How to Sort of Organize Your Closet in Less Than One Million Steps

Everything started out just fine. It was a chilly Saturday in October and everything was going well. However, a dark cloud loomed over my head.... the closet. Since it was already October 13th and the Halloween decorations were apparently not going to jump out the closet on their own, it was a situation that had to be confronted head on. To make matters more dire, the shelving unit in theliving room had collapsed. There was a perfectly good stand I could use for my now homeless books. Guess where that stand was located? Oh yes, it was in the closet of doom. The time had come... it was time to clean out the closet.

If you are a brave soul and wish to take this journey with me, I hope you will learn all of the important steps to organizing your own closet. You might want to delete some of the steps, such as the many times I wanted to give up or burst into tears, but you might find it necessary to incorporate those steps into your own adventure. If your closet looks anything like mine, crying might be very, very necessary.

Since cleaning out your closet is probably going to be frustrating and a bit boring, you should find an additional source of entertainment. For me, I enjoy scary movies and it is October. In celebration of Halloween coming in the near future, I decided to watch Insidious while throwing stuff out the closet. You might wonder, "Why Insidious?" and that answer would be simple: it is hard to feel sorry for yourself while organizing your closet and watching Insidious. Sure my closet is a disaster, but at least my home isn't full of demons and ghosts. I don't have to pack up everything and move out. My closet is super simple to organize as opposed to that.

So remember, when you clean and organize your own closet, it could be worse. At least your closet isn't full of demons that might attack you. At least, I hope not. If so, just leave the closet alone and get a new place to live.

If horror movies are not your thing, that is fine. I can forgive you. You are obviously desperate if you are reading this hub, so I can support your need to clean your closet while not watch a scary movie. Instead, turn on some good music or watch a comedy. Whatever you can do to make you happy during this adventure is going to help a lot.

Oh yeah, there is some scary stuff in that closet, but the first step is opening the door. Once you open the door, you can take the time to look around and do some inventory. You can also take a little time to wonder why on earth you have all this stuff. You can also ponder over what some of the things in the closet actually are since not everything is going to be evident right off the bat.

Interesting things found in my closet:

• Pool noodles
• An ironing board I forgot existed.
• More empty boxes than any person needs.
• More Easter decorations than I knew I had.
• Not one, but two hamster cages.
• Not one, but two fish tanks... and a fish bowl.

Once you've really taken some time to get to know all your stuff, it is time to take everything out of the closet. My recommendation to you is to sit items in little piles based on how you would like to organize your stuff. If you happen to have empty boxes in your closet, AWESOME! You are going to put stuff in boxes according to how you are categorizing them.

For instance, I organized my closet items like so:

• Christmas decorations
• Halloween decorations
• Easter decorations
• Board games
• Knitting supplies
• Cleaning items (vacuums, brooms, etc.)
• Scarves, gloves, and hats
• Pet supplies
• Summer stuff
• Weird stuff I can't put in a category

At this point, you might just look around and feel overwhelmed. This is the point when you might consider just walking out and accepting that you are going to have random crap to crawl over for the rest of your stay in your home. The closet will never be organized. Your home will always look like a bomb went off in it. Worst of all, you will never get the Halloween decorations out of the closet and nothing will be achieved. If you need a good cry, just do it.

Now that all that is over, come back to the junk sitting all over your floor. At least you home isn't being haunted by evil spirits and demons, so you can totally do this. If need be, bribe yourself with some caffeine or chocolate. If you absolutely must, I would not frown upon a little bit of alcohol consumption as long as it won't tire you out. You can do this! Even if you can't do this, just simply lower your standards. You will have an awesome, kind of organized closet in no time.

Now that you are finished with your minor breakdown, start boxing up some stuff you've been simply throwing in the closet without a care for a while. Throw out things you do not need. If some items are in good condition, but you don't need them anymore, you can opt to sell them on Craigslist or Ebay. You will be making money! See, this whole experience is not so bad after all. You could also donate items to charity. You are such a wonderful person!

Once you are able to really see what you have, you can better determine how to organize all these items. You might even find some useful things you needed and now you don't have to buy them. Sure, your closet might not be perfect, but what is in life? At least you can find things easier and you can walk through your livingroom again after your closet exploded. As an added bonus, you can enjoy fun stuff like Halloween decorations and a stand for your books until you can afford a new shelving unit. OK, perhaps that last part was a little too personal, but you get the idea. Enjoy!

Copyright ©2012 Jeannieinabottle