hey friends Elizabeth here from
plant based bride and today I'm excited to share with you my top 10 tips for
making the most of a small closet and my five-step process for doing bi-seasonal
wardrobe resets I'm here in my bedroom in my husband in my first home we are
lucky that we don't just have a single Closet in this bedroom we actually have
two so my husband and I are each able to have our own but even though we can each
have our own closets they're still pretty small so let me introduce you to
my tiny closet as you can see my closet is just a
regular reach-in closet it's not even particularly wide and when we moved into
this house all of the rooms had that really standard closets with one
clothing Rail and around eye height some of them had that shelf above the rail
and some of them didn't but that was the extent of the closet organizational
built-in situation and I don't know about you but I don't think a single
clothing Rail and a single shelf is the best way to utilize a closet space so
that brings me to tip one of this video which is to utilize as much of your
closets space as possible especially the vertical space what I really wanted to
do was create a built-in system that used as much of the available space as
possible in the way that is best suited to my particular wardrobe and then the
same thing for my husband's closet for his wardrobe once you have a bit of an
idea of what your wardrobe looks like and what you need your closet to
accommodate it's time to figure out what kind of system is going to work for you
and I personally decided to go with Ikea they are are one of the most affordable
options for custom closets and I even took it one step further by choosing
their absolute cheapest custom closet system the waxel as you can see it's a
really basic system you start with mounting some brackets to the wall
vertical brackets and horizontal brackets along the top and then you can
buy different components that can attach onto these brackets on the wall in
different configurations I played around with the planner quite a bit to figure
out the way that I could get the most storage out of my available space and we
decided to install it basically as high as we possibly could in the closet to
really use the entirety of that vertical space now you might not be able to mount
your closet system quite so high if you weren't as tall as I am I am almost six
feet tall so reaching up close to the ceiling to grab those hangers is no
problem for me but if you're shorter than me and you don't want to have to
use a step stool or ask your partner or a friend to grab things for you out of
the closet I would recommend making sure that anything you're going to be
grabbing on a regular basis is with an easy reaching height and if that means
that you have a lot of extra vertical space above say your clothing rails I
would highly recommend doing shelves and baskets for items that you don't reach
for as often so that you can still use all of that vertical space even if
you're not using it every single day if you can't make any permanent changes to
your closet maybe you're renting or you just don't have the budget right now I
would highly recommend using that top shelf and also inserting some sort of
small dresser or maybe a really cheap storage unit like the calyx from Ikea
that you can put baskets in or just use as shells at the bottom of your closet
underneath any shorter hanging items so that again you can really use that full
vertical space because we mounted the closet so high we actually ended up with
an extra foot or so at the bottom underneath the bottom baskets and I love
these fabric baskets that I found for a really affordable price online I'll link
them down below along with anything that I mentioned that can be linked for you
if you're looking for something it should be down there I love how
lightweight they are and I also love that because they have fabric bottoms I
don't have to worry about them scratching our brand new hardwood floors
that we spent a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears and money installing throughout
our house and I can fit five of them along the bottom of my closet giving me
even more storage space down there I've literally used every square inch of
space in my closet from the very top almost to the ceiling to the very bottom
on the floor and the entire width so that I can really get the most out of my
teeny tiny closet moving on to tip number two store your shoes jewelry and
accessories elsewhere if you have a teeny closet like I do your best bet is
going to be finding other places to put your accessories and shoes so they don't
have to live in your teeny tiny closet with all of your clothes I personally
keep all of my shoes down by the entryway to our house and I just swap
them out seasonally so that the shoes that are available are the ones that I'm
most likely to wear things like belts and purses I typically store either in a
drawer of my dresser or in a bin under the bed when it comes to jewelry I am
such a big advocate of displaying your jewelry as Decor I bought this really
beautiful wicker box with a glass top to store all my necklaces and earrings and
separate them out nicely so it's easy to see what I have and find what I want and
I also bought this really beautiful organic wooden dish to hold all my rings
speaking of beautiful jewelry this video is sponsored by my favorite Jewelry
Company Anna Louisa I've been wearing and loving Anna Louise's jewelry for
years now and they are my daily wear pieces you'll always find me with all
three of my piercings adorned with dainty and a Louisa earrings an Anna
Louisa necklace and sometimes even if I'm feeling fancy some Anna Louisa Rings
Anna Louisa is an affordable brand of beautiful jewelry with a focus on
sustainability they're long lasting and tarnish-free pieces are the perfect
treat for yourself or a loved one and they're kind to the Planet Too Anna
Louise's Niche really is dainty Timeless jewelry at a price you'll love since
Mother's Day is coming up I wanted to talk a little bit about how my mom
really inspired my love for jewelry my mom was a working mom for my entire
childhood and she was always dressing a very professionally practically getting
her stuff done but she always without fail had the most beautiful jewelry even
if it was just a pair of diamond earrings I absolutely loved going
through her jewelry box as a kid and looking at all the beautiful pieces and
imagining how beautiful my own jewelry collection would be as an adult and now
that I am an adult and I get to express myself however I like with my jewelry
and got a couple extra piercings so I can express myself just that little bit
more I love not only playing with my jewelry and picking out pieces that
reflect my personality and fit my vibe but always coming back to that core
tenet of focusing on Timeless classic pieces which is something I learned from
my mom wanted to show you my newest pieces from Anna Louisa I got two new
pairs of earrings and a necklace I love these little snake earrings they are so
adorable I love that from a little further away you can't really see what
the they are there's just a touch of a dangly Sparkle but when you get close up
they're a little more fun and unexpected I love these Huggies they're so Timeless
so classic they would fit so perfectly into many different types of curated
ears with different styles of jewelry and I decided to feature these tiny
little dagger earrings again that I got a couple of months ago these are so much
fun as for this necklace I absolutely love it it's so simple and stunning just
this dark black pendant with the gold it has a little bit of a Victorian dark
Academia feel to it which of course I love but it's still so tiny and dainty
and pretty 100 of Anna Louise's pieces have been strength and humidity tested
and are covered by their two-year warranty I've literally worn Anna Louisa
pieces every single day for months on end without noticing anywhere at all and
I'm bad and I usually wear my earrings in the shower Anna Louise's pieces are
super affordable starting at just 39 and they offer free fast U.S shipping and
affordable shipping worldwide my favorite thing about Anna Louisa as a
brand other than how beautiful their jewelry pieces are is that they are so
conscious of the environment the brand is carbon neutral and climate neutral
certified offsetting 100 of their carbon footprint elevate your everyday with
pieces you'll love at prices you'll love even more with Anna Louisa using the
link in my description box and use my code Elizabeth's T20 for 20 off thank
you so much to Anna Louisa for sponsoring this video and now let's get
back to the closet tips tip number three is to utilize baskets and drawers now
you might be the outlier the one person out there who only owns clothes that
have to be hung up in which case you do you stick to only clothing rails and no
baskets or drawers but I think a lot of us have quite a bit in our wardrobe that
just makes more sense being folded than it does being hung up and you don't have
to just have drawers in a dress sir you can incorporate drawers into your closet
as well to again utilize as much of that space as possible I personally love to
fold more casual clothing loungewear pajamas workout clothes I also love to
fold any tops that aren't made of fabric that will easily wrinkle tip number four
store your folded items vertically this is a tip I learned along with the rest
of the world from Marie kondo but I always fold my clothes in a very
particular way so I can store them vertically in a row in my drawer this
makes use of the maximum amount of space and it also makes it way easier to see
what you have when you can look in a drawer and see the edge of each piece of
clothing that's in there instead of having to lift things out to see what's
piled underneath tip number five which is to use matching hangers I feel like
this is such a basic tip but it really makes such a huge difference it isn't
until very recently that I switched over to all matching wooden hangers and I
absolutely love it there's something so calming about opening my closet and
every single hanger is identical I personally love a wooden hanger so
that's what I decided to go with but I know some people really prefer velvet
hangers since they have a bit more grip for your clothes I don't have nearly as
many items that are still here and more likely to slide off a hanger and the
hangers I have have that little bit of a notch which helps to catch the edge of a
piece of clothing if it does start to slide off matching hangers look great in
any closet but I feel like in a smaller closet their impact is even more intense
tip number six like with like this one takes a little bit of playing around you
might need to try a couple different things till you find a system that works
best for you but the best way to organize any closet in my opinion is to
keep like items together figure out what works for your brain what categories
make most sense to you and stick to them for me that means I use two main
categories one is type of item like dresses or pants or sweaters and the
second category is how dressy or casual the pieces are moving on to tip number
seven which is to sort by color you can argue with me all you want but I refuse
to believe that there is any way to sort your clothes in your closet that is
going to look more put together and more visually pleasing than a rainbow and if
you have that classic capsule wardrobe style where you only wear neutrals you
only wear black and white and gray and maybe a little bit of tan then maybe you
don't have to organize your closet that way but for those of us who wear the
full spectrum organizing by color is really going to look the most put
together and it's also going to be the easiest way to find the piece you're
looking for super quickly I like to start with black then go to dark blue go
through all the colors until I get to Tans and white and then if I have
another category starting in the same basket or on the same rail I'll start
with white with the next category and then continue through to Black so that
we have a nice gradient and there's no jarring black all the way through to
White and then starting with black again that's just a personal preference but I
definitely find organizing everything by color makes me much more efficient at
finding what I need and it's just very visually pleasing tip number eight is to
declutter often I know you already know this but if you have a tiny closet
you're going to have to get comfortable with the idea of Letting Go and it's
very hard I get it I struggle so much with decluttering I get very sentimental
about items especially items of clothing that I have so many memories with if it
doesn't fit you don't reach for it for an entire season it's worn out or you
just don't really like it anymore it's time to get it out of your house moving
on to tip number nine which is to shop less the other half of the declutter
struggle get rid of your excess and don't bring more excess in there are so
many tips out there for shopping less but I know for me the thing that has
worked the best is having a wish list writing down the items I want and then
stepping back moving away closing the tab and just giving myself at least a
week before I allow myself to go back if I still really want it in a week then
I'll come up here and compare the clothes I have in my cart to the clothes
I already have in my closet do I really need another green sweater better
probably not do I really need another pair of gray sweatpants I would like to
say yes but the answer is probably no those are the two things that help me
the most to shop less but you're just gonna have to find what works for you
and now we've made it to our final tip tip number 10 which is to swap out your
closet seasonally or buy seasonally so it won't be so overloaded that's what
the second half of this video is going to be I'm going to walk you through my
five-step process for swapping Out My Closet by seasonally when I say buy
seasonally I mean that I lump together the colder months so autumn and winter
and the warmer months spring and summer but you can also do it four times a year
if you find that your wardrobe changes significantly between Seasons keep your
off-season items accessible that's slightly less so I love a bin under the
bed for that doing this makes my closet so much less overwhelming it's not
nearly so stuffed full and it just makes sense I don't need to have access to
little mini dresses and shorts in the dead of winter and I don't need my
warmest fluffiest sweaters when it's the middle of August now that we've gone
through all all of my 10 tips I would love to hear yours in the comments down
below if you have more tips for staying organized in a tiny closet leave those
in the comments down below and now let's move in to the seasonal changeover of my
closet my five-step process for changing over my closet by seasonally is super
simple the first step is to empty everything out and I mean literally
everything touch every single piece of clothing you own look at it remember it
exists and put it aside if you didn't wear it all season long so you can try
it on and make sure it still fits this is also a great time to check for damage
on your pieces did you stain them the last time you wore them did one of your
cats climb you like a tree and rip it apart take this as an opportunity to
re-familiarize yourself with your entire wardrobe and how each and every piece is
holding up step number two sort your wardrobe into piles this is going to be
happening concurrently to pulling the pieces out of your closet each piece you
pull out has to go in one of a few piles how many piles you use is going to be up
to you but I'll share my pile system pile one is try on for any of the pieces
I didn't actually wear in the last season so I can make sure it still fits
pile two is scraps this is for pieces that are too damaged to keep wearing but
still have some value for the fabric alone maybe I can do some sort of an
alteration or fix or maybe I can just repurpose the fabric for something else
like regs pile number three is trash I always hope that this pile is empty or
very close to it I hate throwing clothes in the garbage but sometimes they're
just too damaged to be of any other use pile four is the Donate pile this is for
any pieces that as you're holding them you just think to yourself I don't
really like this anymore I don't really want to keep it but it's still in good
enough condition that someone else could enjoy it that's your donate pile it's
also the place that all the pieces in the try on pile are going to end up if
they don't fit you anymore and they don't fit you enough that alterations
aren't really going to make a difference pile number five is for all season
pieces this is for any of the pieces you're pulling out that you're going to
wear all year long and the last pile pile number six is seasonal this is for
any of the pieces you pull out of your closet that aren't really appropriate
for the next season like I said your piles might be different for you
depending on your situation but I feel like these six piles cover all of the
bases moving on to step three of this process which is repeating everything
all over again with the clothes that you've had in storage so pulling out
that under the bed bin of spring and summer clothing and touching each piece
and sorting them into piles just to make sure that nothing fell through the
cracks when I was putting them away that there's nothing that I right away
realize that I can donate that I'm not feeling keeping in my wardrobe anymore
for something that I didn't realize had a big stain on the front that maybe
should be put in a scrap pile this process typically goes way faster than
step one and two because again ideally you did this process as you were storing
your clothes away at the end of the last season and it's just a quick reminder of
what pieces you have moving on to step four which is packing away your
off-season clothing now that you have an empty under the bed bin you can grab all
of your off season clothes and put them away till next year I try my best as I'm
making my piles to keep folded items folded unless I'm trying them on so that
I don't have to refold them to put them away everything is nice and organized
which means that when Autumn comes around and I pull this bin back out I
don't have to refold any of the pieces that I'm not trying on makes the whole
process much faster and the final step is process step number five is to
repopulate your wardrobe with the new Season's clothes so putting back in
anything that you determine to be fall season clothing that you want to keep in
your closet all year round and then adding in all your new pieces for the
next season or Seasons this is the fun part getting to see your wardrobe come
together for the new season it feels like you're getting a new wardrobe you
get to look at new pieces that you might have forgotten you had it gives all that
dopamine that you might normally get from shopping without having to spend a
dime I highly recommend as you're doing step five that you really think about
where you're putting things instead of just putting things away on autopilot
while it may make sense for all your categories to stay the same no matter
what season you're in you might find that you want to move things around a
little bit because the pieces you're storing are going to be different
depending on the season so stay open-minded stay flexible let yourself
play around and try things in different places and of course it doesn't have to
be set in stone if you repopulate your wardrobe and realize in a couple weeks
that something isn't quite working you can always move it you make the rules
and that brings us to the end of this video I really hope it was helpful and
gave you lots of ideas for dealing with a small closet and maybe inspired you to
do a declutter and refresh for the new season let me know in the comments down
below if you have any other tips for managing a small closet that I didn't
mention so that all of us can benefit from your experience and leave some sort
of clothing related Emoji in the comments if you made it all the way to
the end so I know you're a real one I really appreciate every single person
who watches all the way to the end give this video a like if it was helpful and
subscribe if you haven't already thank you so much to my patrons for your
support I appreciate all of you more than you know and thank you of course to
Anna Louisa for sponsoring this video don't forget to click the link in the
description box to get your own Timeless Earth friendly and affordable pieces and
use my code Elizabeth's T20 for 20 off thank you so much for watching this
video and I'll see you really soon in my next one
bye friends
