Hub's socks, belts, boxers, and more socks.

But he still needed these big fabric storage cubes to hold his HUGE work sock collection, and another bellow for work shorts. They were once a part of B4's wardrobe storage, and had been waiting for a new purpose.

Those with a keen eye will notice one of Hub's boxes holds Nerf Guns. Such a child!

From the left....

.....to the right, things are looking pretty shmick!

So now I just have this little project waiting for me :o)

During this overhaul I removed minimal clothing, as I do regular checks and donate the things we aren't wearing. We have tried the Ebay route, but to be honest, there's a lot of effort that goes into photographing, listing and posting the items, and I would rather support local charities and thrift shops, so we really only use Ebay for big ticket items. 

I spent around $35 for the hangers and shoe racks, and I know that they will last me a very long time, so I'm happy with the small investment! Other than that, this project was just a matter of time and effort, and I am so happy with the results! It's been about a week now since the overhaul, and things are still neat and organised, and I actually enjoy putting our washing away, now that everything has a home or a hanger!

I am currently saving like mad for a little winter wardrobe spree at my local DFO, and I'll share a little more on how to do that thriftily soon!

xo Cassie

4 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for your sweet comment! Truly appreciate that you took the time to write it, such a nice treat to the blog!

    That's one GREAT wardrobe project you pulled off! I should really do something similar to my teeny tiny closet. It's a total mess in there and I don't even know where to dig (or dive) in when I'm opening the door. Maybe I should get some cute hangers and boxes, just to inspire myself to take on the project! :-)

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  2. Hi Jannica! Thank you for stopping by! I can feel an addiction to OhSoGlam and PassionForPoison already, so I will be dropping in all the time!

    Wardrobes store the kind of clutter you can hide behind a door for a long time, but eventually it can get very frustrating! Buying hangers and boxes definitely got me excited and inspired to make some changes :o) I'd love to read about your wardrobe progress when you get to it ;o) xo

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  3. Wow wow wow! What a transformation! Thanks so much for sending me the link, I am so impressed with all of your hard work and the incredible ideas you implemented to streamline your closet! It looks incredible! Congrats on a job WONDERFULLY done!!

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  4. Thank you Jen! I laugh to think of how I would manage to fit all of my clothes into your shared closet! YOU are amazing for being able to share such a compact space! Hubs gives me a look when something of mine 'creeps' onto his side ;o) The suprising thing about the overhaul was realising he has quite a lot of clothes himself!
    Thanks for dropping in, hope to see your lovely face around here soon!

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