For the past couple of months I have been super busy. I took a seasonal job at a retail store and I was working my full time job. I pretty much had time to get up in the morning, go to work, go to the part time job, come home, go to bed and repeat. It’s the beginning of 2014 and my seasonal job is done. I recently had a rare day off from work because of the snow storm Hercules which led me to look around and see what organization projects I could undertake. For Christmas, I got some new clothes and since I was having a hard time finding room for them, I decided to tackle my closet and dresser. It’s the beginning of the year so it’s a perfect time to purge. In with the new, out with the old! This is how I went about reorganizing my closet.

Step 1: Do all the laundry and put everything away.

The only way to really see what you have is if you have everything in front of you. By doing all your laundry and putting everything away, you then are assured that you have all of your clothing and there is no guessing.

Step 2: Take everything out.

Now that you put everything away nice and neat, take it all out! I took everything out of my dresser and closet. For the most part, my closet was pretty organized, I just wanted to thin it out a little more.

Step 3: Make four piles–Keep, Sell, Donate, Toss

Anything that was new with tags or gently worn that I didn’t want anymore, I put in my sell pile. Things that were slightly worn or missing tags went into the donate pile. And anything that was damaged or missing (like missing socks or shirts with holes in them) went in the toss pile.

Step 4: Group items together

I categorized my drawers in a way that would make it easier to find what I am looking for. For example, I have a drawer with just my workout clothing in it, another with my swim suits and cover-ups, shorts in another.  As I was hanging things back up in the closet I grouped like things together, like jeans, skirts, dress pants, dresses.

Step 5: Hang it up

I also hung my clothes up with the hangers facing backwards. Now as I return things to the closet after I have worn them, I will hang them with the hangers facing the opposite way. I did this so that in six months from now when I clean everything out again, I will be able to easily see what I have worn and what I haven’t worn. At that point I will take whatever I haven’t worn and either sell, donate, or toss it. That was a great tip that I saw on Pinterest so I wanted to try it myself.

Step 6: Bags and shoes

I re-organized my shoes and purses to straighten everything out. I had these wicker baskets I purchased a while back to hold my purses in.

And this shoe organizer is perfect for my sandals, flip flops and flats.

I also took a tie rack and hung it side ways so I could hang my clutches.

Ahh, it looks so pretty! I am happy with how it turned out. I feel better already and it only took about an hour for me to do. Time flew by with a glass of wine and some tunes playing. I have so many more organization projects that I want to take on this year. What are some of yours?

Happy 2014!!