It's Closet Swap-Over Time!

Hey, my friends! Wanna see how I swap over my spring/summer clothes for my fall/winter clothes? We have swap-overs for: 

• My walk-in closet
• My scarves/outerwear accessories
• My jewelry
• My coats

...and I have loads of pictures of the whole thing, so grab a cuppa and join me. If you're really feeling keen, you can take a look at the opposite fall/winter to spring/summer swap-over that I did at the beginning of April here. 

Walk-In Closet Swap-Over

I was up early chatting with Mom, then walked to town for my grocery shop, followed by my Mental Health Walk. By the time I was home, showered and had lunch, it was 2pm when I started. I stretched, poured a big glass of water and put on some tunes (I enjoyed a revisit of one of my favourite Broadway musical cast recordings of "Chess", a little ELO and some Dessa, an excellent Philadelphia rapper). 

Here's the "Before" shot. I'm actually pretty good at keeping my closet tidy, but things get a little jumbly over 6 months. 

My closet is as wide as that blue facing wall - it's about 6' x 7'. I had it custom built in 2007 to reward myself for losing 50 pounds. 

Vizzini noted the hubbub and came nosing around. 

"I'll be supervising this project, ma'am."

He loves getting into my closet, and chewing on my shoelaces. I have to keep the door closed when I'm not around. 

"Ah, this is hard work, time for a nap."

He quickly lost interest and I rolled up my sleeves and got going. I start on the left side, with the blouses, longer skirts and trousers. 

I removed all items I deem Spring/Summer, leaving clothes I thought I might want to wear in the next season. 

My first pile of hangers from doing that section. 

I like wooden hangers for my jackets, dresses and blouses, with a few velvet hangers for wide-necked or slippery pieces. I have a variety of pant/skirt hangers, including some vintage ones. I bought the black plastic ones when the Fairweather store I worked at closed in 2000. 

There are four shelves above the first hanging section - I started at the ceiling and took every thing off the shelves, oil soaped the solid wood shelving, dusted the items (as applicable) and then put them back. 

I keep things that I don't use much up at the ceiling. The two shoeboxes in back hold mementos from my blogging days: cards my blogger friends have sent me, random artwork, and odds and ends of things that I find precious. 

There are five pairs of shoes there that I rarely wear but wish to keep: two pairs are vintage (very old), two pairs are 17-15 years old, and my very first pair of Fluevogs from c. 2006 are up there, along with my party headgear (tiara, fascinators). 

Next, I moved along to the 6-foot long-hang, where I keep all of my dresses and dusters, thinning it out by removing all of my warm weather dresses. 

How do I decide what stays and goes?

• Fabric: I don't keep cotton, linen, thin silk, chiffon or other very light fabrics out. I favour velvet, wool, cashmere, heavier silk, corduroy and brocades in cooler months. 
• Colour: I do favour a more earthy palette in fall/winter, punctuated by a few brights - I have to have my brights! - the pastels, candy colours and whites are mostly for warm weather only. 
• Specific garment characteristics: I won't keep out any unlined dress or jacket, and pack away skirts that will cling to tights; tops that are light and are better worn on their own (vs. under a jacket) are also removed. 

After I thinned out the existing clothes, and unpacked my fall/winter stash, I had to thin further so that I'd have enough hangers. I will not let myself buy more hangers! 

Interlude: Unpacking Storage Boxes and Labeling Them

Above the long-hang is a deep shelf where I store a bunch of my keepsakes and dressy items that I don't need very often. I thought I'd open them up and have a gander, and also put labels on the boxes (since I don't crack them open every season or even every year). 

This box contains my very good quality feather boa and my 6 pairs of long velvet/satin/metallic gloves. They are mostly vintage (the pink ones were Mom's) or purchased when I worked at Fairweather. The leopard ones were a gift from my mother-in-law about 15 years ago. 

Another box contains three sweaters that belonged to my dad. I wore all of these in high school - which is when I "liberated" the green sweater and the beige cardigan from his closet. Mom knit those for Dad at some point early in their relationship; the cardigans were "his and hers" (so cute that you guys matched, Mom) but I gave away hers in high school to my friend Lisa J. 

The blue sweater is by Jantzen and is from the late 80s. I think I actually bought it for Dad for Christmas one year and took it back after he died in 1997. 

The third box used to contain some of my '90s purses - I decided to bring them out and store my steampunk harness and corset in it, along with my autographed Fluevogs. 

I plan to do something with the shoes (Zentangle them and display them properly), but they've been looking at me guiltily and I can't handle the mental pressure, so screw it (for now). 

Back to the closet...

I also found this massive velvet scarf with 8" fringe (also a Fairweather purchase c. 1999), and that lumpy thing on the right is a vintage fur muff. 

I've never used the muff (the tag's still onit; I bought it in 2014 at the Vintage Expo (here) for $25.00), but I'm thinking that 2020 will be the year that I stand around outside in the cold, visiting with my friends, and my hands are gonna be toasty! 

This was after I'd tidied another area, and rediscovered my vintage 80s top hat and another vintage hat. 

The velvet boxes were from London Drugs several years ago - I think they were around $8.00-15.00 each, depending on the size. The studded pumps are vintage Versace, and I do wear them once in a while. 

Here's the left side, with what stayed out after I cleaned and thinned the collection. 

My ladder is for getting up to the ceiling. I didn't clean the chandelier this year, and I'm fine with that.

As I remove all the clothes, they get done up and folded sort-of neatly. I don't really care if they get wrinkled as I can steam that out lickety-split in the spring. 

Look at that pile of hangers! I couldn't possibly run out! 

But we still have to do the right side of the closet. I found the top hat on the shelf above the skirts. Speaking of skirts, as I purchase things out of season (sweaters, velvets, etc.), I stash them behind and under the skirts - I enjoy the avalanche as I pull them down and remember, "Oh yeah! I bought X and Y and Z!" It's very exciting. 

Later on, as I unpacked all my fall/winter pieces, I had to drastically go through both the skirts and the jackets below them AGAIN to make enough space. 

Now that I've done the clothes on that side, it's time to do the shoes. 

Mini Box Interlude

As on the left side, up at the ceiling I have a couple of shoe-boxes behind the party shoes. One of them has my wedding purse and shoes in it. 

They suited my dress at the time, but I would not wear this style now. Back you go, nice to see you.

Back to the Chaos!

We're at Peak Chaos here. A monster pile of hangers (and yet, I needed more!), all my spring/summer clothes sort-of neatly folded for storing away. 

And a bunch of my spring/summer shoes on the right, also ready for hibernation. 

The spring/summer store-'em line-up continues around the corner and down the hall - all the shoes on the left side were packed away. Colour is a big factor in deciding which shoes to put away; open toes and sandals are also stored for the season. 

Shoes on the right, and curving down the hall are staying out. I have a fairly big overlap of spring/summer shoes, particularly in my casual wear/walking shoes. 

These are all walking/shopping shoes, good all year round for most weather. 

I counted 63 pairs there, but that's not including all of my fall/winter shoes that were in storage! 

Finally! Time to get out the fall/winter clothes! Here's the empty closet - you can see from one corner to the other - along with my big tub waiting to be unpacked. It is stored under the jackets, snug in the right corner. 

I vacuumed the inside of the closet thoroughly - Vizzini made himself scarce, the chicken-cat. See me in the mirror?

These three tubs live under the bed - as I tackle each tub I dust the lid, wipe down the inside, hang up the clothes, then repack my spring/summer items into them and put them away immediately.

This is hot and sweaty labour.

Followed by MORE hot and sweaty labour, as I opened all of these cloth shopping bags and shoe-bags. 

Where the heck were these stored? 

Answer: Under the clothes on the floor of the closet. This is mostly wasted space in a closet, and it keeps Vizzini from sleeping under my clothes...

"Oh, are you done?"

He did not want to budge! You can just see one of the bags under the dresses on the right (the bit of green). 

"You can go now. This is perfect."

Of course, he can't stay there, so I shooed him out (ran the vacuum again), and finished unpacking the bags, and reloading them again with the leftover spring/summer things. I tie the bags closed tightly and store them upside down so that neither Vizzini nor moths will get in. The bags are mostly cotton, so the clothes and shoes breathe. 

And here's the completed closet from a few angles so you can see it all. Door open, looking at the "Tower of Power" of my floor-to-ceiling shoe storage. 

There are fewer shoes here than I normally have, and I'll show you why in a minute. 

Looking at the rest of the right side. I'm excited to start making outfits out of my lovely fall/winter blazers and short skirts. 

You can see some of the cloth bags under the jackets on the lower right. 

And here's the left side, shirts/blouses, long skirts, trousers, dresses. 

Some of my walking boots are lined up in front of the bags on the closet floor under the blouses/skirts/trousers. This helps keep Vizzini from climbing the bags, seeking a safe napping place. 

Looking above the blouse/skirt/trouser hang, at my three shelves of sweaters and tops, as well as a stack of pants on the lower right.  

So many pretty colours. I have a lot of blues, purples, reds, pinks and yellows in my tops, to go with my neutral and patterned bottoms. 

My shirts, blouses and long skirts and trousers. The few items right at the front of each section are my as-yet-unworn, new-to-me items. This reminds me to make outfits from these garments first. 

I anticipate wearing my fluffy pink Muppet skirt a lot if we are visiting outside more. See it? 

My dress collection. I felt a little sad as I unpacked all my Christmas and holiday party gowns from storage, knowing that there won't be any of those parties this year. 

I admit, I left some in their bags and put them away again - no sense in feeling sad and torturing myself over something I can't control. I definitely have enough clothes here to build a party outfit on the off chance of a small bash. 

A close-up of my short skirts. 

It's a lot of metallic, lush patterns, soft wools and funky patterns. I wear more minis in fall/winter because I can wear opaque tights with them. 

My blazer and jacket collection contains some real gems. 

I'm looking forward to doing Flashbacks on many of these! 

Here is my Tower of Power, from the floor to the middle. I used a flash so that you can see them. 

You'll note one shelf of folded garments - these are the new-to-me sweaters and tops that I need to integrate into my wardrobe. 

For the past year or two, I've devoted two side-by-side cubbies for my dressy purse collection, however, since I unpacked those 90s purses, I thought I'd do something different with them, which we shall get to shortly. 

This is two more shelves of shoes and boots. The heels get higher as the shelves get higher!

This is the very top shelf - strictly very tall heels and party shoes. 

The white box on the right is where my wedding stuff is. 

Above the skirts, and to the left of the party shoe shelf, is a narrow shelf where I have a couple of giant straw saucer hats and a couple of whimsical hat-shaped fascinators. 

I also put my Tod's sandals and my Sol Sana sandals up there - both pairs look funky with tights and I might feel like wearing them if the outfit presents itself. You never know. 

On the floor in front of the mirror, I replaced my belt bins (purchased at LD at the same time as the other velvet boxes). The shoe-box that the large belt bin is sitting on contains my spring/summer scarves and belts.

The open shoe-box on the right contains my soft belts (obis, leather wrap belts). You can see the big plastic bin to the right of that. 

New Storage Area Created! 

When I did my last shelving project, creating new storage behind the room's door, and L's new shoe storage, in August (here), I also cleared this wide low shelf of books on the opposite wall. It's been sitting empty for months. Yes, that is a real bear head.

I also moved my lingerie chest beside it, instead of being more in the corner, to make it easier to access, and to give me as much light as possible. My steamer is in use almost daily, and that's a better space for it. 

I loaded the new shelves with my regular walking shoes on the bottom two levels, and put all my bags and purses on the top two.

I am not really a bag person, but I do enjoy collecting really unique pretty purses to go with my special outfits when I go out. I also put my two Birks beaded belts out here to remind me to wear them! 

My new Korova Milk Bar bag sits beside my bamboo/satin "take-out box" purse (c. 1997), with my cigar box purse in front (gift from L, c. 1996). 

The other bags to the right are my Whiting & Davis vintage bag (not yet used, thank you, pandemic) and my other "daily" bags that I switch up for shopping mostly. 

My giveaway pile was small this time, just a few pieces that don't ring my bell, plus some cloth masks that don't work for me. 

I plan on shopping my closet this season and really making sure I love what I already own. 

The last thing I did on Thursday, just before 7pm (yes, this took five hours) was to tidy up my scarves and sort them by colour with my fall/winter ones added in. 

I was exhausted by this point as well as hungry, so I quit for the day. 

Minor Swap-Overs Elsewhere

I was up early on Friday, ready to finish up the rest of my wardrobe swap. I started with the hall bench, where L and I store our outerwear (temporarily) and outdoor accessories (permanently).

All the current stuff removed, put away or sorted. I get the right side; L gets the left side, although I get more storage inside the bench. 

Before!

That beige thing is a security travel pack - in the summer, when I don't have any garments on with pockets, I wear it to carry my ID, keys, etc.

After! L has some nice wooly scarves and his wooly tweed cap all ready to grab. His lower hook is reserved for his temporary hanging of suit jackets and other stuff. (L is messier than me and needs his own "chaos" areas.) 

I have my berets (out of kitty reach), big thick scarves, then on the second hook is my winter walking gear. 

I use flat-bottomed cloth grocery bags with the tops rolled down as bins. L has his gloves on top, with toques under those. 

The middle purple bag is my fur or faux fur scarves; the bag on the right are all my gloves (I have a lot of gloves). Our spring/summer-weight items are bagged up and are under these bags to raise them up and make them easier to get at.

I hung L's bag up, and was initially stumped on his umbrella - where is it?

Then I realized he must have taken it to work - it's supposed to rain today. 

I Have a Lot of Bling

I love vintage jewelry, and have collected some as well as inherited some from relatives, and I'm 53 years old, so I have a lot! I am also a super-visual person, so I need to SEE my bling. I have ways to accomplish this, the first of which is to do a jewelry swap-over when I do my clothing swap-over. It means my jewelry boxes are less cluttered, and I'm more likely to spy a lesser-worn piece. 

Before - it's very dusty. Don't judge me! 

I have multiple jewelry boxes. The low one was my Gram S's, and the tall one is a Bombay Company piece. I also use a silk bag, a pastry stand, a candy dish, a sorbet bowl and a tin for storage. 

I removed each storage item from the top of the dresser, starting with the non-jewelry boxes. 

I review them, pulling out any that I feel are "summery", which is based on colour, what they're worn with, and actual weight. 

Same for the pastry stand, where I store my cuffs and bangles. 

My crystal candy dish is for my stud and small earrings. 

Stuff that I packed up. 

I started a giveaway pile, putting some of my non-inspiring things into it. 

The sorbet dish is for my oversized earrings. I love big earrings, but they do fight with masks. 

The tin is where I keep my pendant collection, along with several chains. 

Here's my fall/winter collection, ready to be unpacked. 

Big cuffs go in their own bag. 

I load back all the items I keep out all year round. 

This jewelry box has so much space, and it's all perfectly divided. 

Here are all the drawers pulled out for sorting. 

You can see that I've grouped put-away items for bagging into "families" which are often sets or "like" items (like earrings). I use those little sheer draw-string bags that jewelry often comes in, which allow me to see what's in them, and decide whether I even feel like having a grouping out on a given season. Sometimes I need to "rest" from things.

More stuff - I lay it all out on my bed so that I can see it. 

There really is order here despite the messy look - I know exactly what I'm doing with all of it! 

This is the "After" of Gram's jewelry box. I mostly keep vintage pieces in here. 

I'm excited to wear all of these again!

After! Nice and clean and organized.

Using these different ways to see my jewelry, it makes it much easier for me to wear everything I have and to keep it tidy. 

Hosiery!

I wear nylons fairly frequently as I have loads of varicose veins and spider-veins, and they give me a nice smooth look, but I rarely wear tights in warm weather. This was more of a re-org than a swap. 

Before. I stored the bulk of my dark tights in the deep drawer of the lingerie chest last spring, and kept out a few pairs of bright and colourful tights (left bag).

I stored knee-highs and trouser socks in the right bag, along with my newer purchases.

After. In the deep drawer, I've added another roll-top, cloth, flat-bottomed bag for easy pull-out and rummage - those are the solid-coloured tights. I store things under them to lift the bag higher for easier access.

In the left are all patterned tights; on the right are all black/grey tights. The pile in the centre are getting tossed. Not working for me. 

Coats Reconsidered

When I did my last swap-over in spring, I bagged up some of my heaviest/thickest winter coats to give myself more space.

I helpfully labeled them so that I don't donate them by accident! Today I bagged a few very light coats that felt more springy, but I did not unpack the winter ones like I thought I was going to. 

We've just started getting fall weather, and as that's Leather Weather, I want to keep out some of my thinner coats for just a bit longer. 

This is what's in my coat closet now - functional daily coats are up to the black (past that is vintage/special occasion outerwear). Some of these are far too cold in winter, so I am going to do a coat swap-over when it starts getting really chilly. The bonus is that some of these coats will get worn more, and it provides more room - I loathe a crammed coat closet.

An Accounting of Masks

This one's for Kezzie who asked to see a picture of all of my masks.

 I have 27 total, including the five on the right that went into "spring/summer" storage. 

And now, my friends, I'm heading off for my long weekend and some minor birthday shenanigans. I will return early next week with the first outfit of fall, and tales of adventure! 

Stay safe, and a very Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!