Ephemera: Spring-Summer 2026 Closet Swap-Over (with Video!)

Hello, my friends, and get yourself settled in, as I have a ton of pictures for you of my closet swap and as promised, there's a video! My last closet swap-over was here in early October 2025.

I spent most of Thursday, my usual day off, doing the closet. After breakfast, I assembled my necessary things.

Cleaning products (I also used my Folex), a drink and two albums by Jenny Don't and the Spurs, who we went to see live on Friday night. I figured I should get more familiar with them before the show.

I got the vacuum out.

"Are you a cleaner person now?"

Only for this, Whateley. Neither cat was fazed at all by my swap, although they were pooped after a full day of stimulation and excitement and slept all evening.

Here's the Before shot of our room. Ignore the messy desk.

Everything else is basically closet space for me or L.

Over the course of six months, the areas get messy as I paw though things.

The kittens also get into this stuff (they like to pull all my scarves out of the tower).

I did a thorough cleaning and went through everything in these areas, removing some to be sold at my next Limbo sale.

There were a lot of things I just don't wear anymore, or aren't my style. It's a bit sad to let them go, but I won't miss them that much.

L's shoe shelves haven't been tidied since I set them up, some time during the Pandemic.

I pulled everything off and tidied it up.

I also had a gap from my old PVC studded purse - the pleather was dissolving, so that's gone into the Free Pile.

I was eyeing all the empty boxes on here, thinking of new solutions for storing my jewelry that will not involve little kittens stealing things.

My old faithful steamer, lingerie chest and that pile of stuff is Limbo-bound.

I added about 5 times that to the pile, saying goodbye to things that no longer serve me.

My purses and walking shoes.

I got rid of many pieces of my vintage lingerie as I tend to wear the same pieces over and over, and I did a drastic reduction in the number of purses I have.

And now...the closet!

The Before shot - I'm pretty good at keeping it tidy. I put everything back where it belongs.

The kitties investigate.

I see a Barnabas body down there.

My sweaters are overstuffed.

I thinned out quite a bit there, including some of my vintage things that had been stored way up high. Again, I'm not wearing them at all, so why keep them?

Whateley, and oh, hello, that's me in the mirror.

Well, shall we get started?

I started on the left and work my way around to the right side, removing anything that I deem as "Not Spring or Summer."

You can see my ladder in the background, and the first piles of things I've removed (the long skirts have been done here).

I pulled out everything from the shelving above the skirt-hang and made piles, refolding them nicely.

I decided what I wanted to keep out, then put it back on the shelves. Of course, I'm dusting and cleaning as I go.

Now the pants and dresses have been gone though.

Note how the hangers have all been turned backwards.

I have a lot of dresses - the piles grew!

My goal by the time I retire (est. 2028) is to only have to remove big bulky extreme weather pieces.

That's a nice big pile of hangers.

I'd say about 50% of my wardrobe is all-year now.

I rejigged my two short-hangs on the right, moving a bunch of cropped/shorter blazers up, moving my short skirts up to the front. On the bottom are my blouses and longer blazers/jackets, plus my Weird Adidas jackets.

I found it hard to remember I had shorter skirts with them shoved to the back, and I hated the blouses being up high last season. I also have quite a few jackets, and I wanted more space for them.

Then it's time to remove all the shoes and clean these shelves well.

I use Murphy's Oil Soap on the (real) wood. That Windex is from me doing the mirror.

Here are the shoes and boots, all lined up down the hall.

Whateley is inspecting.

I hadn't even unpacked my spring-summer shoes yet.

And none of my walking shoes are here.

All of these were in my closet.

Pretty impressive, right? Those shelves hold a ton!

All done...but wait, where are all the spring-summer clothes?

There's a big tub under here, plus a Fluevog bag full of clothes, and a couple of bags squashed under the shoe shelves.

Whateley liked this tub.

"Mine?"

Sorry, buddy, nope.

The rest of the clothes were in more Fluevog bags under the left side.

This is much better than I had a few years ago - there were layers of bags then!

The boys liked the bags.

"We love this game!" "Can I have this bag?"

As I unpacked the tub and each bag, I hung everything up, hanger backwards.

Then it's time to unpack the summer shoes.

These three tubs live under the bed.

When I was done those, I turned my attention to these areas, as I also had scarves, belts and purses stored away.

I cleaned all this shelving and refolded all my scarves, and moved a few things around on the wall.

L's shoes all tidied up.

I shorted by colour: blue, purple, burgundy, red and greens.

I put my Kermit shoes on this shelf.

I used the wooden boxes that had been stored on here, plus a velvet jewelry box...but you'll have to stay tuned, as I'm going to do the jewelry in a separate post.

The top of my lingerie chest.

Handy things like scissors, safety pins and bulldog clips, unworn small purchases.

All my purses out looking pretty, and my walking shoes.

I missed my pink sequined sneakers!

I did collages of the items I didn't wear this season.

I let go of the orange thing and the cool lace-print jeans (way too tight). The acid wash denim dress gets another go in the spring-summer closet (it always gets a pass), and I'd hoped to wear my Depeche Mode "Personal Jesus" dress, but the occasion never came along.

I moved the sequined dress into Limbo (I wore it for 15 years!), and put the berries and lilies dress into my dress collection. Again, I'd hoped to wear it, but just didn't have the right event.