I've been in the WFH situation since Oct/ Nov due to the Hong Kong protests & now the Coronavirus, so I may be cheating by having a bit of a hermit lifestyle headstart, sorry Also my apologies if this gets a little long - I've been meaning to post about my closet cleanout journey for months now, & this seems as appropriate of an avenue as any!
I've been slowly adding to my wardrobe with carefully selected online purchases, & getting rid of things I no longer need. I thought about consigning things but, given the situation, felt that donations were much more needed at this time (especially for homeless people who perhaps have no choice in the quarantining matter). I've hauled out around 5 bin bags worth of stuff (not just clothing) over the months, and am now ready to work with what I already have.
I've gone through & analysed all of my storage options for the tiny wardrobe space that I have (the cupboard height is lower than eye level & the width is less than my fully outstretched arms - quite a feat, for someone shorter than 5ft4!) The only storage I have besides this is a wooden shoe rack for no more than 16 shoes at a time (yep, that's including everything from gym trainers to boots!) & the bottom of a bookshelf for my pyjamas & gym clothes. With all of these storage places in completely different corners of our home, I have to be strategic about where I place things. I've therefore decided to prioritise colour as the first thing I see (it's a key differentiator to my style, since my silhouettes & textures generally stay consistent). I'm therefore going to hang up the items that need to be hung in rainbow order (blouses & jackets, skirts & trousers that wrinkle easily). Everything else will be folded Marie Kondo style & slotted into open boxes that sit on the closet floor, underneath the respective hanging colours (I have no space to incorporate drawers into my tiny closet, unfortunately).
All of this (rather longwinded) backstory (sorry!) is because I've gotten through the above planning stage & am now currently in the implementation stage (hence no photos yet, sorry!) I've currently gutted out my entire closet in order to implement my storage options (plastic baskets, hanging racks, open boxes). My clothes are therefore either folded neatly (let's see how long that lasts!) or hanging in the laundry area of the flat (forgot to mention that I got married & am now trying to adjust from the single life in the UK to living with in-laws in a tiny Hong Kong flat - so I've been doing all of this furtively over the months whenever I can be out of everyone else's way, because my wardrobe is in the main corridor & therefore it's impossible to get to for long periods of time when everyone is up, lol). I'm not complaining though - every room may be small (welcome to Hong Kong, one of the most expensive places in the world for renting or owning any space whatsoever!) but I'm just glad that being able to take over the storage room for a bit allows me to actually SEE all of my clothing before it all goes back into my wardrobe. I'm currently in the process of arranging it in the same way that I would like it to hang/ be folded within my actual closet (like a mock-up, if you will), to see if it will actually fit lol. Once I'm done I might take a photo or two for you all - stay tuned (& thanks for indulging my ramblings this far)!
