My Wardrobe Organisation

Almost 2 years ago, I had a makeshift wardrobe, consisting of 2 separate closets that were old and rickety. One day, one of the closets decided to collapse on me. All the shelves simply fell down and that’s when I knew: it’s time to buy myself a new closet. I went all over town trying to find the perfect wardrobe. Not only did it have to be bigger than what I had, I also wanted a decent amount of space to hang items rather than to stack them. After much searching I ended up at IKEA, which had been my idea to begin with, where I found the PAX system. It’s a wardrobe system that let’s you customize your entire closet. How convenient! This is the one I bought:

Pax Malm in oak

It’s one of the largest ones they have. Hooray for living in a place with high ceilings. I store my suitcases on top. I had to buy a ladder just so I can reach them (no kidding). However, what is very convenient is that I can now store everything in there. I keep my nightgowns on the side as I found myself not using them when they were inside the closet. The only things not in this closet: socks, scarves, and some shoes and flip flops. The rest of my clothing & clothing related items are in there. Here’s what it looks like on the inside:

Right side

Left side

As you can see I got this closet with sliding doors. They take up less space and are overall very convenient. I also really like the huge mirror. Since the closet is so big, if that door would also be made of wood it would instantly make my room look smaller. Right now, with the added mirror, it makes my room look more spacious and this is now my main mirror when I’m trying on clothes. It has more space for hanging clothes than laying them down and I like it that way. I kept one part long so it would fit dresses and still have space left for shoes underneath. I also added some drawers for underwear and accessories. I’m really happy I got those too as they are super handy and spacious.

Buying a closet that will fill your wardrobe needs, is only part of the solution to wardrobe organisation. The next thing you have to do is decide where and how to put your things into it. My main guidelines here were: how often do I need it + how will I be able to find things quickly? The solution: wise placement & color coding. This is what it led to:

Bottom: shirts, Top: sweaters & cardigans

Both shelves have double stacks. Behind the sweaters there are two more stacks: one with heavy knit sweaters and one with basic long sleeves. I keep my basic tees separate from printed ones and tops with special cuts. Hooded sweaters are kept underneath the drawers behind my shoes as I barely wear them anymore.

Bottom: work out clothes + sweatpants on the left, tank tops & swimwear on the right

Top: pajamas on the left, towels on the right

Dresses

I keep my more formal dresses on the left and my boots & booties are stored underneath the dresses.

F.l.t.r.: bolero/ sleeves, short sleeved button downs, solid long sleeved button downs, patterned long sleeved button downs, zip up cardigans, blazers & jackets.

I keep my heels and extra bedding on the shelf above this rod.

Fl.t.r.: long cardigans & button downs, skirts, shorts, jeans, pants, leggins, jeggings & treggings, neat pants, communion dress (in bag)

The shoes I store here are mostly sneakers and some older shoes that I don’t grab for all the time. There are also some heels here that didn’t put up on the shelf anymore.

As you can see, everything is color coded from light colors on the left (or on top) to dark colors to the right (or at the bottom). Exceptions are skirts and shorts, for some reason I switched that the other way round. The dresses are organised slightly differently as well:  formal dresses are on the left followed by summer dresses. It then goes into pink, red, cream/ nude, brown, blue, grey and black. Don’t ask me how that happened, but it works for me. I can quickly find whatever it is I need and because I have so much hanging space I can easily see what I have.

Do you have any tips on how to organise a wardrobe?