I’ve never done this before… work with a professional to help organize my closet, that is.
We’ve moved quite a few times in the past few years and I never really put much thought to my closet and how it should be organized. Honestly, I just took my dresses and a few blouses and would hang them up. I’d fold my pants, t-shirts, the remaining blouses, and workout clothes, and throw them in my dresser drawers. And, I’d fold up my sweaters and sweatshirts and throw them up on a shelf in my closet. Shoes… well, some would make their way into a closet shoe rack, but most were thrown into our coat closet and the rest were just scattered around the home.
It wasn’t until recently that I really had an epiphany and realized I really needed to start cleaning up my life. And, I know this post is about closet organization, but I feel like these little projects can start to build a foundation for the rest of how your life is organized.
For example – once my closet is organized, my room will become less messy, because I’ll know where everything should be placed. I’ll be able to find clothes faster in the morning when getting ready for work. And, I’ll probably spend less money on clothing and shoes, because I’ll finally realize I have everything I need… just before, I could never find it.
To help me, I partnered with Horderly, a company that’s been around for a few years, but recently launched their services in the Boston area. (Full disclosure: they provided a complimentary service, but my entire experience and opinions are my own). We decided to first tackle mine and Jeff’s closets before working on any other home projects. Below, I’ll detail out the entire process, along with before + after photos!
Step 1: Connect with the Horderly team and share details about the area *in need* — that meant I measured the width of our closets and measured the height from the hanging bar to the floor. That helped Horderly determine how large our closets spaces were and if any other organizational furniture could be added in.
Step 2: We set up a date + time for their team to come by. You’ll want to be home when they organize your closet because you’ll be doing a closet edit, which no one but you can do.
Step 3: The schedule date arrives and the Horderly team shows up and is ready to go, with hangers and their organization containers in tow!
Step 4: The closet edit! Here’s where the fun begins 🙂 The Horderly team took EVERY SINGLE THING out of our closets and laid them on the bed. I mean EVERYTHING. Hanging clothes, folded sweatshirts, shoes, bags, belts, ties, hats, etc.. Literally, there was not one thing in the closet when we were doing pulling everything out. From there, we went through every single item. There was a KEEP pile, a DONATE pile, and a TOSS pile. And then, I created a few sub categories: the SEASONAL pile and the PROJECT (needs to be fixed) pile.
Step 5: This is where the Horderly team works their magic. I walked away and got some work done, and they went to work, re-organizing the entire closet, folding clothes in ways I didn’t know existed, using purse clips that I had never seen before (!!!), adding in labels for certain sections of the closet, installing a shoe rack on the door and more. An hour or so later, I came back up to check on progress and they were nearly done. I was legit shocked by the transformation. The best part — Jeff and I have fake fought for years over space in our two dressers and nearly ALL of our clothes now were hung up in the closet, leaving all this extra space in our dressers for whatever we wanted to put in there. I ended up putting all of my workout clothes in my drawers, along with socks, underwear, pajamas/loungewear, and sweatshirts.
Step 6: Time to review the closet and learn a few tricks! Before the Horderly team left, they showed us how the entire closet was set up and why it was done a certain way. From how to fold shirts + shorts, to folding pants the right way before placing them on the hangers, to even some ground rules of what to keep and what to toss in the future (if you haven’t worn it in the last 6-12 months, unless it is super seasonal, it probably isn’t bringing you joy, and you should toss or donate).
Step 7: Once their work was done, Horderly packed up all the donated clothes in trash bags and then brought them with them to donate themselves!! Yes, you don’t even have to worry about doing that. I can’t even count how many times I’ve put together a donate pile and then bagged it up and let it sit in my car trunk for months. Now, it’s already on it’s way for someone else to use.
Overall, we absolutely loved using Horderly and I can’t wait to try their services again, especially for our kitchen pantry.
To try yourself, they’re now based in Boston, but are also in NYC + tri-state area, Rhode Island and Southern California!
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