Part 1 Closet: Time to PURGE PURGE PURGE

 I had been dreading cleaning my closet out for a really long time. Mainly because I know it always leads me to purge A LOT of my clothes. I really hate parting with my them.  I have to admit some of my favorite pieces that I am so attached to have not even been worn in over 2 years...GASP! I guess they really aren't my favorites.  When I got pregnant, this time last year, the closet began to grow even more. Yes, I usually participate in the seasonal clean out but that still wasn't giving me enough space for all of the clothes I had {key word "had"}.  Right then I realized I have WAY too much and I need to get rid of a lot...Boo Who!  I felt great that cleaning this closet came at a perfect time.  Hurricane Sandy had just hit and there were TONS of people in need of clothes. I ended up with a total of 6 bags of clothes....AHHHHHHH it felt so good to PURGE but at the same time I am kind of embarrassed that I had that many clothes.  So here is what this hot mess of a closet looked like before I tore it apart.... {I took these pics with my phone so please excuse the poor quality}.

So the first step was to empty the entire closet....  

{everything except for my sacred sneaker collection. If you haven't read my about me  page then you should know that I am a P.E. teacher and yes I have a pair of shoes to match almost every outfit. I am a sneaker SNOB to say the least and I just want to clear the air and say that these have be accumulated over the past 10years, I didn't just buy them all in one year....just saying}

I put this pegboard up years ago to hang all of my bags/purses/belts/etc.  It has been a great space saver but I still wasn't using it the most effective way and it never looked organized. I decided to hang my mirrored jewelry cabinet on the peg board to give me more walking space in the closet.  You can see in the picture to the right where it used to be. It was on a stand that sat right in the middle of my closet making it very hard to access the clothes behind it. 

Wondering what I did with the entire contents of my closet? Check this mess out....

Holy crap is right!  I was really pissed at myself after I had emptied the closet because I realized there was no going back. I didn't want to deal with that mess and I was thinking, "SHOOT, I have to finish this today because we won't be able to sleep in here if I don't!" Sucks to be me!!! Sooooo... it was on like donkey kong.  First step was to purchase a few things and here are the winners that got to come home with me...

{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}

After cleaning the closet out I started to divide all of my
clothes/shoes/belts/hats/etc into 5 piles:

 1. keep 2. seasonal {summer} 3. maternity 4. donate 5. trash

I took all of my summer clothes and put them in these space saving vacuum bags.  I love these because they slide right underneath my bed and I can store double the amount of clothes down there.  I can also pull them out in a jiffy if the weather changes and I need shorts or a summer skirt. I used to store my seasonal clothes in a bin in the attic and it was always such a chore to bring them down if I needed something. This is a MUCH better option for me and my ever changing mind.

The donate bags began to pile up in my bathroom. This is only 3 of the 6.

After I filled all 6 donate bags, trashed any clothes that were damaged, filled 1 bin with maternity clothes and divided my keep clothes into a couple different piles, I was finally starting to see my bedroom again.  A weight had been lifted and I was ready to start filling my closet back up.  I'll be back tomorrow to show you my finished product. 

Anyone doing any purging out there? If so, what are you doing with bigger pieces of furniture that you can't sell?