Home Organizer Case Study: An Overstuffed Clothing Closet

Welcome to the first in a series of home organizer case studies I’ll be profiling on my blog!

I’ve been working with clients for over twenty years and have helped each of them find solutions to a variety of their organizing challenges. In this series, I’ll be highlighting some of the more common organizing problems my clients have come to me with and show you what we did to solve them.

Maybe you’ll see yourself in one of these case studies? Perhaps the process will motivate you to take action to achieve a similar goal? I hope you find them helpful as you navigate your own organizing journey.

Case Study: An Overstuffed Clothing Closet

Client Profile:

Mrs. B. called me to inquire about my services and how I could help her organize her overstuffed clothing closet. She informed me upfront that her budget covered three hours of my services. I went to her home for a short Needs Assessment and saw that the closet, although small, was stuffed from top to bottom.

As an experienced home organizer, I knew that we’d be ‘cutting it close’  on completing the task in three hours but if she was able to make decisions quickly, we’d be able to complete her closet organizing project in time. She was very motivated and I had a good feeling she was up for the time-crunched task.

What prompted client to reach out to Organized Artistry?

Mrs. B. was tired of being unable to find the clothes she wanted to wear on a daily basis. She was also planning a future vacation and the thought of looking for the clothes she wanted to wear on her trip was causing her stress.

Goals:

• To organize the overstuffed clothing closet so Client could find the clothes she loved, clothes that fit, and reflected her current lifestyle.
• For Client to have the ability to locate clothes to wear on an upcoming warm weather vacation.

Organizing Challenges:

• Overstuffed closet
• Client can’t find the clothes she needs when she needs them
• Variety of sizes and seasons in one closet
• Client is frustrated
• Client buys more of what she is unable to find
• Only three hours to complete the job

Organizing Process:

You may think that three hours is plenty of time to organize a closet–even a full one. But, in my experience, I have found it can take many more hours than that. Besides the quantity of clothes to process, the speed of that process has to do with how quickly the client can make decisions as to what to keep and what to let go of. With only three hours to accomplish our goal, we said a quick hello to each other, walked upstairs, and got down to work.

My client’s closet was in her bedroom. We used her bed as a large surface to sort and purge on (Tip: If using a bed to sort and purge items, lay a flat sheet on top of the bed first so dust from closet shelves and dirt from shoes doesn’t land where you sleep).

We started pulling clothes out of her closet by category (pants, then dresses, then skirts, etc.) and sorted them on the bed by season. I split the surface of the bed into two sides–one was for Fall/Winter clothes and the other side was for Spring/Summer clothes.

Mrs. B. and I sorted through her clothes piece by piece to determine whether they would ‘stay’ or ‘go.’ She made most decisions quickly. Any item that required extra thought went into a pile that we made decisions on together towards the end of our session.

Discoveries:

You never know what you’ll find when working in a client’s closet. Once, I unearthed a rubber chicken! This time, no chicken–but instead, I discovered that my client had amassed an extensive collection of black pants. Twenty-four pair of black pants to be exact!

To be fair, in the Northeast, the temperature can go from below zero all the way to one hundred degrees in the span of a year. Black pants of different fabric weights and lengths are a wardrobe necessity for most women.

How did I discover my client had twenty four pair of black pants?

While we were removing items from her closet and sorting them on her bed, out of the corner of my eye, I watched Mrs. B. group all of her ‘like’ clothes together by type. The pants pile on each side of her bed resembled a mountain–a dark one. She kept pulling black pants out of her closet and putting them on top of each pile.

I asked for her permission to dig into her pile of pants to start counting them and she gave me the go ahead. In counting black pants on both side of the bed, I added them up and got to twenty-four pair. I told my client the number and she couldn’t believe it. She confessed to me that there had been times when she couldn’t find the black pants she needed so she’d go to the store and buy another pair. I let her know that it was a common occurrence for people with overstuffed closets and that after we organized her closet, she wouldn’t need to do that anymore.

The Result:

After working together for three hours, Mrs. B. and I:

• Purged twelve pair of black pants. Client kept twelve.
• Filled three bags of clothes for donation.
• Relocated summer clothes to under the bed storage bins that client had purchased but had not yet used.
• Placed the remaining clothes back in her closet by category  (grouping ‘like with like’).
• Separated out the summer clothes she wanted to pack for her upcoming vacation and placed them in a storage bag at the bottom of her closet.

I removed a garbage bag filled with wire hangers that Mrs. B said I could bring to my dry cleaner. Boy, was he happy to see me later that day!

Mrs. B. was exhausted and thrilled at the end of our three-hour organizing session. Her overstuffed clothing closet had been purged and re-organized, she put aside the clothes she wanted to bring with her on her vacation, and she now knew where all of her clothes could be found–including her twelve pair of pants.

Happy Client = Happy Organizer!

You can do it, too!

Need help getting started? I offer virtual home organizing services via FaceTime or Zoom to help you reach your organizing goals. Click the link to discover more at the Organized Artistry website.

Want to stay current and connected to Organized Artistry? Follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Goodreads!