Closet Makeover: A Friend In Need

When it comes to closet organization/reorganization I consider myself an expert on the topic (modest I know.) So, when my coworker/friend Natalia asked me for help I was happy to oblige and spent most of the weekend with her making this new amazingly organized and totally functional closet happen. I also took some pictures to illusrate the process for you. This is how it started:

It doesn't look that bad, right? That's what I thought too that is, until we started with step one (analysis/selection) and I realized that worse than it looked. 

In Natalia's case I attribute the misleading first impression to one simple thing: shared hangers. She had multiple dress/skirts/shirt stored together on the same hanger and as we went through the closet she kept indicating that she had forgotten about alot of the really cute items we were coming across. After everything was said and done we ended up with a really nice pile of donations, as well as, consignable items. 

To Donate

To Consign

After all that business was taken care of the next (and last) thing to do was get it all back in the closet. As I mentioned before she was not utilizing her entire wardrobe due to the attempts at saving space by hanging different items on one hanger. She is more of a visual person than either of us realized. My suggestion: tiered hangers and some sort of visible shoe storage. We picked everything up at Target for probably less than she will get back on her consigned items and put them to work!

We sorted items by type (shirts, pants, skirts, etc.) and made special effort to make sure that anything she could wear to work would be easily seen and accessible. Almost everything was hung on hangers that could be hung on each other so everything was visible but, not necessarily sitting on the main dowel. This was what we ended up with:
 

That didn't include any of Natalia's warm weather items. She was content to put them in some form of storage but, I took a look at the unique shape of her closet and figured we could use that to our advantage! I came up with this extra mini dowel fastened to the shelf above which would hide behind her current wardrobe. This way it's perfect for storing summer items now but, when the weather warms up again she can put heavier winter items back there!

I wish I could take credit for the construction too but, that was all BF. He did an awesome job, you can't even see it unless you are looking for it. Overall, a one day whirlwind for a fresh wardrobe perspective! Totally worth it... If you need help with your closet and would like my help you can email me and I would be happy to lend my organizational skills for a nominal fee.