Hi Marley,
You are super brave for sharing! I won't add too much more advice, but I will provide this:

I am betting you are a visual person/learner because of the way everything seems to be "out" in the open. This is not a criticism - I am totally the same way, I love to pile things! So, I would suggest starting with a 15 minute color sort. For example, take 15 minutes and sort your tops by color - blues together, reds together, etc. This is one of the reasons why Angie's closet looks so organized - there's not a lot of clutter, but it's also organized by color, which streamlines it even more.

I organize the clothes in my closest by color as well, and I find that a quick color sort every week or so keeps me feeling balanced, because it's appealing to my visual side.

Just a small suggestion - hope it helps!
Best of luck and keep us posted

If I were there and could help you, I'd suggest that you begin by sorting. I'd put all the two piece matching suits together, then I'd rainbow-ize them. All the long sleeve button up tops, rainbow. Etc. Then you can make yourself a cup of coffee and tackle a section at a time, and your first cut could be things that are stained, soiled, damaged, hopelessly off trend, or don't fit.

What I would not do is make a big, overwhelming mess. Shave off a bit at a time.

And more hugs and hand holding from me too. Can you ask a friend to help you out with the sorting?

We might be closet twins! (although I think you have more space, and I have more piles on the floor). I, too, don't know where to begin, made worse by not knowing what I like. So I'm starting by trying on outfits and taking pictures. After I look at the pictures (and probably post a bunch of them eventually) then maybe I'll be able to tell what is flattering/what I like. I like the suggestion of keeping some separate place for the clothes you actually wear. I think I'll do that for the ones I actually like the way I look in. (I too, recently changed lifestyles from working in an office to working from home).

Marley... my closet looks just like yours.

I volunteer to help you:) I am a general when it comes to this!

I would start with what's on the floor probably. Upon picking up an item, decide it if deserves to be hung up/ folded in a drawer/ put on a shelf. If not, off to donation it goes. I'd pair up all my shoes and again, decide whether to keep or not, then store in the appropriate place. Soon the 'clutter' will be back in some kind of order and then you can go in, category by category and slowly purge. I also agree with folding the drawer items so you can line them up to see them. I did this and it works great - you don't have to root through stacks, you just glance and can see what's there. My exercise/lounge drawer as an example:

Marley - my closet isn't in very good shape either - and it's also because I have a closet that just isn't all that workable for me because it has three sliding doors (which are very narrow), so it's like playing musical doors to get in there. I can only have one 'section' open at a time, and it's a narrow section. To make matters even more maddening, the closet rod is suspended with several metal rod holders all across the actual bar - making it next to impossible to slide clothes across it. Aggghhh....

In any case, I really liked what Sylvie suggested..she was saying:

"One evening, try on all your jeans. The ones that you know you want to get rid of go in a box. The ones that are 10's get put away nicely immediately. The ones you aren't sure about go in a holding zone. Have a glass of wine and go to bed.

Day #2: Go through your tops.

Day #3: Go through socks, underwear and nightgowns.

Etc, etc.

The key is that anything in the giveaway box can't come out again. And it needs to get out of the house as fast as possible. Take it straight to the trunk of the car if that's what's necessary."

This advice appeals to me. Sorting further into colour and so on can happen later. I really like the "nothing but jeans for now" task, followed by "nothing but shirts and blouses" and so on.

Meanwhile, I wanted to add that one of the big frustrations in terms of closet cleaning for me is not having enough containers/boxes or whatever it is that I need - so I am making the suggestion that you buy a dozen of those "bankers" boxes - you can get them at Costco, Wal-Mart or any office supply place. Also buy some cheap clear page protectors over where the school supplies/binders are sold. These will be used for labeling the boxes.

The benefit of using these for "labels" is that you insert a piece of paper indicating contents inside the clear pouch and affix to one of the banker's boxes once it's full - but you haven't "ruined" the banker's box for future use. Simply remove the paper inside and put something else in there if you want re-label the box later for something else. Also, banker's boxes are sold flat, so they don't take up a ton of space - it's an "assemble as needed" situation, which to me is better than having a ton of those rubbermaid type totes hanging around.

Useful items: banker's boxes, clear shipping tape, 8x11 plain paper, clear page protectors.

The boxes stack up nicely, and you can't over-pack them to the point where they are too heavy to move around.

Good luck - you can do this!

Oh Marley, Marley, Marley. You have no idea what it means to throw clothes on the floor. You're a babe in the woods when it comes to throwing clothes! My bf's toy dog uses my clothing pile as a ramp up to the bed.

Oh, hahaha. I make myself laugh.

I've been working on my closet off-and-on (mostly off) for two summers now. My wardrobe was so huge when I downsized apartments... and the space so small. Plus it's kind of hard to organize because there are funny limitations on where I can put what - like, can't block the outlets.

Anyways, you know, what I did was take a subset of clothes - restricted by color - and
threw the rest in bins (sorted by clothing type and season). And I do mean "threw" the stuff in.

It hasn't been a half bad plan. It's even been enlightening. I've learned how long things really last when you wear them. I've learned what's really *meh* to me in my wardrobe. And I've learned what I'm willing to go hunt down and retrieve from the bins.

Course I still have a lot of work to do sorting, washing, and hauling to Goodwill. Nor does it solve my problem about piling clothes in the middle of rooms and leaving the closet empty. I chalk this up to *artistic temperament.* Bf is thinking about alternative *display* systems for me now...

Lots of great advice here. For myself, it took me 2 YEARS to fully purge my closet. I am a slow closet purger. So don't fret over how fast or slow you are. I tackled my closet by doing lists on what I wore in a given season. Then at the end of the season I would purge whatever wasn't worn. Now you don't have to do lists but the core of what I did may help.

The set a time limit idea has already been mentioned often and I did this myself so I won't repeat that here. It's hard at first because you see very little progress but eventually you see the result of your efforts.

In order to do this, I had to have all the seasonal items grouped together. If a summer t-shirt was mixed in with a winter sweater, I'd never know it was there. So first I grouped all seasonal items together. Then I broke out my color because colors grouped together make me happy. Plus once I saw I had say 10 black cardigans, I knew somewhere I needed to reduce numbers on.

Now there is the core workhorses items, usually those also are seasonless items (such as my jeans). All those went together. Seasonless items are in a prominant spot in my closet as they are the foundation for my seasonal items.

I knew where my clothes were going. Knowing about an upcoming YLF swap or a close friend that would enjoy my clothes made the purging process itself easier. If you know where your clothes are going (favorite organization, a close friend) that will help you let go of some items. I also took a favorite outfit to use as my gauge. Any questionable item had the answer yes to the question, "would I wear this over my favorite outfit/item?" This helps get rid of maybe items.

Last, I set my goal with my purge. This can be varied, I say be specific. My goals were things like "wear every top twice a month for a given season." Then I knew I could only keep 14 tops. This helped me purge the rest. At one point I had over 30 tops for summer! I can't wear all of those! I also had "wear each bottom once a week" which helped me whittle down my jeans and trousers. If you love to remix a goal maybe (each top has to remix 3 times or something).

Closet purging and organizing can be fun, just keep your end goal in sight (maybe hang a photo of Angie's closet for inspiration).

OH my gosh. I've just come back on the forum today after my "confessions" thread last night - and I just want to say a BIG THANK YOU! You guys are absolutely the best. I must say that reading all of your comments, support, and suggestions - I found myself both laughing and crying. I really can see the humorous side to all of this - obviously, my idea of taking everything out of my closet all at the same time - was NOT a good one! I have way too short of an attention span for that - and, as you can see, in this case, I lost interest - and just left a bunch of it on the floor and have been stepping over it the past few weeks. BUT IT BUGS ME!

So . . . I think that I will start with that first section today (because it is the easiest for me to get into - that door usually works pretty well! I'm going to put my "favorites" there and wear them for awhile and see what happens. Next step (I think) will to go through the Keep/Tailor clothes in the hallway - that should be easy enough, I think! But the, nothing has been easy so far, so I don't know why I say that!

Thank you all everyone - and I'll "report" back later!

Marley, sorry I haven't commented - this is too close to home for me! I'm just following along attentively, hoping to learn something to help us both. Tons of great advice here...

I have complete empathy for you, Marley! I agree it's just so overwhelming to try and do it all at once. I am working on my closet one section at a time: jeans, blouses, tops etc and organizing by type and color. I still have a ways to go, that's ok. Eventually it will get done. Big Hug!

I think everyone has given you some lovely advice! You can do it! *cheers*

So I just wanted to say that I have a verrrrrry similar closet setup to you with the drawers and small closet with one rod. I rehauled my closet a while back and took some photos and wrote up an entire thing for my blog. If you are interested, I can post some pictures or some of the things I found most helpful!