Great Closet Clean Up!

Okay, I am starting The Great Closet Clean Up of Fall 2011. It's official! Release the balloons! Cut the ribbon! Cue the band!

What the heck am I up to? Cleaning my closet? Doesn't everyone do that? What's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that I have a ton of clothes, and I say I'm going to do this every time the seasons change, and I never do. Sure I purge a few items, but once I reach the point of a semi-organized closet, I lose interest. Everything else just gets stuffed in totes, pushed up into the attic, and forgotten until the next time.

What you're looking at up there is my closet with this pile of skirts removed already, a few items pulled for the thrift shop, and another little pile of things moved to the sewing room for alterations. Besides that closet, I have a box of shoes under the bed, a six-drawer dresser, multiple boxes of off-season clothes in the attic, and...

...an armoire full of tee shirts. It's a lot. Now I don't think I'm going to pare things down so everything fits in the closet, but I do think I can scale back considerably.

I thought I might benefit from some guidance in this process, so I brought home a book called Shop Your Closet: the Ultimate Guide to Organizing Your Closet with Style. The back cover looked promising:

Unfortunately, that's about the best part of the book. I started reading it this afternoon, and so far there isn't much of anything new or helpful inside. I'm going to keep reading, just in case, but it looks like I'm going to be winging it!

So that's basically it. Posts for the next few weeks will be very closet and wardrobe oriented. If you have any tips or advice for organizing or purging, any book recommendations, or any questions you'd like me to explore, jump right in and leave a comment!