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Happy Tuesday, bros & babes!
My post from Friday was part one of the ultimate closet reconstruction, where Ryan & I (mostly Ryan) completely 86ed our old, basic closets. We now have brand new, functional closets with two clothing rods & LIGHTING! If you didn’t get a chance to see them, click here to catch up!
Part of the inspo for this massive overhaul, was me struggling on a daily basis to find different articles of clothing, CONSTANTLY losing shoes deep in the abyss that was my old closet.. & I had stuffed the old closet rod so full of shit it was actually BOWING in the middle. I needed a better system, because the former clearly wasn’t working.
Now that the closet is officially done & my clothes are hanging up post-organization effort.. I wanted to share with y’all the methods/best practices I’ve utilized to maintain efficiency. These fixes helped me personally eradicate stress in the morning, & I’ve been able to find everything without an issue.
I mentioned in my introductory post that I’ve worked retail for what feels like centuries. Clothing retail, novelty retail.. name the category & I’ve worked in it. I’ve won awards for how I’ve arranged the stores I’ve managed, & some of those practices became company-wide initiatives. (Initiatives that they still use currently. I’m not bitter about it, I swear.) I’m not telling y’all this fact to brag. It’s to let you know that the reason retailers have taken my shit & published it to merchandising manuals, is because these techniques have made it easier for customers to shop their selection (& they don’t look half bad either).
So, imagine how much easier it could be for you to create an outfit from your own closet, if possible for you to adopt that technique at home?
Welcome to the ULTIMATE closet reconstruction part 2: REORGANIZATION! Let’s get to ittttttt.
(Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links which loosely translated means I may make a small commission if you choose to purchase any of the products I recommend.)
COLORBLOCKING
Colorblocking is one of the merchandising layouts that I came up with at a former retailer I worked for. As far as I know, I haven’t seen anyone else try this on their home closet. I swear that it makes it hella easier to plan outfits, & it also gives you a better look at what you actually own. When your shit is all in disarray, I feel like it makes it harder to match things. With colorblocking, it gives the illusion that you own more clothes than you did before, because your options for various ensembles expand.
Colorblocking is simply arranging clothes by color. You start with the lightest color in your first block (white) & end with your darkest color as your final block (black). The blocks in between would follow your standard color wheel (see picture below).
You can tweak this as you see fit; I know sometimes coworkers I trained on this method would occasionally find some colors darker than others. You’ll also notice upon reviewing the color wheel that beiges, pinks, tans, browns, grays & blacks aren’t shown. While I improvised & inserted these blocks according to what I visually determined to be lightest to darkest, remember this is YOUR closet & you can do whatever you want!
You should start your colorblocking arrangement with solid white, sleeveless/tank styles first (I noticed that otherwise they get lost among the longer sleeved tops). Then, go to short sleeves, & finish with long sleeves. I arranged my closet from right to left, but if you want to do it left to right, you do you, homie. Live ya life.
From solid color long sleeved shirts, you then go to white patterned tops, which are also arranged by sleeve length & color. Let’s say for example, you have a white blouse with pink polka dots & another white blouse with black polka dots. Your white blouse with pink polka dots would come first because pink is lighter than black.
Sometimes patterns get tricky if they have multiple colors, which I encounter a lot with flannel shirts. I go by whatever is the predominate primary color, then the predominate primary color in the pattern. If there is three colors in the pattern, to by whichever one catches your eye first (or by whatever color matches the shirt you’d wear underneath it, if applicable.)
Here’s a fun useless fact: I just realized while writing this post that I don’t own any yellow clothing.
One may review this colorblocking strategy & be like “this girl is cray/obsessive compulsive/has too much time on her hands”.
First, allow me to validate 2 out of 3: I’m aware of my own insanity & obsessive compulsive tendencies in random aspects of my life. As far as having too much time on my hands, that unfortunately is not true. I wish I did.
Secondly, allow me to explain why this arrangement makes sense & is somewhat intelligent, and was not designed merely because I am a sociopath.
When you go shopping for clothes, or you head to your closet to put an outfit together for the day, your brain is already aware of what you need. Top & bottom. That’s an embedded principle, because you obviously can’t leave the house naked.
Your next conscious thought process is matching said top to it’s bottom, or bottom to its top, according to color. As humans, we are highly visual creatures. 90% of the information sent to our brains is visual, & we process that information faster than we do when we’re reading it.
So, if you have to wear navy dress pants to work everyday, your eyes will then go directly to the shirt color that will match with navy. If your closet is colorblocked, this is easy. If your clothing isn’t arranged in any particular way, you’re most likely scanning the closet rod a few times before finding something that works. With no organization in place, you can also potentially reach for the right color but the wrong style.
For example, needing a white shirt but by accidentally plucking a Hooter‘s tee from your closet. It’s white, but not appropriate for work. Unles you work at Hooters.
Retailers know that in order for us to want to buy their shit, their stores first & foremost, need to be visually appealing. Secondly, their products need to be arranged properly. If a store has zero organization, retailers know customers..
- Won’t be able to see their entire selection, which potentially costs them a sale
- Know that they have to work harder to find a product at said retailer, therefore potentially going to a competitor who is organized BETTER, potentially costing them a sale.
Neither option is desirable to any entity trying to sell something to a consumer.
In summation, look at colorblocking as a way of making your life easier. It’s putting time back in your day, it’s giving you peace of mind instead of stress, & it looks pretty so it makes your visual brain happy.
Additional clothing organization tips:
• Pull all your cropped tops, band t-shirts, sports jerseys.. essentially, anything you can’t wear to work or pull off as business casual, & designate a dresser drawer or other area to them. This way, as I said before, you won’t accidentally pull a Hooters t-shirt out of the closet when you actually needed a plain white v-neck. This will save you some time & frustration in the morning.
• Pull any & all basic camisole tops, tanks, & undershirts specifically used for layering. Then, designate a drawer/other area specifically for them. This way, if you know you need to utilize a white cami underneath a button down shirt or blouse, you know exactly where it is.
• if you’re lacking in terms of storage/closet space, roll fold your shirts instead of doing the basic fold. Take a shirt, fold it vertically in half, then begin to roll it from the neckline down. You can then fit more in your dresser drawers & you’ll be able to visually account for all available top options.
• If you pack up & store seasonal clothing, here’s a space saving tip that I personally love & currently use..
VACCUUM SEAL CLOTHING STORAGE BAGS!
This option is SO awesome & SO easy to do. Pack up any seasonal clothing (like right now, you’d be packing up your ugly Christmas sweaters & fleece lined shit because it’s summertime) into the bag. Once it’s full, you attach the vacuum hose to the hole in the bag & turn the vacuum on. The suction will pull all air from the bag, & leave it considerably smaller in size, and flat. You can then shove it underneath a bed or into a storage bin. (See video below!)
I hope you found this useful! Best of luck to you on your own ultimate closet reconstructions!
🤍🤍🤍
For some ideas of what to fill your new closet with, click here for some summertime styles!
