Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Every month a group of seven bloggers share their workspaces, homes, towns, and more!

This month’s theme is the clothes closet!!! This is some high drama blogging right here, folks. Hold on to your hats!

Make sure you visit everyone to see where the magic happens!

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After 
Em at Dust and Doghair
Julia at When the Girls Rule

SPOILER ALERT: I do not have a wonderful closet. It’s not large or organized or well-lit or entertaining or decorated or even particularly neat. It’s awkward because it’s long and narrow (like an in-line ranch house vs wide-line). So you walk in to see the clothes beside you rather than opening the door(s) and they’re all hanging across from left to right in front of you. It’s tight for working in and it’s really tight for photographing in. So please, leave any expectations at the door.

In addition to the closet, there is a short narrow hallway leading to the closet…and this acts as the overflow area. I have a garment rack there where I hang things I plan to sell, or when I run out of hangers, I hang things on the rod ends or throw them precariously over the top. I really need to get more hangers. Or…I should just have fewer clothes.

This is the only clothes closet so it holds clothes for all year round. There is a big plastic tub around here somewhere where I keep some off-season clothes, but they really need an additional reason to be ousted from prime closet space…like they don’t fit right or they need a repair or I don’t like them that much.

I do have a dresser in the bedroom that holds nicer sweaters (cashmere and merino wool) so they don’t get “hanger ears” (stay tuned and I’ll share a quick fix for those), junkier tee shirts that don’t deserve a hanger, and pants that aren’t the jeans I actually wear on a day-to-day basis (leggings, bike-shorts-I-have-never-worn, jeans that need altering, etc.). As I’m listing all these outlier items, I’m feeling like I might own as many (if not more) clothes that I don’t wear as clothes that I do. That seems worth exploring. Another time.

I have a bookcase in the closet that holds folded jeans, boots, and some miscellaneous things on the top shelf. I prefer the jeans folded on the shelf so I can see what I have. Stacked in the drawer (you’ll never see Marie Kondo Marie-Kondoing a pair of PLUS SIZE jeans), the ones underneath are hidden by the ones on top. On the shelf, I can see the stack (which is rarely more than three high) from the side I so know what’s there.

The closet is also a storage spot for things that have nowhere else to go. They’re on the upper shelf and on the floor. And as much as those areas are very un-nice-closet-like, I am very particular about my hanging clothes. I like all the same hangers. I like things to be hung in a certain order: a) sleeveless tops, b) short-sleeved tops, c) long-sleeved tops, d) button-down blouses, e) dresses, f) cardigans, g) kimonos, h) pants. And within each of those categories, I color coordinate from light to dark. So the closet viewed in length is not one long ombre, but many smaller ombres…although one long rainbow effect sounds lovely. I adjust the hangers a lot so they’re all hanging in orderly procession, nothing is askew.

There’s a small section of rod sort of back in the corner of the closet that holds vintage dresses that I want to use for photoshoots before I sell them. I’ve been saying that for over 10 years. Think that’s ever going to happen??

Oh, and my shoe rack. It’s the best shoe rack I’ve ever had. It takes up no floor space, you can see all the shoes, and unlike those vertical pocket over-the-door shoe bags, the pockets never tear off the backing, leaving shoes dangling precariously. Larger shoes: clogs, boots, and booties go on the bottom shelf of the “jeans” bookcase. And I feel like it’s a reminder for me: Don’t Have More Shoes Than Will Fit in the Shoe Rack. It holds 26 pairs of shoes. That’s a lot of shoes. Do I need more than 26 pairs of shoes??

So, that is pretty much all I can say about my clothes closet! I’ve had better…but it does hold a lot of stuff.

Oh! The hanger ear fix. You know what I mean, right? When impressionable fabrics hang on a hanger too long and you take them off and they have those little stretched out “ears” at the top of the shoulder where the hanger had been pressing? If you have time, lug out the ironing board (or put a folded towel on the kitchen counter/table/bed), spray the “ear” with just regular water, then “steam” the ear with the iron, steaming and pressing lightly. The moisture will cause the fibers to shrink back into shape. If you don’t have time then do what I do, take the shirt/sweater into the bathroom, squirt with the spray bottle…I sort of lightly press/rub the water into the ear, then either hit it with the blow dryer…or do like I usually really do and just put the sweater on and as it dries, it’ll shrink down mostly all the way. Presto, weird shoulder ears gone!

Over Door Shoe Storage – when I went back to Amazon for the link to the shoe organizer I saw that I bought it September 7, 2019, so I’ve been using it for a year…and it’s as good as new.

10 Pack Velvet Hangers – I will say if I was starting over I think I would go with the black. And as a matter of fact, the black (and grey) ones are priced especially low right now here.

And I promised a surprise reveal – maybe I just mentioned that in the video, but…here is all the stuff I took out of the closet to make it presentable for the video! This is a mix of linens, laundry (there are two laundry hampers under there), and items to be listed on ebay and Poshmark. But yeah. I keep walking in the closet and oohing and ahhing over how nice it looks…then I walk back out and am surprised to see all that mess on my bed! I’ve got a big project ahead of me tonight!

And I did make a corresponding 10-minute video if want me to talk you through it (using my poor video and editing skills) (skills HA HA HA HA HA).


And that is all, my friends! Stay tuned for next month’s edition of Where Bloggers Live: These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.

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