Purging the Clutter Part 2

So a friend pointed out in yesterdays post that I’m not really purging the clutter because i’m not actually throwing out much, just reorganizing all of my things into a usable form; so my apologies if my title was misleading! So here is where we left off… everything pulled out, the closet painted and new shelves hung, so all that was left is organizing it into categories and putting most of it back.

Whenever I organize an area I try to think about how I am going to use the things inside the closet. For this closet, that’s pretty easy, everything is pretty much in one of three categories: seasonal items, linens and decorating items used throughout the year (i.e. glass jars, candles, mason jars). So I simply separated everything by its category, breaking the seasonal items down into smaller categories: Valentines, Spring/Easter, Summer, Fall (all of my Christmas stuff is stored in a separate location because I have so much).

I put any glass bottles, mason jars, and candlesticks on the top shelf, even being as short as I am, I can still reach the top shelf without a step stool, so I put the things I use the most at the front. The candles were put on the next shelf down, and in color order so I can easily grab whatever color I’m looking for. The only Christmas decor I have in the closet are my candles since my Christmas storage is in the garage and I couldn’t let my cute little snowman melt in the Texas heat.

Everything else is stored by category with wire bins corralling the smaller items. I love the wire bins because they are easy to see through so I can still see what is inside and find what i’m looking for easily. The linens fit into some old stacking white wire bins I had from The Container Store. And again they are sorted by color: blue/springy, white & burlap, red and finally multicolor.