An organized closet list is perfect for planning outfits and keeping track of thievery! A lot of planning and so many hangers actually came together in what became one of my favorite sections in my journal.
When I moved apartments, I had an excuse to reorganize my closet as well as a collection of collage clippings that featured clothing and runway looks. I harnessed my love of lists, obsessive organization, and fashion to create an itemized list of virtually everything in my closet. I only wish I had come up with this idea before I lived with a thieving roommate who stole about $600 worth of clothing from me, only some of which I recovered.
I always had a feeling that something was missing from my closet, literally, but was never quite sure what until I found dresses, skirts, tops, bandanas, even lingerie in her closet. If I had my inventory back then, I probably would have been able to catch her in the act. And although I will probably never live with a random roommate ever again, I am definitely prepared for any sticky fingered friends or, god forbid, my sisters coming to town.
Since I worked retail for two years, have collected a wide assortment of hand-me-downs, and discovered a penchant for depressed impulse shopping, I have a lot of clothing. I find that inventorying your closet will help you keep track of what you wear most and remind you to create outfits with some of your under-utilized pieces.
Now, in order to organize your closet in The Mo Way, I would recommend dividing your closet into sections. Not only will this make your closet look neater, but it will also make it a lot easier to find things as long as you keep it up. No need to dig through a pile of your clothes on the floor for your black V-neck when you can be sure it is in the casual knits section with the other black tops.
The closet in my building is handily divided into tiers, which makes it easy to put longer items on the taller section. I used this same method when I lived in an apartment with one straight rod and easily separated each section out by hanger color.
I used the page above as a sort of table of contents for all of the sections. I highly doubt anyone will be able to read my hasty scrawl, so I will also list and explain the sections in bullets.
(Reordered for clarity with idiosyncrasies mostly removed)
Hanging:
Dresses
Hanging tops: generally encompasses wovens and tops that would be appropriate for work or snappy casual brunches. Basically any top that isn't a T-shirt.
Hanging knits: any casual top that should be hung for the sake of no wrinkles. These are usually tops that are not fancy but that still could be worn out in public. I place solid color V-necks or crews here.
Jackets
Skirts
Hanging slacks
Folded:
Pants
Sleeping tees: folded T-shirts that hang out in a drawer. I do not have a dresser, so all of my foldeds are divided into the drawers of my two Elfa units, both handed down to me by previous roommates. I do not sleep in nice pajamas; I just sleep in oversized shirts and giant tees I stole from exes.
Folded Sorority (srat) tees: since I am no longer in college, I don't wear these out as much anymore, but generally sorority tees (along with having letters printed on them) are nice enough that you could wear them as an outfit outfit or just casually with leggings to go to class.
Folded bottoms
Comfy pants
Bras: further divided into sports bras, bralettes, and underwire bras. Now that I work at an underwear company and have acquired too many bras, I may need to find a new system, but for now they live in a drawer.
Panty drawer: another categorized drawer, because I don't want to have to dig through a mush of panties when I could just go straight to the type that will work for whatever pants I have. Sleep/period panties are the type that no other human will ever see, bikinis/briefs are what I call "full butts" and they are the cute ones that still cover your tush, and then thongs get their own section.
Tucked away bins at the top of my closet:
Leotards: from my dancing days, they hang out in bins at the top of the closet. And while I haven't danced full time in years, I do occasionally take a class.
Unmentionables
Swimwear
Bags: in rotation bags will hang within reach, out of regular rotation bags hang out in the bins.
Accessories
Shoes live in a shoe rack below the hanging items. But since there are only twelve slots and I have a shoe hoarding problem, they are also lined up wherever they can fit.
Bandanas: looped around the horizontal bar of a hanger. Since I used to work at Madewell, I have a lot of them.
Earrings are sorted in a Valentine's Candy heart, with all those little holes for the mystery chocolates. My mom mailed it to me my first year of college and it really helps to see all of the earrings without them sliding around.
Necklaces are on a necklace rack.
Belts: hung on thumbtacks on the wall.
I used the following pages to make lists of thrift stores I wanted to visit, with the address and hours and bubbles beneath each. After I visited each store I would fill in the bubbles to remember my personal rating out of five.
Making these spreads is super easy. It's essentially a bunch of lists with some fashion scrapbooking.
For each page I chose a magazine clipping I liked the best. I glued that clipping onto a black sheet of paper (that I had colored with a dry erase marker) and cut the whole thing in the shape of the clipping. That way there would be a clean black outline around every piece without having to worry about bleed through. Any text would also get its own black outline.
I glued each piece into place before starting each page and detailed around the pictures with lines and dots. I just made sure to write my lists after so that way they would follow the shape of whatever item I stuck in there.
I used a similar process for the all black spreads at the beginning and end of this project. I glued in columns of text that were white print on a black background (I stuck these in upside down because they were from a series of columns about working mothers from an issue of Modern Luxury Dallas and I treated it more like the background given that I had already read it). I stuck down some clippings of accessories and pretty models. I used the serial killer method of magazine clippings to get the letters for the titles, and voila! You're all finished.
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