Saturday, March 2, 2013

Trapped in the closet





Just a few shots of my closet, after cleaning up, putting away laundry and making sure everything reached its proper place. I'm very lucky/spoiled to have a closet that travels the length of my wall; in New Jersey, half the stuff in my closet was my mom's off season clothes, so I had about two feet of closet for hanging things. Though admittedly I didn't have much clothing to hang back then.

In college, for the first three years, I lived in two dorms that faced each other. Freshman year, in Virginia (Hall), I had a closet that was about two feet wide and two feet deep. Just enough room for the probably two skirts I owned back then and a couple of coats. My suitcase. A box.



A year later I moved across the square to Willard (Hall), which had the exact same layout as Virginia (they were two of the first buildings on campus), but in the 1970s Willard caught fire and had to be gutted and rebuilt. It was known for having stairwells that went nowhere and so many doors that Jim Morrison would be ashamed, but Willard made up for it with big rooms and the most important thing for a college student on move in day in Virginia (state): air conditioning. Sarah and I lived in the same room for two years straight, and I took the narrower closet because Sarah hung up more stuff while I folded mine. It was about three feet deep and 20 inches wide. I was able to stuff in there my riding things, laundry basket, suitcase and...I think I owned three skirts by that point. It went well.

My senior year, Sarah graduated and I moved into an on-campus apartment with K. and J. K. and I shared a big room with its own bathroom and WALK IN CLOSET. It was a dream come true. I wish I had that closet now! I could have danced in that thing. We were also right next to one of the laundry rooms, which was stellar.

Today's closet is about 6 feet long and maybe 20 inches deep. I stash a lot of clothing in there, and I hate thinking about someday moving and having to pare it down. It's going to be tough, you guys. But for now, I can fit a vast majority of my clothing in there. I stash tee shirts, jeans, tights/bras/underwear, tank tops and the like in a dresser on the opposite wall of my room. I weed (remove stuff to donate or throw away, depending on the quality) on a rolling basis, but I just did a small weed and am planning to do a larger one soon. I have a hard time being honest about what I don't wear, which is why I really like how Rebekah is letting other people decide for her what to keep and donate. Other people are a lot more objective than we are about our own things.



By the way, how do you guys organize your closets? I go by item type, then colour. Sleeve length before colour if we're talking shirts. With shoes I do height, then type of heel. I don't usually bother with colour because there isn't quite enough room for them all, so they they end up getting stuffed on the racks wherever they'll fit. How often do you weed?



Ps. Yes, that is Justin Bieber on my wall.

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