Get ready to feast your eyes on the most beautiful space you have ever seen.
BOOM. Internet explodes with joy. Welcome to my real life y’all. The one where things are crazy messy. And rooms don’t look picture perfect.
So our master bedroom was becoming a disaster zone. It’s been happening for the past 6 months or so. And yes, it is super embarrassing that I am even showing you our ridiculous mess. I would clean it up on occasion to vacuum or when people were coming over. But usually ‘cleaning up’ meant throwing everything into a laundry basket and then throwing said basket into my closet.
Yup. That’s me. Exposed and vulnerable for all the world to see. The sad part was that I couldn’t even close the door anymore. The floor was so covered that I couldn’t find anything clean…or anything that fit the growing bump. Things that should have been on hangers weren’t because I couldn’t find the hangers in all the mess.
And I had just WAY too much stuff. The clothing was out of control. I couldn’t possibly wear it all. I didn’t fit in half of it. It was a disaster in what should be a pretty ‘easy to keep organized’ space. I mean…when a closet is this big, you should be able to fit everything, right?!
The problem was that I haven’t purged in a long time. Things were still lurking from high school. I had my golf clubs in there and my wakeboard….both I haven’t really touched in seven years.
I have boxes of gifts that I was saving for the boys….little things for little holidays….like valentines day gifts but they never were given because they were out of sight, out of mind.
Just everything was a hot hot mess.
When I went to pack for Jekyll Island, I was having major anxiety….how could I possibly pick anything when I couldn’t FIND stuff? What is even my size anymore? What fits over the belly? What happened to ALL of my underwear? The struggle was real.
So in true Katie fashion, I decided to start another project with impeccable timing. Cue the safety goggles…we are going in.
Things got a lot worse before they got better. I emptied out the entire closet and my bedroom looked like it had a tornado rip through it.
Most of the stuff hanging up was non maternity wear….so the goal wasn’t to sort through all my clothing that may or may not fit…the goal was to simply get what I KNEW might fit at some point in the next five years back in the closet….and to sort out trash, old haven’t-worn-in-ten-years-stuff out, and organize my maternity stuff into one area so I can actually wear clothing in public.
In the end, I donated three trash bags worth of stuff, gave a friend over a dozen trash bags filled with clothes, shoes and handbags, and filled three trash bags of garbage. That’s just embarrassing.
In the end, the only purchase we made was more hangers. I have lots of tops apparently. I also tweaked the layout of the closet too…removing two shelves so that dresses could hang (yes I still have my wedding dress in there!) and long coats.
But hey look! A floor!
I purposely hung some things on a lower shelf without anything over them so that I could have a ‘pile’ spot. That way when my fresh laundry needed a spot while I put it away, it made sense!
All of my tops I hung up and that made a world of difference. Both top rows of tops are non-maternity….not really sorted, just hung up….and so I’ll have to wait to sort them later…you know, when I don’t resemble a beached whale.
On the other side, I have dresses and coats in the back, jackets and skirts on the bottom and then some rarely used totes on the top shelf.
The closet is sort of oddly shaped. At the end of the one wall is a recessed area with more shelving. It became the best place for shoes….I just wish they were a little longer so I could fit more!
On the other shelving I decided that it would fit all my pants and shorts – including workout pants and pajamas! I even have a spot for all my maternity stuff in one section so I know exactly what will be an option for the next few months.
All my sweaters are on a shelf…and I think once maternity stuff is packed away (ya know in 2026) then I can figure out a better solution to see them all.
And here is my hanging bar with all the maternity or nursing friendly tops. A lot of them are small or too short when I get to the end of the pregnancy or seasonally wrong, so I move them to the end and it keeps the stuff I can still fit in together. But overall, I have no problem finding things that fit now….it literally saves me TONS of time getting dressed.
The dress and coat zone. This is one area that I’ve realized needs help….fashion help. I have a few really cute and flattering dresses but honestly, I could do better. I need to find a few for church and a few flattering options for special events. Any brand suggestions?
This is the skirt and jacket area….also known as fall and next year when I have a waist again area.
And behind the door hangs my robe and some of my totes.
Whew! All done! But seriously – it feels AMAZING. And it’s been a breeze to keep organized because everything has a place now. I can keep things off the bedroom floor and hung up (it’s way easier since I can actually find hangers now) and it’s ever so slightly more convenient to vacuum 🙂
The point is….this was a very low low cost makeover. It cost me time and hangers. And I know that I’ve already made that time back twice over since I’m not searching for the clean underwear or other flip-flop.
Who knows….maybe this nesting phase will continue! I still have a gift wrap closet that looks like a death trap 🙂 It might be next. Or maybe I’ll try to catch up on laundry….it’s actually way more fun when you can hang things up immediately!