Bi-Annual Bigass Closet and Accessory Swap-Over

Hello, my friends, and welcome to my Bi-Annual Closet and Accessory Swap-Over! I have loads of pictures of my closet organization, my massive shoe collection, and my jewelry storage, as well as a few pics of my various other storage/display areas. You can check out the September 2021 swap-over here.

I am so glad I took the day off to do this - I still have a full weekend ahead - as it is time-consuming and physically taxing. Phew, I need a nap! 

Here we go - this is the Before. It takes six months for it to get in this disheveled state, but I'm good at putting my clothes away, and keeping everything in its place. 

There's me in the mirror, didn't even shower, as I knew I'd be sweating at some point (I was right). 

I loaded up on supplies. 

Coffee, Windex, Murphy's Oil Soap and paper towels. I started at 10am. 

I do it the same every swap-over: I started on the left of my closet and worked my way around, removing anything that had a whiff of fall/winter. 

I folded it up, maybe did up a button or two, and started building stacks in the centre of the den. My pile of hangers began to grow. 

This is what was left of my blouses, long skirts and trousers - all of these survived the second pull, when I ran out of hangers for the stuff I was still unpacking. 

If I run out of hangers, I have to remove things or put them in the giveaway pile. 

Above the blouses are four big shelves. I store things I don't use as often up high. I removed it all and started dusting. 

I don't think I wore much (if any) of this stuff in the past six months - these are "archive" shoes, that I keep and don't wear. They're just for show now, darlings. 

To the right of that hang/shelving section is my "long hang". On the top shelf I have more archives in the boxes (things of Dad's, my steampunk fun things, etc.). Another archive pair of shoes, and some party things like my vintage muff, wigs and top hat.

The long hang is where I store my dusters/kimonos, dresses and jumpsuits. This is what was left after the first pass. I ended up removing several dresses when I did the second pass, as I've made a change in some of my storage. 

Going back to the first section, here it is, all nicely loaded with what I kept out. I hope I'll use the thicker sweaters the least, so they are up high. I moved my trouser stack down, as I didn't like not being able to reach them last season when they were one shelf higher. 

The lower shelves have thin tops, shells and odds and ends like shorts, vests and bustiers. 

I repeated this process for the next section on the right side of the closet. My shorter skirts on top, and my blazers and jackets on the bottom. 

As you can see from the peek of tulle behind the skirts, I use that area behind them to store things - it's where I stuff out-of-season purchases. I removed a couple of the jackets on the second pass, including my skull jacket (it's more of a fall design).

This is all the clothing I removed that needs to be packed away. 

That's a massive pile of hangers! I added more clothing to this later, when I needed more hangers, and pulled out my gowns. 

Now that all the clothing is out, it's time to do the shoes! These are all the shoes and boots I had stored in my closet for the past six months. 

That's a few. 

That's more...

Really, those were all in my closet. 

It's very efficient storage! 

And yes, I know I have a lot of shoes - I wear 95% of them. 

This is the Tower of Power, the best shoe storage ever. It also shows off the awesome custom build that our friend Michael (who was a contractor at the time) designed for me when I decided that I needed to use this big empty box more efficiently. It's all solid wood, and is still in great condition 15 years later. 

There are 16 cubbies, each of which holds 3-4 pairs of shoes. I keep about 50 pairs on the shelves, plus another 8-10ish pairs on the floor below the Tower. In fall/winter, I have more boots on the floor around the closet too.

Now, time to get the stored clothes out! This is my favourite part - I have generally forgotten about 50% or more of my off-season collection. It's wonderful discovering old friends, and introducing them to new friends. It's also a time of letting go; I constantly weed my wardrobe. 

There's my big Glad tub under the coats, plus there are about 7 big cloth/shoe bags with more clothes and shoes in them. I use every square inch of my closet! The round bins are my belts - I do them last. 

Here are all the bags I pulled out from underneath the hanging areas of my closet. 

Ten giant bags, plus the bin. 

It's at this point - the most chaotic - that I vacuum and clean the baseboards and mirror. I gave the chandelier a swipe this time. I see me in the mirror. 

I bought that little round blue velvet footstool for the deck, but I prefer it in my closet. I use it to get at the higher shelves, instead of having to get out the ladder. It's also a nice place to sit with Vizzini.

What's in the big tub!? It's so exciting, isn't it? OMG, I forgot about that neon orange blazer. 

My DVF bomber, the jungle blazer! my Smoking Lily space jacket...

I hung all that stuff up, shook out the wrinkles, slotted it in its section by colour. Once the big tub was empty, I loaded fall/winter clothes into it and put it back where it lives, under the blazers. The cloth bags are next, and it's the same: fill them after they're emptied, and start shoving them underneath all the clothes again. 

But wait! I also keep three flat tubs under the bed! More goodies! I ended up with more shoe-bags needed to contain all of these piles, as my fall/winter clothes are bulkier, thicker fabrics and I have more boots. A few bags get pushed under the bed. 

I also started an archive bag of things I love but don't want to part with. I don't wear them (most are too small), but they are special enough to keep for now. 

I also realized that I have a sh*t-ton of gowns and special occasion dresses, and not so many events to actually GO to. I decided to create Gown Bags, so that if I do need a gown or a super-fancy dress, I can easily dive in and pick which one I want. They take up too much space in the closet, so I'm storing them in the library.

Next, I cleaned up my bag/walking shoes shelf. Yes, that's a black bear - my brother-in-law gave it to me (I wanted it). 

I store my purses and bags on the top two shelves, and my walking shoes on the bottom two. 

Bags and purses. I culled a few that I didn't love, and gave the rest a good dusting. 

The shoeboxes hold some off-season purses, and shoe cleaning/repair stuff.

My walking shoes. 

I kept a few pairs of boots out - they can come in handy. 

At this point, which was around 3pm, Vizzini came out from under the blankets where he'd been hiding from the vacuum. 

"I claim this excellent sleeping spot!"

He likes to climb up and sleep on the bags of clothes and shoes back under the hanging items. He often gets locked in the closet accidentally, so I try to make it as unappealing or unreachable as possible. 

I cleaned off the top of my lingerie chest (which holds my camisoles, soft tops, slips and tights). 

Gave it all a dusting and put it back. 

I finished around 4pm, and took the After pictures. Here's the left side shelves...

…the top two...

the lower two...

…and blouses, long skirts and trouser hang, directly below those. 

Exciting! I immediately started putting together outfits with my new-to-me purchases and once-worn off-season clothes from the last six months. 

The top shelf above the dress section didn't change. I added the Clockwork Orange purse to it. It seemed to fit. 

You can see here that all my hangers are "backwards", with the hook part facing towards you. I turn all my hangers backward at the start of each season...

…and as I wear the clothes, I put them back the "right" way, with the hook facing away. It helps me not forget to wear things, and to ensure that I really am wearing almost everything I own. 

So many pretty dresses! I have a rainbow of colours. 

The opposite side. The very shallow shelf above the skirts is where I store some vintage party hats, along with my most honkin' platform boots. 

My short skirt collection is lacking! I cleared out of a lot of my more girly ones in the last few years. 

My jacket collection is so good. 

Every one of those makes me happy. 

Here are the shoes, in the Tower of Power! The higher the heel, the closer they are to the ceiling. 

Not worn as much, but still worn. Definitely not for standing for too long. 

Go-to shoes. I'm so happy to see some of these back. 

I have one bigger shelf mid-way down - I put some of my boots and booties on it. 

Comfy, all day shoes. 

Mixed with some of my favourites, which I like having in my eye-range. 

And the lower shelves. If you counted, there are 49 pairs on the shelving. 

Plus 8 pairs on the floor. There are a few pairs that are for the hottest days hiding behind the stool. 

I cleaned out the belt bins and a shoebox of soft-belts - I swapped out a few of them as well. They're stored in that blue shoebox, plus a shoebag-ful that's tucked away underneath. 

My blue boots are in their home spot. I had a dozen leftover skirt-hangers, which I jumbled in Vizzini's desired spot. You can see them in the left corner. 

I did my jewelry swap-over on Thursday afternoon, as I had some time after blogging my Mom-Day Adventure. It took about two hours.

Here's the Before, a dusty, jumbly mess. I'm a visual organizer, can you tell? 

I need to be able to see my collection or I will forget about things, so I've come up with all kinds of ways to sort things and make it easier on me. 

I pulled out my box of spring/summer jewelry, which now has expanded to include a dusty velvet bag. 

The shoe box is from a bout of temporary insanity several years ago, when I bought boring black ankle-strap sandals on deep discount at the Bay. They're long-gone but the box lives on. 

Unpack it all! I am a creature of habit, so as I unpacked all the little silk jewelry bags, I knew where the contents lived - and then just filled up the empty bag from my winter stuff. 

What shall I keep out? What shall I put away? What is getting archived? All things I mull over as I quickly sort it all. 

I gave my main two jewelry boxes a good cleaning, as well as the dresser top. 

The wooden one on the left belonged to my Gram S, Mom's mother. The one on the right is from Bombay Company about 15 years ago. Doesn't it look welcoming? "Come and explore my drawers!"

Here's Gram's jewelry box, all loaded and ready to adorn my outfits. 

I like that I can see everything it by lifting out the earring tray. 

The bottom drawer also opens wide so that I don't miss anything. What shall I wear? This is mostly vintage stuff. 

My big jewelry box holds a ton of jewelry. The top is hinged with a mirror inside, and is where I store my big rings, Karen's jewelry and my gold hoop earrings. 

I usually photograph all the drawers out of the box and their content, but eh, I didn't feel like it. You can check it out from last year here (scroll way down). I pulled them all open slightly - each has a different configuration, which I like. I often remove the earring drawer or ring drawer to paw through them. 

The sides have four hooks apiece for necklaces. My collection is too big for the doors to close.

That's okay - I need to see it all anyway! 

I added another dish from my amber glass collection (made in the 70s by the Indiana Glass Company), the one on the right, to hold my bangle bracelets. I even hooked the two hinged Alexis Bittar bracelets around the stem. 

My bigass earrings go in the cheaper gold glass sorbet dish (which is a cheapie, inferior make) on the left.

I use an old Fossil jewelry tin for my charms and pendants. 

And a crystal candy dish for my small earrings. 

My bracelets are stored on a two-tier dessert caddy. 

It's also amber glass. I like spinning it. The bag behind it holds my big clunky necklaces. 

And there we are, nice and tidy for another six months. 

I see so many old friends that I'm looking forward to wearing again! 

And now, I must attend to my little monster here. 

"I need some attention or Greetje's dress gets it."

I hope you enjoyed seeing my swap-over! I'll be back on Sunday with tales of adventure and the first outfit of my Spring/Summer season. Thank you all so much for your comments, for reading and for visiting my little corner of the blogosphere. I appreciate it.