Closet Organization
Is there a more intimidating or thankless project than cleaning out your closet? I have to confess that I usually have it on my To Do list for weeks before I get up the courage and fortitude to tackle the project. Don’t get me wrong, I adore a well-organized closet and am somewhat OCD about keeping it clean day-to-day {bf chuckles}, but a full-on cleaning can be intimidating.
I’ve found that approaching the project with a three-fold plan of attack is what works for me. That and spending days hours on Pinterest drooling over beautifully organized closets to get me in the mood… ❤
- Love It or Leave It – First you need to go through every single piece in your closet and decide whether you want to keep it. Tears optional.
- Share The Love – Once I’ve created a pile of pieces that need a new home I set up a Closet Party with some friends and after that any remaining items will be donated to the Goodwill.
- Live The Dream – Finally, when your closet is filled only with the pieces you’ll be holding onto, it’s time to sort, organize, rearrange, and plan for the future.
Need more details? Read on…
Love It or Leave It:
I become somewhat attached to inanimate objects so after years of carrying clothes that still have the tags on them from one apartment to another, I have had to set rules for myself. If I haven’t worn it in the last year – It has to go. End of discussion.
You may have a home with more storage space or larger closets and be able to keep more clothing and accessories, it’ll be dependent on what you have available to you and how much of a “clothes horse” you are. In general, if you can’t remember the last time you wore something, you probably don’t need to hold onto it. If your shoes are falling apart, you can probably let them go. If a piece has needed hemming or tailoring for as long as you can remember and you still haven’t taken it in, you guessed it, you should probably put it in the “out” pile.
Share The Love:
My favorite thing to do once I’ve created a pile of things that I’m not going to keep is to plan a closet party – I invite some friends over for cocktails or champagne and free reign of my closets. It’s been a tradition for a few years now and I love to include new friends, it’s a fun bonding event. And what’s left over after the closet party gets dropped off at the donations center of Goodwill.
Living The Dream:
Now that you know what you’re working with you can figure out how best to approach the cleaning of your closet. I like to tackle the reorganizing process in three steps:
- First I rearrange by type & color {i.e. pants with pants, solids from black to white, then prints}
- The second step is to consider the season and organize your closet so that the clothes & accessories that you’re wearing now are most readily available. This can mean deploying under-bed organizing trays or boxes to be stacked on shelves out of reach in your closet if need be.
- Finally, after all of that work, I like to take stock of what I have and how it’s arranged and implement some changes to make getting dressed run more smoothly – Like adding accessories holders, changing hangers, or separating work clothes from play.
{All photos from MCLV’s Closet Porn… Board on Pinterest}
You can find some other tips and suggestions in Sincerely Jules’s Details or Cupcakes & Cashmere’s Closet Clean-Up or her Operation Organization: Closet Edition.
So tell me, how often do you overhaul your closet(s)? Do you have a specific process whenever you get started on this project?
Weekend Adventures
Over the weekend this little city girl escaped San Francisco for a weekend of wind, water, and family at dreamy Fallen Leaf Lake near South Lake Tahoe – Virtually the same weekend as last year actually.
After a short stop in sweltering Sacramento we headed up to the breezy, welcoming mountain air of Tahoe. I’ve been visiting my family’s cabin on Fallen Leaf Lake since I was a baby and it holds so many memories.
Day-long hikes gone awry with their destinations never discovered, swimming in the freezing snow-melt lake, climbing up waterfalls, boating on the lake in everything from a canoe to a kayak to a Sun Fish sailboat, and even flipping one of the boats & getting stranded at the opposite end of the lake with a friend.
Needless to say a jolt of excitement and anticipation always thrills through me as soon as I can see the distinctive roof top and the vacation actually begins.
And this was an especially fun weekend as the boy and I joined my parents, aunt, uncle, and grandparents at the cabin for a relaxed weekend of hikes, boat rides, reading on the deck, vino, and huge family meals. I mean the amount of food, not the number of people by the way. 🙂
How was everyone’s weekend? Do you like to get out of your hometown on occasion and relax in the country or are you a city mouse through-and-through?
The Man Behind The Camera
Other than my dear friend Liz, the remainder of the MCLV Personal Style photographs are taken by the current boyfriend Sean. He has written a guest post for us in the past and trained me in the ways of CrossFit, but has never been featured on the blog for his fashion prowess before.
That is, until today.
True, he spends the majority of his waking hours in workout clothes, but when he does deign to put on street clothes, he has a great personal style.
When we initially met in our senior year of high school he was extremely preppy – Polo shirts, button downs, and wool or cashmere collared coats. But over the years his style relaxed, becoming more and more low-key, and when we got back together two years ago he wore very little other than t-shirts, jeans, and flip-flops.
But miracle of miracles, over the last two years his sense of style has begun evolving again. And more than that, he has actually started to enjoy clothes and fashion more, like he did when he was younger. Now he shops online, asks for advice on putting together pieces in his wardrobe & picking things out, and genuinely has an interest in shopping and expanding his wardrobe.
These days he prefers to keep his daily look low-key and minimal, and primarily wears black, white, and navy. Jeans are usually his preference and he traditionally pairs them with a Lacoste Pima V-Neck, a button down, or a Polo shirt. As for brands, we’ve found that the shirts that fit him best are Express for Men and Lacoste, they both have slim fit versions that work well for his frame.
When it comes to shoes he’s tried virtually everything, from boots to slip-ons to boat shoes to loafers. He loves slip ons and its all I can do to make sure he doesn’t wear his rubber soled slippers out of the house. The most worn pair of shoes he has are his tan, lace-up Banana Republic loafers, but he did just get a new pair of slip-on boat shoes that are very versatile.
They can even be worn with pink!
And a style post wouldn’t be complete without mentioned his creativity, he picked a kick-ass Halloween costume last year that suited him quite well despite being an incredibly last-minute choice – The Travelocity Gnome! 🙂
In the mood for more? Check out my Let’s Hear It For The Boys post filled with tips, ideas, and inspiration for putting together a complete and stylish wardrobe.
What do you like most on the men in your life? Are there certain styles that appeal to you more than others? When it comes to mens accessories, do you think less is more?
Moi Contre La Vie 