Spring Clean

When we moved to this house last year, one of the things I was most looking forward to was finally having enough storage space to not have to have 50% of my clothes in storage at any given time. Because yes, I really did buy a house just for my clothes.Yes I did.

At around about this time of year, you see, I’d normally be embarking on the Great Closet Switch-Over, in which the spring clothes came down from the attic, and the winter ones took their place. This would then be repeated in reverse in autumn, and it was a process I quickly came to loathe, because as fun as it was to be re-united with clothes I hadn’t seen for six months, the challenge of cramming them all into one tiny closet (OK, one tiny closet and also half of Terry’s tiny closet…) was the absolute opposite of “fun”. It was also the very definition of “First World Problems”, of course, so please don’t think I was crying into my polka dot dresses while I did it or anything like that… I was just looking forward to being able to have that walk-in closet I’d always wanted, so I could fully indulge both my laziness AND my shopping habit.

What I didn’t really count on was how long it would take me to organise that closet. I mean, it’s been nine months, guys. I could’ve had a baby in that time, but given that I couldn’t even manage to organize my closet, it’s a good job I didn’t, huh? Poor thing would probably have to sleep in a shoe box or something. God knows, there’s plenty of them…

My complete failure to get things in order was a partly down to the aforementioned laziness, partly down to sheer indecisiveness about how I wanted to organize it, and partly down to the fact that I was just too cheap to buy all the clothes hangers and other stuff I needed to finish the room. Because if it’s a choice between buying clothes themselves, or things to hang them on, I know where my money’s going, you know? That’s why my bags are currently displayed on cheap plastic hangers, rather than the special bag clips I will absolutely, definitely be ordering this week. Probably.

Anyway. After an entire week of fog so thick and gloomy that I started to think I was trapped inside a horror movie, the sun finally came out on Sunday, and even although I don’t need to do a switch-over this year, it inspired me to spend a bit of time re-organising the closet a bit, putting the more wintry stuff to the back of the rails/shelves, and putting the pastels in easier reach. Turns out there were a LOT of pastels. Also a lot of stripes. But you knew that, obviously.

I’n now feeling sufficiently motivated to try and finish off the rest of the room, but until I get around to it, I had some Instagram comments last week suggesting I do a post about it, so here are some close-ups of the current state of the closet. They’re close-ups because, well, the bits you CAN’T see are kind of a mess, I have to be honest. Looks like there’s some hanger-shopping in my near future. Let’s hope there’s also some sunshine…

[Pastel shoes c/o Misguided // gingham shoes: Topshop // Jelly shoes: Vivienne Westwood for Melissa* // Handbags: Kate Spade* // Shelving and rails: Ikea // Everything else: everywhere else]