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
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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
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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