Monday, February 06, 2006

Outfit Inventory

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When you buy clothes secondhand, sometimes you end up with individual items, not outfits. I'm trying to solve this problem and simplify our closets at the same time.

Here's the new system: hang a complete change of clothes on each hanger.


For my son, I'm using wooden pants hangers. I sandwich slacks, socks, and underwear between the clip, then hang the shirt and sweater over the top.

In my closet, I'm doing the same, only with full-size wooden hangers. I loop accessories like a scarf or quilted bag over the hook. Not only does this eliminate the problem of "what to wear?" I can get by without using bulky dressers.

(Remember, for resale, the more of your floor is exposed, the more spacious your bedrooms look.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks great! Where do you find those wooden hangers at an affordable price?

Meredith said...

I started picking them up at a charity thrift store for 10 cents apiece. They were the only hangers sturdy enough to hold my husband's XXL jackets! Five years and many yard sales later, I had enough to use for all our clothes. I think they really add to the finished look of a closet. For resale, I would use any kind of matching hangers, evenly spaced and all facing the same direction.

Catherine at Frugal Homemaker Plus said...

Great idea! I lay my clothes out before bed each day, but this is even better.

Anonymous said...

Do you normally have dressers? What do you do with them while you are organizing and preparing your home for resale?

Kathryn said...

I found an idea in Martha Stewart's Kids Magazine---they folded the whole outfit together with underwear in the middle.

We have very little closet space, so I try to have some ready all the time so Daddy can dress the baby in somewhat matching clothes. Otherwise, the lime green sweatpants will be used with a non-matching top. ;-)

Nice ideas...keep them coming.

Meredith said...

Jordana, I had to laugh at your question. My husband would say, who knows what furniture will be there when he gets home! We do have a dresser for my husband's clothes--he has so many. Andrew and I use baskets in our closets instead. For the past two homes, I put all unnecessary furniture in my mom's shed while the house was on the market. This was helpful later, because we had less furniture to move immediately to the new house (we refinish the floors first).

Julie @ Creating This Life said...

I wrote about cheap closet makeovers on my blog too: http://thefamilyceo.blogspot.com/2006/03/cheap-closet-makeovers.html

I agree with you that wooden hangers make a closet more clean looking. There's less visual clutter to compete with the clothing when all the hangers are alike.

I used a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon for my hangers. I really need to get in the thrift store habit. Your finds are inspiring!