For the closet organization nerds:

Initially, with pandemic distress and disorientation coming right on top of retirement, and then the coming summer heat, I did a closet organization around loungewear and super casual wear and moved lots of items to another closet.

Then got some energy to work on somber capsule, to edit some items, and to slowly climb out of hibernation.

Then, also I feel fall coming, with the change in the light, and wanted to be prepared for transitional season temperatures or color cravings. If I keep lots of items out of my main closet, I tend to forget them, or miss the "weather day" or chance to create something by SYC. This actually seems more true now because I have fewer external rules to follow (i.e., no work) and because I am free to change clothes during day if I am too hot/cold or something is less comfortable than I thought.

I usually had organized by type of garment (pants, tops, toppers) and somewhat by silhouette within category, as in, shorter boxy tops, longer tops, tush-covering tops, and fabric weights. I tried to keep up color sorting within those categories. However, with colors, patterns, different weights, it was quite a visual jungle.

But this past week or so I decided to do (almost) complete color organizing within main clothing types, regardless of fabric weight or style.

So, I now have all solid colors sorted kind of by gradation of hue, then stripes, then all other prints.

Because of how my closet rods are arranged, with some different sections, I used one of the smaller sections for all tops, toppers and pants that are currently appropriate ( and seasonal ) for the somber capsule, as these are all in some type of black, navy, gray or blue colors (though I have a couple of print tops/blouses that I know I could use, depending on weather and situation), and all have been tried on for being for being in good condition and wearable for that. For example, at first I had sorted all of my gray knit tops (not plain T shirts though) into this capsule because "gray is somber and goes with all the darker neutrals". Then I realized some of the variations on "gray melange"- type appearance just looked too casual . For instance, I have (had for years) a JJill knit top in both a navy and a gray. The navy gives an appropriate look, but the gray skews too casual. So the navy stays in the somber capsule, while gray goes into an adjacent rod of other tops.

This change has added a degree of "serenity" to closet. I am not minimalist nor do I have all solid neutrals,so not going to get that Pinterest/photo look of such uniformity, but it does give me several sections of solids and sections of pattern, and then also I can see more easily how much of what I have in these categories.

The way I was able to sort items much more by color and not by sub- category (wovens, knit, short or longer-sleeved, short or long) is because I was finding that I could not actually pinpoint a permanent silhouette role or even temperature role for many of my items--meaning, it was becoming much more individual and even unexpected, as to how my tops and toppers worked with bottoms and each other, and when I might wear them.

This is for S/S-early fall and transitional weather. I still do not have an "all in" closet, because I store my most of my wool sweaters for 5-6 moths of the year, and I hang them all in closet when in use. So I make a switch (even if not all at once) when temps are a good deal cooler.

May be too much free time!