Thursday 3 March 2011

Wardrobe Decluttering


This is our mahooooosive wardrobe in our bedroom. It's from IKEA (naturally) and is part of their Pax range, which is brilliant for being able to pick and mix what kinds of storage features you want inside. Sorry, the photo is wonky, I must have been in a rush.

A couple of things I feel I have to mention here are, a) the general massiveness of the wardrobes and, b) the general ikkyness of this room.

a) The wardrobes are so big because I am an idiot. Basically, I have a natural instinct in me which screams "BUY BIG!" whenever we're getting something new. Remember the "Big Unit?" My idea. Anyway, it usually takes every ounce of control to moderate the size of anything I buy, particularly when it comes to storage items. My natural impulse is to get the biggest thing that will fit in the space so that we can hide as much of our stuff in there as possible. I am battling this ridiculous urge since it is far better to streamline the amount of stuff you actually own in order to possess smaller, more compact pieces of furniture that don't completely dominate the space.

When we bought these wardrobes I was very organised and cut out wardrobe (and bed and bedside cabinet) sized footprints from newspaper and spent ages working out where each thing would go. In the end, I decided that the wardrobes could go on this wall, adjacent to the door and that it didn't matter that the door can't fully open because look at all the room we have to hide our crap! Sigh. Fast forward to us having babies and now I curse having to squish myself in sideways while carrying a child in my arms! Silly, silly Sarah.

Soooo, part of my organising mission with these bad boys is for me to be able to condense all of the items into the two double wardrobes so that I can get rid of the single one on the end.

b) Our bedroom badly needs decorating, but is sadly right far down on the list of "things to spend our money on." Above that being a car, the garden, and the living room. This is why the walls are all marked and you can see a trendy red border around the top of the walls. We stripped the fabulous orange pine cladding from the ceiling and now enjoy staring at the bumpy contours of nail hole pocked woodchip. Jealous much?


Anyhoo, this photo shows the inside of the wardrobes before I tackled them. Not toooo bad you might think, but on closer examination, you can see why it doesn't work. There are loads of inefficient systems going on here - too many drawers versus hanging space, drawers containing things that need throwing out, wellies in drawers (!) and just a general need for some decluttering.


This is "after." The changes are subtle, but here's what I did...
- Removed two of the wire drawers from the middle section and utilised a second hanging rail that was already there, just unused.
- I went through and took out two bags of clothes to either sell on eBay or send it to charity.
- I removed some personal care items and put them in my bedside cabinet instead.
- Took out the wellies and rehoused elsewhere.
- Used the newly freed-up drawers in 'his' side to store the kid's clothes I am going to be listing on eBay.
- Organised my clothes into sections - jackets, cardis, dresses, tunics, shirts, jumpers, tops, jeans, trousers, leggings.

I do feel better for doing all that! :o)

Oh, and those two wire drawers i removed make brilliant underbed storage! Now i keep my handbags in one and a few random items including those wellies in the other.

I'm linking this post up to I'm An Organising Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organising:

14 comments:

  1. I really like your idea of using the 2 wire drawers you removed as under-the bed-storage. Good job on the wardrobe decluttering!

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  2. You did a great job there! Did you decide against moving out the single wardrobe after the declutter job or is that a step yet to come? Regardless, it looks fabulous and I just love the way you have it arranged now. And bonus on the drawers working under the bed too!

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  3. Also, I just wanted to add, that I just sat here and read through your entire blog. Starting with the more recent first and worked my way backwards. It is always a bit odd doing that because you already know in advance about some of the stuff that has already been completed, but no mind, it was a good read. Thank you for that!

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  4. We wanted to get Ikea wardrobe about 7 years ago when we remodeled our bedroom since our closet is the smallest in the house! But the cost and the drive (closest 5 hours away) kept us from it. Mmm... your project made me think about it again! Great job!

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  5. I found your blog off of org junkie and became a follower. Love your blog! :)

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  6. what a great way to organize your clothes. great blog!

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  7. I love that you repurposed the drawers under the bed! We have under-the-bed storage and I'm so glad we do - we have all kinds of wonderful stuff hiding there!

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  8. Great job! Love the closet and using the wire baskets for underbed storage is so smart.

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  9. Deanne, thank you so much for taking the time to read through my entire blog! I know what you mean about reading them backwards. I do that all the time and then wonder why i didn't just find the end (beginning?) and start there, lol!

    We definitely need to move the single wardrobe, but i am just going to leave it as it is until i have another go at streamlining our stuff. Once the kids clothes are gone from 'his' side i can maybe move some things across. Plus, a small part of me is still whispering, "but, look! Look at all the space for junk!" Noooo! :o)

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  10. Allysgrandma, you should go for it!! Have you used the Pax planning tool on IKEA's website? It's brilliant! Here's a link: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/19086/tab/pax_planner/

    I could play with that just for fun! Shh, don't tell anyone...

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  11. Thanks everyone for reading, for following and for your lovely comments! <3 to you! It really does help to know that people are interested in my quest... Well, either that or the inside of my drawers, but either way, it's fab! :o)

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  13. I think what you did was great! Have to say it looked better than mine even before you made changes. I a "neat" person in that I know how to hide things in closets. Not so organized though and want to be so desparately.

    Deleted post suggesting paint. :-)

    Glad I found your blog. Blogs like yours motivate me !!

    Peggy

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  14. I had to laugh at the 'massive wardrobe'... I too have the thought process 'Bigger is Better!!!'.... ummmm, NOT! We live in a reeeally old house (circa. 1830's) and have huge rooms with tall ceilings. When a local store was going out of business I bought 4 of their clothes racks & shelving plus an open 12 hole cubby. It's massive - it goes floor to ceiling (and we have 10' ceilings) and all along one wall all 12+ ft of it. At least you have doors on yours - mine doesn't it's all open. So you can SEE all my chaos! Great job. I know how it feels to get rid of stuff. BTW - reading ooooold posts from OrgJunkie... that I found while decluttering my email... lol

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment. I love hearing from anyone who comes by to read my blog, and i try to respond to every comment. You all help me feel motivated to continue with this project. Loves! x

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