It was a dark and stormy… morning? Today was a rare windy, rainy day in Florida. I got my run done very early, took my daughter to school, and then settled down at home to wait for the electrician. He gave us a window of 8-12, and as I looked outside I thought “How lucky am I to be able to stay home today!”
Since I knew I would be home all morning, I planned to tackle my disastrous closet situation. Before I show you a before photo, let me explain.
There’s a special challenge to South Florida houses. We have no basements. And we have no attics! Well.. we have a very shallow attic, but you can’t store anything up there unless you want to burn it to a crisp. Our house was built in the 1970s, and for some strange reason when they were building houses then they also didn’t think we needed big closets. What I’m trying to say is, we’re very challenged, storage-wise.
Okay, you been warned. Here we go…
I mean… I literally can’t reach the clothes in my closet. But don’t worry! The clothes I actually WEAR are over here…
And, the clothes I really, really wear, like my workout clothes and work clothes, basically cycle between the washing machine, a drying rack in the garage, and back onto my body. Most of them never even enter the bedroom.
So what is all that crap, anyway? A lot of it is holiday decorations. Since I’m the holiday decorator in my house, I’ve taken it upon myself to store it all in my closet.
I’m currently reading this book:
She likes to reframe things. Instead of “household chores” you should call them “care tasks.” Care tasks are morally neutral, as in, if your bedroom looks like, er, well…mine, it’s not a moral failing. And instead of saying “This place is a mess!” you should say “This space has reached the end of its functional cycle.” I think we can all agree that my closet had reached the end of its functional cycle. I dove in and found some interesting things. Like my Snoopy Halloween shirt that I was searching frantically for the entire month of October:
And some wrapping paper I had no idea I had:
I do have to wonder what I was thinking though. I mean… koalas wearing glasses? I’m usually pretty picky about my wrapping paper and can’t imagine buying this. Oh well.
I filled a large bag with garbage, and another bag with donations to Goodwill. I didn’t actually try on any of the clothes in my closet (that was a little too advanced for me, in this session) but I did take about ten shirts I knew I would never wear, and put them in the donation bag. The end result is nowhere near perfect:
That green bin and basket in the corner are filled with Christmas things, but I also felt like it wan’t the best moment to go through Christmas boxes. My goal is to pare down my Christmas things this year so when I put them away in January THEY ALL FIT IN THE CLOSET. No more spilling out.
Oh, and you may be wondering. “What’s up with the little kid’s dresser?” Yes, I took that dresser from my son’s room when he got a new one, because I was tired of sharing a dresser with my husband. Maybe it’s time for some adult furniture?
So, whew. I was really dreading that task, and now my closet is functional again. It was a morning well spent.
Do you have any areas of your house that have reached the end of their functional cycle?
Are you contemplating calling the Department of Health to have my house condemned? -Don’t worry- the rest of the house is nowhere near that bad!
31 Responses
My closets have been a constant work in progress in recent months (the house is on the market, so a lot of stuff has been shuttled to a storage unit). I still have a spare bedroom, though, that has been used as a temporary location for all the items that the kids need to go through. So, yeah. Things are looking better, but definitely not pristine 😉
Yes, but at least you have a good excuse!!! I’m curious to know where you’re moving to (come down to Florida, you’ll love it!)
My closet resembles yours. We also have no attic, no garage, no basement. I think we need to cultivate a more minimalist vibe and just burn the place down or something. I’m always amazed by people who have a lot of stuff and also no clutter, but honestly, they usually have at least a basement.
Congratulations on getting your dreaded task done!
Wow, We at least have a GARAGE! But it’s not great for storing things we really care about, because it’s so hot and humid. At least we can put bikes and stuff like that out there. I really don’t know how you mnage!
Okay, J’s comment about her closet made me laugh SO hard. “Just burn the place down.” Oh my goodness.
Jenny, can I just say my very first thought was how desperately I wish I could have been there as you cleaned out your closet because THIS IS MY FAVOURITE THING TO DO. (Lame, right?). I think you’ve done a great job and you’re working with limited space (no basement! no attic) and made amazing progress. A whole sheet of gold stars for doing something you were dreading and for doing it so well.
Oh, I could have used you Elisabeth! Ha ha, you’re like Gretchen Rubin- she’s always trying to help people clear their clutter. Thanks for the gold stars!
Please come to my house. My closets are scary.
My kids are gone so I threw additional closets packed with my clothes and other stuff.
Ugh.
Little by little, things are being moved into my son’s closets. He’s not too pleased about it, but he cares less and less as the years go by.
SO satisfying. FWIW, we have basement storage AND big closets and STILL have jumbles in every single space **shrug**
Well, I’m going to give you a pass on this since you have FIVE KIDS.
I resemble J’s comment about a good house fire being the cure for our home organization woes. We have a good sized house, but no storage, and only one out of the four people who live here is into having a tidy house…so far my only progress is confining the clutter to certain sections of the house. Sigh.
What is it with the lack of storage in these houses? What were they thinking? EVERYONE NEEDS STORAGE SPACE.
I feel ya on the lack of storage space! Arizona homes don’t have basements either and I’m in an apartment which means even less storage space. My closets are pretty well contained but I do have some things I need to donate/get rid of — namely old running shoes, yikes! — I just haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. I’m most annoyed by the fact that I don’t have a very large pantry so I do have to store some food on the counter and I don’t like having it there cluttering up the space!
Yes, we have food storage issues as well! You’d think with the recent kitchen remodel we would have remedied that, but no- still no pantry.
I really loved that book. I follow that woman on IG and she’s very gentle and kind.
You made a huge improvement in your closet situation! Our Calgary house was built in 1962 and closet space was pretty tight. I really love all the space here!
Yes, I’m really loving the book too- it’s definitely helping me. I’m only about halfway through so far but I’ll finish it soon.
Oh, I share your closet woes! I have So Much Stuff crammed in there. I tackle it periodically but the problem persists.
I wonder if it would be better to have a huge walk-in closet, or if I would just fill that up as well???
Oh, yay you Jenny! Doesn’t that feel amazing? As you know I just did a closet clean out too, though I cannot IMAGINE having to store my Christmas stuff in my closet. Lol. I would go insane! I also feel my closet is way too small as it is (not a walk-in). Thankfully, we DO have a good sized basement with quite a lot of storage. I actually have 2 dressers in our basement guest room that I store off season clothing in (I guess that’s another complication that you guys don’t have- we have like 2 different wardrobes to store!). I don’t know what I would do without our basement We also have a lot of storage in the garage- the previous owners built these huge overhead shelves and that is where all my Christmas stuff goes.
Yes, if I just had somewhere else to store the Christmas stuff, it would be SO MUCH EASIER.
“This space has reached the end of its functional cycle.” — I love this! What a great phrase.
And ooooooh I just love before and afters like this! So satisfying! You did a great job.
Thank you Suzanne! At least I did well enough to be able to post and “after” photo.
I’m going to stop saying our house doesn’t have any storage because we have both a basement AND an attic. *Brags in LCOL Midwest.* *Also, sobs because I live in the middle of nowhere with a winter.* But we don’t have a lot of closets and so we make A LOT of use of benches/chests in our house. By my count we have five. And I wouldn’t mind another one or two. LOL.
Hmmm! Maybe I need some benches and chests. I’ll have to think about this.
good job tackling a daunting task. I know when the task is too big, I’d get lazy to even start. I love the concept of care task instead of chores. Good reminder. fortunately we have a helper and she does the cleaning, tidying up. She even folds my clothes almost daily as I get it messy when I look for things. She’s amazing and I feel so spoiled.
“This space has reached the end of its functional cycle.” is something I can relate to. I have a problem with my craft supply hoarding habit 😉
I was actually surprised how little of the things we think we need we actually do. When we moved to the US we thought we would move back 3 years later so kept mostly everything. Little by little I have given this everything away, sorted through it again and again, thrown out. Now all is left is one last box to take with us when we go back next time with old pictures.
Way to go for tackling this “non functional” situation. It’s all about getting started. We also don’t have a basement or attic (I feel you), but at least a garage where we can store some stuff. It’s still a hassle keeping things organized with little storage space. I think you did a great job and I think you deserve an adult dresser! 🙂
Our study is heading that way, but I need to sort out where things should go and also go through the kids boxes of photos, take them down to a manageable level and then send them home with them. Partly the study situation is just that I haven’t had a chance since our move to really decide where to put some of this stuff.
Small closets are the bane of my existence! Imagine having a basement to store things!! I cannot. I have an outside storage closet on my porch and that’s where I store all of my Christmas tubs/tree. It’s nice to have it out of my vision when I don’t need it, lol. Hopefully, you can figure out a better organizational system for your closet! I think there are definitely ways to make it function better for your needs. I love organizing and I just watch to drive down to south Florida to reorganize it with you!
Oh, goodness, I just wrote about All The Stuff today. I so get this, Jenny. And while I don’t tend to read organizing books, that one sounds better than the Marie Kondo one.
I think you made fantastic progress, and you have a plan for post-Christmas. And, you got rid of things! Even better.
(I feel you on the adult furniture, too. I have a completely nonfunctional drawer in my dresser, severely limiting its capabilities. Yet I am so darn cheap that I refuse to replace it. The rest of it works just fine, I think…)
Wow, you really put. in some work here.
After two moves in the past month I think I have eliminated my worst. corners. But I am sure. they built up again.
The new apartment doesn’t have any garage or attic. only a small little room for all storage including pantry. So we need to be very organized.