(If you do), how do you organise your wardrobe?

[Methenyouplus4]

How do you organise your clothes and do you find it an effective method, in particular, when helping you evaluate gaps in your wardrobe?

For the past couple of years, my wardrobe has been pretty much organised as follows:

Coats/jackets, trousers, dresses, skirts, tops- jumpers and underware/ sportswear& pj's in drawers. Each 'section' goes from light to dark.

This might sound a bit of a faff but found it really easy to find things/put them away. Plus, I find the vast majority of my stuff is off white/grey/navy so pretry easy to sort.

BUT

I was reading a fashion blog that mentioned organising into work/ casual. I'very always avoided this as I have a couple of 'crossover' pieces but, I looked again at my wardrobe and had a bit of an epiphany. I only work 3 days so over half my time is casual, yet I only own about 5 casual items of clothes; the majority of stuff I wear for casual is actually work clithes that got a bit too tatty (work in professional environment), which means my casual wear is a really strange mishmash.

Now thinking about rearranging everything and deciding if an item is work/casual and only only wearing it as that. Any thoughts?

Any chance you are over thinking this a tad :)

I have half of a built in wardrobe- not that big.

I use hangers for skirts, dresses, some tops and all trousers.
I use the shelves for folded knitwear, scarves and handbags.
Undies and nightwear is in a chest of drawers.
Sports stuff (walking gear) in wardrobe in spare room.

I use under the bed storage boxes to decant winter / summer clothes when I am sure I won't wear them for months.

Can't understand why anyone would separate casual/ smart unless they have masses of clothes. I can see my 6-8 pairs of trousers the minute I open the wardrobe doors.

I have two double wardrobes

Wardrobe 1 contains jackets, blazers, dresses, hoodies, cardigans. Items split into those uses but no colour split.

Wardrobe 2 contains trousers, skirts, tops. Each "department" is split starting with the lightest colours and ending with the darkest. Tops are split starting with sleeveless, then short, then long sleeved.

Separate shelving for jeans and shorts.

Separate drawers for PJs and underwear etc.

My work and casual clothes do cross over, especially tops, so I don't separate them.

I just divide my hanging wardrobe into tops, skirts, dresses and trousers.
Separate drawers for short sleeved tops, long sleeved tops, jumpers, cardigans and jeans.
Rail in walk-in loft for out-of-season, slightly too big/small, and occasion clothes (for weddings/parties etc).

I have far too many clothes. There are no gaps!

My work clothes are an NHS uniform - black M&S trousers, black lace up shoes, skin tone vest , white tunic, fleece coat. No taxing my tiny brain other than Is It Clean

For Real Life:

I have a three door wardrobe - the 3rd door for anything 'nice' (so not much) and belts/scarves.

I put my out of season in the small room on a rail with plastic bags over (got some Dry Cleaner covers from ebay) so I know what's there.

Everything else is in the 2 door bit in colour order. White at one end and black at the other. It goes white/cream/pastel through red/brown/navy/green/grey then black+white

and (something I need to do again before I go shopping) a photo of everything on my phone (which I need to update after a clothes cull) then if I am dithering , I can see if anything goes with what I have.

By colour for my hanging things in my half of the one in my bedroom and my t-shirt drawer. So greens, blues, navy, black, stripes, white, beige, brown for example. The wardrobe in the spare room is just thick jumpers, dresses and coats by type.

I work in a casual office (not even smart casual) so no separation required.

You must have a very big bedroom Happy!

Thank you for all your replies.

I am defo over thinking it! Think it was because of a bit of a 'style crisis' with my casual wear (which I think just didn't reflect the person I am-especially as a lot of it was just scruffy work wear e.g. with little holes in it, stains etc)!

I've now had a big sort, basically kept same premise as before but totally divided work/casual.

This has been pretty helpful as made me realise I have more casual wear than what I thought but only 1 casual jumper and no cardigans.

I guess what I'm trying to do is really 'see' what I own as feel like I wear same 3 or so work (and same for casual albeit with different clothes) all the time.

I think I now need to spend an ebenign trying stuff on and trying to make sone new 'looks' with the stuff I already have.

When I look at styles I like on pintrest, I'm finding I already have similar outfit components but just never wear them or pair them with anything other than the usual one pair of jeans/work trousers I live in.

I sort by type, so from left to right it goes -

Vests
T-shirts
Long sleeve tops
Jumpers
Cardigans
Blazers
Dresses
Jeans/casual trousers
Work tops
Work dresses
Work trousers
Suits
Then infrequently worn clothes such as ballgowns, maxi dresses etc

Polly yes I do

I live in one of those big houses that I cannot afford to maintain and it's all falling down around my ears I have to sell up (divorce settlement) next year and will have to drastically cull my wardrobe so have started Kondoing the whole house, starting with my clothes.

DD 20 is the same. She doesn't even live her anymore and still has two bedrooms worth of wardrobe space full of clothes.

DS 17 has one full wardrobe and a clothes rail in his.

My motto now is "Less is more."

Folded I have T-Shirts on one shelf, then jumpers, then jeans and some trousers. Hanging (double wardrobe) I have jackets then shirts then skirts then dresses. All formal dresses are at the furthest end.

I only wear dresses and skirts and most I can wear to the office and casually. Besides that I have two large drawers containing shirts, vests, underwear, socks, sportswear etc.
My pyjamas are in DP's wardrobe because he had empty shelves.

I did have a year where I only bought red and navy clothes because I wanted to mix and match more. It really helped to make my clothes go further.

I have a big fitted wardrobe and far too many clothes. It is semi-organised left to right:
Work suits
Work tops
Casual skirts
Casual tops blending into tunics blending into dresses
'Special occasion' dresses
Random things that don't come out much eg ultra-formal work stuff that I have literally never had to wear since I qualified.

T-shirts, jeans and jumpers live in drawers. Socks and pants live in the little drawers of the bedside cabinet.

I hate shopping and when I downsized post divorce I decided to keep everything very simple and minimalist. Wouldn't work for everyone but does for me. I feel quite harassed by a bulging wardrobe and full shelves.

Everything is black. Bottom half is always cotton leggings (I hate tights and waistbands and have bad feet so usually wear boots with an insole even for work), I own about 6 pairs. I own about 4 or 5 casual tops all tunic style to cover my bum and thighs. I have about the same number of smarter black tunics for work. I tend to wear an item until it falls apart then replace it with something similar.

I work a lot with communities where scanty clothing would cause offence and although a lot of my stuff has short sleeves, it seems to do the job fine.

Leggings folded on shelf, tunics hung up. Sorted. I'm never going back to a more complex style.

Ooh I love organisation. I have rail in my wardrobe of regular clothes I wear, and one of of 'occasion' type clothes. Hats, shoes and bags are organised on shelves.

I generally only wear dresses (I own 3 pairs of jeans and and 1 pair of trousers) so everything is hung up except jumpers and tops that would be damaged by hanging, which I keep in drawers, separate by when I would wear them, then colour scheme (eg. One drawer of 'going out tops' would then be laid out according to colour'. This makes things extremely easy to find. Dresses are then organised into day, work, summer and jumper.

The occasion stuff includes short evening dresses, long evening dresses, holiday wear, and also sports stuff in a set of drawers.

All outerwear hangs on a separate rail. I'm too lazy to pack them away and unpack them so I've got massive winter jackets taking up a lot of room. I really need more coat space.

Have you thought of photographing your 'new' outfits once you've pieced them together.

I have my staples at one end so I can easily find them - jeans, leggings, vests, etc.

And then otherwise (and some may baulk at this) I have everything else in no order. I try to put in clean clothes at one end and take clothes to wear from the other end, so I rotate through everything over time.

This is as I felt I was a) always just wearing my favourites and never mixing it up and b) had some items I actually didn't like anymore just gathering dust. By rotating everything, I find you wear more of a mixture of stuff and if you're skipping the same stuff every time it comes up, it becomes clear you should probably chuck it.

I have one large built in wardrobe and a smaller freestanding one, plus chest of drawers. Built in wardrobe is work and casual - lots of crossover there so I don't separate, perhaps I should. The shelves down the side are 1 for jeans, 1 for t-shirts and 1 for jumpers that don't need hanging. Then the bottom shelf/floor has a storage basket with all my gym stuff in, and within that a smaller one with all my vest tops rolled as if packing for holiday and easy to pull out and select by colour. Top shelf across whole length of wardrobe has handbags and hats plus a vacuum bag of clothes that are strictly for (beach) holidays only. The hanging bit has trousers, dresses, skirts, blouses and smarter tops, jumpers/cardigans - no colour organisation though keep thinking I should. Oh and then jumpsuits at very end. Free standing wardrobe goes coats, jackets, going out/ special occasion clothes. Shoes in a big mess at bottom - shoes is my next thing to sort out. Underwear, nightwear, tights/leggings all sorted into the drawers - some of which are sectioned. Fancy/sexy undies in silk bag in wardrobe - mainly so I don't keep pulling out sexy little scraps of nothing when I'm trying to get dressed in the dark at 6 am and really want a big pair of comfy pants to go under my leggings. I'm not sure the last time the sexy stuff bag was called upon actually, poor DP.

I have recently just split my workwear and casual wear as I am off work sick for a few months. We have also just moved house and there are big built in wardrobes.

Wardrobe 1
Casual wear
Sorted into types of outfit.
Light jackets
Cardigans
Jumpers
Dresses
Blouses
T shirts
Trousers
Skirts
Shorts
All my casual shoes are on shoe racks at the bottom of this wardrobe
Casual bags on the shelf above hanging space

They are sort of grouped by colour

Wardrobe 2 ( Actually DH's )

I have then pinched part of DH wardrobe for
Scarves / pashmina type things (.hanging)
Sporty hoodies/ bottoms
Trainers and casual sandals go at the bottom of this wardrobe

Wardrobe 3
Work wear - mainly dresses and suits
Again sorted by colour

Going out/ formal wear

Sorted by type
Formal Evening and cruise dresses
Less formal evening wear such as dresses for a meal out

At the bottom I have my work shoes and going out shoes
Shelf at the top going out handbags

Wardrobe 4
Coats and outdoor jackets
Shelf at the top for hats/ gloves etc

Chest of drawers
Drawer for bras, sorted by colour
Drawer for knickers sorted by colour
Drawer for tights colour sorted
Drawer for socks
Pyjamas and slouchy clothes in a drawer
Vest tops and t shirts in a drawer
Sporty stuff and swimming costumes