Closets and Clothes #2

How to organize your closet so it works for you.  Tips to help you keep your closet clutter free and neat.  Tips to make seasonal change easy. 

Contact us:

pauline@justintimesolutions.com

519-227-2241

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Clutter.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It's just unmade decisions.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

What are we going to talk about today, Rebecca?

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Well, we were talking earlier about closets. We were talking about clothing, how much we get, how to start to declutter it, start to purge through it, how you gotta look in the mirror and think, I look good. And those are the clothes you want to keep. That's right. Those are the ones you want to keep. So we've got our pile of keeps. Yeah. And we've given you a list of ideas where you can donate in the London area. Um, even if you're not in the London area, all you have to Google is like consignment stores, thrift stores, you know, ladies' clothing.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Um, donate it, ladies' clothing because then I'll get you to the women's shelters. That's right. Yes. So there's lots of places you can Google to take your clothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

So now we've we're we're on to this podcast and we're talking about we've got the clothing to keep.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Now what do we do?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

So in my closet, I like to have all my t-shirts together, all my pants together, jackets or sweaters, you know, something that is to pull on. Um and then I have some casual parts down here, like would be like leggings and yoga pants and that type of thing. I don't like to fold things and put them in my drawers. You hang a lot. I hang so much. Like a lot of people put their t-shirts in their drawers. Yes. And I get it. And I get it. But I like to just be able to see them. So I just I pull them out of the washer, I hang them up, and then they dry and I don't dress in. So that's just kind of how I do it. I I'm not good with drawers.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Well, and I think it also depends on the uh space you have. Fair enough. Fair enough. You don't if you don't have a big dresser, or you have to share your dresser with your significant other. Who you love dearly. Who you love dearly, and I gave Shane two tiny drawers.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

That was nice of you to share.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

I thought it was, yes, yeah. Um, but yeah, you have to kind of think about what you the space you have available.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

That's right, yeah, that's right. And I do find I have to me, it's more it's easier and more beneficial for me to have it that way. So that's how I do it. We've been with clients before who like to color code. I love color coding. I know you do. You love it. I do. Another thing Rebecca likes to do is putting outfits together. I do. So she can just grab it and go, I need to wear that outfit, and you're good to go.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Because sometimes people get so overwhelmed that they don't, they only wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. And when I heard that on one of our many workshops that we did, it bothered me. I thought that's ridiculous. I've spent money on these clothes, I'm gonna wear them. So one year I actually started on one side of the closet, and it didn't matter if I was just going to the grocery store, I put on the next thing, and I'm telling you, I went to the grocery store looking pretty good. I had some pretty fancy stuff on at the grocery store. But I bet you felt good. I did, I felt good, and I wore everything in my closet that year, too. So that's a good idea. So when really good idea. When I do closets, um, not my own, because I have a very small closet, but when I do closets for clients, I obviously like to put um pants and skirts on the bottom. Okay, lower level. If they have a double. That's right, if they have a double, and then of course we've got short sleeves. I put short sleeves together and I put long sleeves together. Yeah. And then I do color coordinate them. Yeah. So I put whites, soft pink, socks, soft yellows, and then I go through um the colors like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Um that's a great idea, it's a great idea. Um, but okay, so let's let's say you've just done somebody's closet and you know, you guys are hanging it out and putting it away and everything, and um, you know, she says to you, you know, I I do like that, and it looks really good on me, but I don't know when the last time I was I wore it. Well, you've got a little trick. I got a little trick. Two things. I do seasonal change because I don't have a big enough closet. So do I. Yeah. Yeah. But if you do have a big enough closet, then you can have an area where it's basically spring and summer, an area that's winter and fall. But the trick is that we're talking about, we may have mentioned it in the last one, is that you know how your hanger goes on to your rod like this. Yes. And so you could pull it on and off easily, right? Well, flip it around like this. So if you have them all flipped around when you organize your closet. She laughed at me. I do. Um, come time to change your season. If there's a sit in the wrong way, you haven't worn it in the last six months. And that what a great way to kind of because I just remember I'm gonna be honest if I wore my black pants in the last two months.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Well, and I find that a year goes by now, just like that. Oh, our our mom's told us. It would happen, and it's happening. It's happening. Yes, it is. It is just a warning.

unknown 5:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

The other hint that I leave with a lot of our clients, and I do this in actually in garages too, which is very interesting, is I say to our clients, clear the corners. Clear the corners. So if you've got a closet and you've got luggage piled over in one corner and dirty laundry, I have a little thing about dirty laundry, dirty laundry in a basket over that corner, and then some like some purses and stuff over in this corner. You won't feel that good about your closet until you clear that, clear that floor. The floor has to be the floor has to be empty for two reasons. Then you feel like a everything is up. Yeah, you're not down here looking and digging, everything is up, it's eye level. Yeah, you can see what you have.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so me, for me, in a closet, I really feel that's a spot for shoes and that type of thing, like racks for shoes. Um, like something that's organized that's has a purpose. Um, you know, your luggage too, unless you're um in business that you travel a lot, chances are those suitcases come out a couple times a year, right? Yes. So to me, they should not be in prime real estate. And to me, my master closet is prime real estate. That's a place I go into every day. So they should be somewhere else. Or if they are in that closet, often there's shelves way up high that the average person can't get to on a daily basis. So that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

You like to have if you have a lot of shoes, you like to have them, if possible, they can be on the floor. Yeah, whereas I am I have I like to have those shoes up at that top rack. That's interesting. And I like them in clear shoe size totes. You can get them at like stores, department stores for usually a bundle of like 12, sometimes 10. Yeah. With green lids, pink lids. That's what I like. And then I label those little totes. Oh, I label it like white heel, white flat, blue pattern, you know, all those. And then I walk in the closet and I'm like, see, I'd like to tell you a little secret.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

What? A, I don't have that many shoes. No, you don't, I'm sure. Because I'm not a shoe person. And B, I got a couple fancy shoes. Because I have to wear them whenever I guess they're not my favorite thing to wear. That's true. Yes, but you need them. I need them, and I do look good in them when I put them on. That's true. So I make sure I have nice ones and good ones, but but someone who maybe goes out to work every day wears maybe two or three different pumps a week. Yeah, right? And I get that. I get that. So see that see, guys, that's the thing about working with us. We all have different thought processes. And it's not that I don't know what Rebecca does, and I can suggest it if you don't like yours on the floor, but we have all these different ideas, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

And lots of times clients will be saying, you know, they'll say to me, No, I can't have it up there because I can't reach, or vice versa. Yes, exactly. I don't want to be bending down to get my shoes. There you go. So there's all kinds of different ways to organize your closet, color code them, you know, style, short, long, um, evening dresses, stuff like that. All the summer dresses can go all go in one section, but every closet is going to be different. Every closet's gonna be different, and every hint is gonna be different.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

That's right, and it has to work for the closet. You it has to work for you, yeah. Not me, yeah, right? Because that it doesn't matter. I'm not going in your closet, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

It's one of my favorite things to do. And actually, we went into one closet and they said, Okay, go ahead and organize it. Here's the clothes. So I put the clothes back, and there's this this thing. Oh where did it come from? Um, it came from was it neem and markets?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

It was either neiman market or um what's that other one? I don't know. Anyhow, it was a closet organizer. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

And it brought like a hanger way up there at the top because they were really good. Brought the rod down. Brought the rod down, it was. And then I hung up all the sweaters and then I put the rod back up. It was brilliant, it was lovely.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

And you know, if you're only five foot, right? Four foot ten. I have a it's lovely.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

The other the other customer client I was in is she had um she had done a renovation in her master bedroom and she had built out the headboard where her head uh the headboard of the bed was. So there was a good two feet between the headboard and the actual wall, but you couldn't couldn't really see that. And then all of a sudden she's like, Okay, well, let's organize the closet, and she rolled it out from under be from behind the headboard.

unknown 10:03

Whew.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

That was like that was nice too. Interesting. Because it was nice and well hidden.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Lighting, yeah, lighting in a closet. Oh, you gotta have lighting in a closet. So often we don't, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:15

So if you're renovating your master suite right now and you're thinking you're gonna put in a lot a walk-in closet, yeah, lighting for sure, don't you'll never overdo the lighting.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

No, because you can always put a dimmer on if you have to, yes, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Now, would you suggest if somebody's over uh renovating their home or their master suite and their closet, yeah, would you suggest um an organizing system or a closet system that has the drawers inside the closet, you know, so then they don't have to have a dresser out in the master bedroom?

SPEAKER_00 10:46

So it kind of depends on you as the person, okay? So I do enjoy having a dresser in my bedroom um because that's where I have some family pictures, you know, a nice decor, that type of thing. That's really the only place I have decor in my bedroom. It's true. But if you're the type of person who just likes open space, or maybe there's not enough room in the bedroom, then why not get all the drawers in there? But what I would suggest so that you can answer that question is do your purge donate and organize first before you have the closet people in to rebuild and renovate.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

It's such a good idea. And listen, we're telling this from experience. Yeah, not just closets, purge, go through your house, declutter your house before you have the designer come in, before you have the contractor come in. Because if your kitchen counter is chock a block full of stuff, and it's just stuff, everyday stuff, because it's a drop zone, and the designer comes in, she is going to see just that a full counter. She wants to see the way you want to live. Yeah, that's right. Otherwise, she's going to just maybe even I not say impose, but she is going to do a design that she thinks works around your family.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah, and it may not. Exactly. Um, because designing is different than organizing.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Absolutely, it is.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

And um, some of the it depends on what type of designer you get, but they may be able to amalgamate those thought processes and they may not.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

And when you find a good designer, they're so much fun because they have so much experience as well. I went to a house downstairs and we were in the basement, and they said, Oh, well, our off-season coats are under the stairs. So normally I would go around the basement in underneath the stairs. There's like a closet. Yeah. No, these people, you just pulled the little thing, and the whole side came out of the stairs, and they had boots, and then they had wasn't that cool. They had clothes hanging. Oh, I just it just keeps getting better and better. Yeah. I love the little ideas that designers are coming up with, contractors are coming up with to save space and use existing space.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Well, that's the thing. There is there's a lot of space that we don't use in our homes. There absolutely is. And um, like I'm grateful, I've got a raised ranch, three-bedroom raised ranch, not a big house that works for me. Um and the storage is minimal, so that's a good thing too, because they keep it down. But the thing is, every spot that can be storage is used properly. Yes, it has a purpose instead of just shoving it in there or just open air dropping it out, yeah. Right? Yeah. Because I did I was talking to somebody not that long ago, and they said, you know, the problem with getting a bigger home is I'm gonna have more room to store stuff. That's right. And I said, you know, it's true. And the thing is, sight unseen, we forget about it. And I don't care how organized you are because I'm extremely organized. And I was thinking the other day, I went through that storage area underneath my steps. Yeah, my stairs. And I only have I have very little in there, but it's stuff I do not need on a daily basis. And I got thinking, you know, I'm wondering what's right at the back. I remember pulling it out last year. I remember deciding I was keeping it. I believe it has something to do with toys for my little grandson, but I'm not 100% sure. So it's time to pull it out again and make sure that I'm gonna use it. That's right. Right. But it's true, I think we all have those little corners, right? Those little corners that we only go into maybe once a year. And go, now what do I have in here, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Do you not find it's so surprising? We've kind of got off track here, but do you not find it's so surprising when we go into a client's house at how much garbage we actually take out? And I feel bad saying that because I'm not saying that your house is full of dirty garbage. We're not by any means, but you would be absolutely shocked at how much stuff can be taken out of, for example, a kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Yeah, yeah, it is, and you know, we were talking about this the other day because we were talking about you know how much garbage is to dispose and and where we can take it and all this, and we'll get back to the closets really quick here. But what we were talking about was we did have a client, and they said, Wow, that was a lot for the garbage disposal, yeah. And and we both said, you know what was, but it is shocking to us doing it for 24 years, and it's amazing when you clear out a whole house, and we moved her to a two-bedroom apartment, and we've cleared out a house she'd been in for six years, and it's like, where's that garbage come from? But you gotta remember that some of the stuff in there may have been kept for if I decide to do that properly. If I do so, it really isn't donatable, right? So it's garbage, yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

So, like for an example, and this is just an example. I'm just trying to think of something uh like a um an a uh foot rug, a rug that's been in front of the sink for 20 years, and I mean it's it's a rug, it's no there's no problem with it, but it is so worn that we have to throw it out, we can't donate it. Right. And this things like that just really add up. It's amazing to me how much garbage is is usually kept in a house and we don't think about it until we think about it.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, and true too, when we when we move somebody that's elderly and maybe hasn't been well for the last few years or whatever, what you have to remember is they haven't been cleaning out their cupboards like maybe you and I do once. That's right. Um, so stuff does get back there and like stuff does expire, and we do have to get rid of it, or it may have gotten in the bottom of the freezer and they can't reach there anymore. So then there's that, and then there's maybe stuff in the in the shed or like your closet, you know. You'll be surprised. If you just do three or four closets, you'll probably have a garbage bag. Yeah, it's the weirdest thing. Just check it out and let us know.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Let us know. You can comment, you can even send us a message and say you were right, you're right, because we're normally right, and if we're not, it's okay. That's right.

unknown 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

So the closet, we've got to get back to the closet. So we've got them hanging the other way. Yes. Um, we've got them organized the way the client wants them. So they're organized the way that you want them. So, what other tips can we have for the forest? When do you usually switch over your closet? So I do mine right around Easter weekend and right around Thanksgiving weekend. Works for me, helps my brain, it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

And do you find that when you switch, before you switch, like before you go and put them in, you actually like nah, that's not gonna stay.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Absolutely, I do. Probably about three or four items. Yeah, at least three or four items, and any other items that the hangers are hanging the wrong way. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

So there's one thing that I have done to my children is growing up, I have said to them, if you want something bad enough, yeah, one thing comes in, two have to go out. So it really made them think, Do I love this enough? Yeah. And I'm telling you, even to this day, they do it. They'll get a new sweater at a thrift store and they'll bring it in, and then I'll say, Give me two. Yeah. And they come out, they come down with a half a bag full.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah. Because they go, I don't know. This doesn't work. This doesn't, yeah. The other thing that I find too when I do my switch, or even sometimes when I go to put my shirt on in the morning, um, I have t-shirts that I wear around the house all the time, but they're they're they're nice enough t-shirts and everything, but they'll get stains on them because I'm cooking or I'm baking or whatever. If I get one that gets dirty stains on that, I can't get out, it's time for it to go. But what I was mentioning to a client the other day was a lot of people don't realize we have textile recycling.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

We mentioned that before.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

We did mention that before. So if you have anything that you really can't donate, like because it's got stains all over it, it's or it's got tucks in there, rips, or whatever. Yeah. Put it in a bag when you take it to Goodwill, or there are also textile places in some of the cities that you just take textiles to to recycle, just put a piece of tape across it, textile recycling, and then they know it's not regular clothing.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

And just to keep you informed, I actually did reach out to a textile recycling firm. Right. I believe it's in Burlington. I reached out to them because we want to go, we want to have a little free. So as soon as we get on to that, we'll take a video and you guys will see it too. Yeah. And we'll let you know what's happening, and that'd be cool. Excellent. Yeah. That is our podcast, Clutter. Just unmade decisions. We will see you next time.