Happy Friday, y’all! Spring wardrobe clean-outs are in full effect and that does not exclude my OWN closet. Many clients assume that within my wardrobe consults, I provide organization services as well. Though I can definitely give you tips on how to categorize your clothes, organization is NOT one of my strengths! I try multiple things on, throw the clothes on the floor and this pattern continues for about a month or so. Meaning - I have no idea where anything is, and you can’t see my closet floor. So after my closet got absolutely out-of-control this past time, I decided to call in an expert to help. Of course a custom closet is on the wish list, but for now I just needed to get my life in order.
Enter Jessica Kitchel of The Reformed Closet (and also my neighbor here in Roswell!) Y’all - she is amazing! Her simple tips and direction really helped me change my closet, my outlook on organization and my ability to MAINTAIN a clean and organized closet. Jessica lives in Historic Roswell, GA with her husband Mack and their almost two year old daughter Charlie. She graduated from The University of Hawaii, which fueled her passion for travel. She loves all things interior design and sharing their home with friends and family. Jessica has a passion for organizing and making life simpler by creating easy to maintain organizational processes for your home. Now if she could just do every drawer and closet in the rest of my house…
After meeting with me to evaluate my closet (see the BEFORE photo below; Full disclosure y’all - I am SO embarrassed to even put this out on the internet and be associated with it but I feel you really need to get the full effect!), Jess discussed some ideas with me and then sent me a document with everything she wanted me to purchase at The Container Store and the quantities / prices of each. This was so helpful because not only were there photos of each item and quantities, but I could get an idea of how much this was going to cost me. It was much more reasonable than I thought it would be!
BEFORE
BEFORE
I purchased all the items on the list, and also bought this storage unit at Ikea and added hardware to it. I already had this set of drawers in my closet plus the shoe shelves. First Jess took out EVERYTHING from the closet (whoa). Then, she moved things around to the most functional spots and made the closet feel so much bigger and cleaner! After that, we got to work on organizing. She had me put all the shoes I don’t wear on a daily basis in clear bins that we put on the top shelf, showed me a fun a neat way to use a paper organizer as a clutch holder (genius!), and introduced me to the best underwear & bra organizers. She then taught me how to fold everything Marie Kondo-style which has been so much easier to implement than I thought it would be!
After all was said and done, I feel SO much better about my closet. I am great at purging and getting rid of stuff each season, but the organization side of things has never been my strength. The key test would be MAINTAINING this level of organization, and I’m happy to report that it’s been a whole month and my closet still looks like this!
Thank you to Jess for collaborating with me on this post! If you are in need of organization, she is your go-to gal. Visit thereformedcloset.com to learn more!