I have always had a contentious relationship with my closet.  If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know that clutter causes me severe stress and anxiety.  My closet has often felt like a key player in my clutter.  I couldn’t keep my clothes put up, there were just too many of them.  And even if I could manage to get them all put away, my closet still felt messy.

The problems:  as I mentioned above, my closet caused me stress.  There would be times where my whole house was clean, then I would walk into my closet and my chest would tighten.  It was not a relaxing space for me.  The laundry was another issue.  Sometimes I feel like when you’ve got a large selection of clothing items, you are subconsciously and even haphazardly grabbing clothes to wear, try on, change into and the laundry builds in the blink of an eye.  My last main issue was the money aspect.  In the past, I would see something cute and buy it, even if it weren’t “my style”.  I might wear that piece once or twice, but soon the allure would wear off and I’d be stuck housing a shirt I liked but would never wear.

The solutions:  I knew the most glaringly obvious solution was to tear through that closet and donate.  So, I did!  Once I started taking everything out of my closet, there was no stopping me.  It was the most liberating feeling in the world.  I have never had an anxiety episode dissipate so quickly!  Cutting the ties from all of the clothing that weighed me down was a feeling I will cherish and one I continue to think about every time I walk into my closet now.  The other solutions were purely decorative and organizational.  I knew I wanted to turn my closet into a “Cloffice”, a closet and a home office.  So, I needed a desk, new lighting, etc.  But I also wanted to turn the whole space into a more relaxing, homey space by staining the shelving and getting rid of the clinical gray walls.  I won’t get into all the details of redoing the space, you can watch my YouTube video for that.  But just turning the closet into less of a closet and more of a livable space made all the difference.  I also used matching hangers which gave the clothes left in the closet a more cohesive look.

I ended up with less than 75 pieces in my closet.  It is considerably more than some “capsule wardrobes” I’ve seen in the past, but tremendously less than the panic-inducing clothing bomb I had in there before.  Now, I have a rule:  if you bring something in, take something out.  This new philosophy will help me maintain my new and improved Cloffice and will keep stress and anxiety at bay.

For more information on my renovation, visit my social media.