Storage Solutions: Special hangers create peace

 

Sometimes I say bad words out loud inside my closet. It can happen when I’m reaching for a hanger. I lean over and pull on one of the extra Slimline hangers I have stored in a favorite basket on the floor of my closet. It should be easy but it’s a hassle. Instead of one coming out, several do–but only halfway! They’re caught on each other. When I investigate, the culprits are easily revealed. Somewhere along the line I picked up some slim, velvet hangers with hooks on them. Big mistake I thought. They’re just annoying!

 

 

Creating order in the closet is one of the things I do in my professional life. But in my personal life, it’s so much more. Creating order in my closet is essential to my well-being. It’s maybe like walking meditation is for others. You’re doing something (walking) but it’s calming at the same time. When I’m editing, sorting, or organizing my closet my thoughts slow down, and so does my pulse. Concerns are far far away. I especially love puttering in my closet on the weekends. It’s a great way to end the week and an even better way to start one!

 

Closet meditation

Of course, saying bad words out loud doesn’t sound calming now, does it. But recently what had aggravated me turned out to be the thing that brought me tremendous peace and satisfaction. Life is funny sometimes!

In one of my closet mediation sessions, I discovered a few patches where I have more than one version of the same thing. I’m sure this is true for you too. You don’t have one pair of black pants, you have five. You don’t have one white blouse, you have several.

I have multiples in the gray sweater department. I have a gray V-neck Burberry sweater, a tunic style charcoal gray Vince sweater, a gray-on-gray striped sweater, a couple of raglan sleeved gray sweaters and a gray sweater with ruffles.

My editing mind thought: Maybe you have too many gray sweaters!

But I disagreed with that editing mind. Each sweater style had a point to make. I loved them all and used them all. There would be no further editing at this time.

Then my organizing mind took her turn and offered a brand new idea: “Hey, Brenda, how about you take these hangers with hooks and use them to connect similar gray sweaters? You’d be using less space on your closet rod if you stacked two additional sweaters on each single hanger.”

Ah-ha! Brilliant, I thought! So I gathered together the hangers with hooks and put them to work! My six sweaters now took the space of two sweaters. And they looked so pretty hanging together that way. They looked so chummy and friendly!

It wasn’t peace in the Middle East but it was peace and ease in my closet!

 

 

Will it work for others?

The next obvious step was to spread peace across the land…or at least take this idea into my clients’ closets.

They weren’t new to the idea of Slimline hangers. I’d introduced them years ago and they were happy to make the switch. But I couldn’t remember: had they purchased ones with hooks or did they have the hookless kind? The next visit to their closet would give me the answer.

Each closet I went to the following week had slim hangers with hooks. In one case, I had to go up to the attic to find them but I hunted and gathered and had a few to work with.

I said to one client, “Can I show you a nifty trick?” Intrigued, she said yes. Then I looked for objects in her closet that were similar and hung together like dressy T-shirts, white blouses, striped shirts, casual pants, work pants.  I asked her to turn away while I re-hung a category.

“Okay, you can look now,” I said.

She turned around, saw the transformation and loved it!

I tried it with the next client. Again, success!

 

But here’s the yellow caution light

Now I don’t expect everyone to be a closet nerd like I am but I left those closet appointments feeling like I had spread more than a little joy by sharing this tip.

If you’re going to try this yourself at home, I want to caution you about something first.

Nearly everyone has too much stuff. I happily endorse using this tip in well-edited closets ONLY.

Be sure you aren’t re-hanging clothes that have expired physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Get rid of anything that is no longer useful or attractive, first. And then dive into your stash of velvet hangers with hooks and start making your closet look pretty.

Do you have ways that bring joy to your closet? Please share!