organize it! {bedroom closet}

Let me explain my recent absence from blogland lately....I caught some kind of virus a couple of weeks ago and it's still hanging on.  Basically a scratchy throat with lots of coughing, especially at night.  Not very conducive to creativity, I must say.  However, I'm feeling about 80% better this week, so I've actually gotten started on a few sewing projects.  More on that in a day or two.

One thing I've been doing is cleaning/organizing like crazy.  Not sure why.  I didn't make any New Year's resolutions to do so, it's too early for "spring cleaning," and I'm not pregnant so it can't be nesting.  Maybe I've been on Pinterest too much and have seen too many OCD-inspired closets and pantries.  :o)  Anyway, last week I finally tackled my bedroom closet:

Not the worst mess I've ever had in this house, but it was starting to bug me.  Fortunately our master bedroom has "his" and "hers" closets so I can keep my mess separate from my husband's mess!  I had a tower of jeans about to fall off that top shelf, baskets overflowing with purses and scarves, and a bunch of dresses and skirts I was hoarding "just in case" I can ever squeeze back into a size 5 or 6. 

I also had a bunch of shirts that ended up kind of short on me after I had my son.  Why is that?  Does pregnancy make your torso stretch or something?  So there they all were, along with that humongous garment bag (that had to stay no matter what....it houses my wedding dress and it won't fit in any other closet!).

And my shoe rack was a mess too....I blame my toddler.  That and the fact that half of those flip flops were old and nasty and just needed to be trashed. :o)

So anyway, after a lot of sorting and purging, here's what I have now.

Not bad.  I mean, you can actually see the floor!! 

I filled up a huge bag of clothes and shoes to give to Goodwill, and some of the nicer stuff (like dresses I only wore a few times before I got pregnant) I'm attempting to sell on Craigslist. 

I freed up so much space I was able to hang my scarves and some of my purses up so they're more visible (I found that hanger with all the hooks in my husband's closet.  He didn't appear to be using it so I thought why not?).  The pretty baskets on the shelf now contain that stack of jeans, and some belts and hats I don't wear that often.  One thing that still bugs me is my current storage system for maternity clothes and "wow I'm really fat because I just had a baby and breastfeeding did NOTHING to change that" clothes:

As you can see, those bags are stuffed to capacity, but I don't want to sort or purge anything from these collections just yet.  I might look into under-the-bed storage stuff or maybe those space bags where you use a vacuum to suck all the air out and make it all compact.  Do those actually work?

Hope you weren't bored to tears...maybe this post will inspire you to do some organizing of your own.  :o)