Seasonal Closet Swap

Hi there. Southern Arizona has most definitely entered the not-hot season, there were a couple of nights last week that had lows near freezing in central Tucson.  In preparation for the cold, and with a desperate need to bring some sense of order into my life,  I swapped out my seasonal wardrobe the day after the election. With the amount of clothing I own, this project tends to take a few hours.  This year I think I was more mindful about the process I use, probably because I kept pausing to take pictures for this post.

I start by pulling out all the bins of stored clothing from my office closet and under the bed.  One of these belongs to the GH, the rest are mine.

                                          I did dust these off before I put them away again

Then I pull everything out of my closet, one group at a time. I may have mentioned this before, but I do not have a large closet. That is part of the reason I don't keep clothing that I don't love, my closet space is limited and therefore valuable.


          This what my summer closet looks like from left to right. Sorry about the blurry picture.

Dresses came out first. I put the items with hangers that are still backwards in a separate pile. The backwards hanger means that I haven't worn the item since the last time I did a closet swap and I try to figure out why. In this case both of the dresses that are unworn are items I usually wear in Las Vegas and I didn't make it there this year. I tried them on and decided I still loved them both so I kept them.  The pile of items that were worn comes next and the goal is to figure out what can stay around for the not-hot season, what I don't love enough to keep around and if anything requires washing or mending before being packed away.

  
                   Dresses I wore                                                    Dresses I didn't wear

The items to be put away for the season are taken off of their hangers and folded on the bed. The keepers are hung on a microphone stand, with hangers turned backwards again to be put back in the closet.


      Dresses to pack away for the season                               Dresses that stay in the closet        

Next up are the sleeveless shirts, only one of which was unworn. I kept it because it was part of a hand me down stash I had only been given two weeks before.  Then came the short sleeved tops, again the unworn ones were kept because they were part of the same stash.


                    Sleeveless tops                                                           Short sleeved tops


     Sleeveless tops going back in the closet                   Short sleeved tops going back in the closet

Next up, 3/4 and long sleeved tops and then cardigans. There were 4 unworn long sleeved tops and 2 unworn cardigans.  One of each was put in the donate pile, the rest were kept for various reasons.

  
     3/4 and long sleeved tops                                      Cardigans


3/4 and long sleeved tops going back to the closet                 Cardigans going back to the closet

The last group of clothes to come out are the skirts. Because of the hangers I use skirts are the only item of clothing that I can't track using the backward hanger trick, instead I have had to rely on my memory.  But that was before I had a blog that was intended to track what I wear, now if I'm not sure whether or not I've worn something I can look it up!


                        All the skirts                                                    Skirts to go back to the closet

By now the piles of clothes to pack away are taking over most of the surface of the bed.

And there are piles of empty hangers everywhere.



Now that I have mostly run out of room on the bed it's time to start pulling clothing out of bins and putting it on hangers. There are a few skirts and dresses, and many long sleeved tops and sweaters. After all the bins are emptied of cold weather clothes it's time to fill them right back up with hot weather clothes.


               


And here is the finished product, grouped by type, then color and of course with backwards hangers.



I thought I took pictures of the donation and mending piles but I can't find them. I think I ended up with a full Trader Joe's bag for donation and a few items to be mended before being packed away. (Full disclosure, those items have not yet been mended and are currently buried in my ironing basket in the laundry room.)

A very special thank you to the GH who ended up taking most of these pictures.

See you soon!