Have you considered professional help? I'm serious. Like a professional organizer.

Better closet or bigger house.

OMG, Angie - I wish!

Caro! - I love you for finding that link! My heroine (you and Babe :>)

Shevia - neat? Surely you jest!

Natalie and Lantana and all my YLF lovely ladies: Would you believe that...

a) I can find everything. I'm very organised (no really) and everything is sorted by type. What I'm not is visually neat, and I would like to be. After a stack reaches a certain height, physics takes over and things don't lie flat, etc. etc.

AND

b) This is after three years of purging by various means - purge what you haven't worn, capsule-ize, etc. etc.

c) I can't put the Othello and Desdemona anywhere else (and hey! they are clothed... even if the clothing is askew... hehe). That shelf also houses my router/modem, due to some awkward household wiring that nothing can be done a. It can't be used for clothes.

d) I had a book collection that put the clothes to shame... but I've gotten through the books.

It's not the amount that really troubles me - thanks Suz and Amiable and Elizabeth P and Beth Ann and plus, for saying it's not a total sickness to have so much. I suspect, tho, it's still mental, hehe. What bothers me most is the aesthetics and that I'm still beyond my storage capacity.

I am overwhelmed, as La Belle says, when I consider the volume. So much effort and it's still all so much. Maybe I should start again with the "10" thingy.

...and sing Climb Every Mountain very loudly. (Very loudly, Una.)

Rachylou - we are kindred spirits. I actually think your closet looks pretty organized - there's just a lot of clothes in there! Do you wear all of them? Have you ever kept track of what you wear so that you get an idea of the ones that you wear the most? That sometimes helps me to weed out the excess - but I'm no expert. Remember this thread? http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....-pic-heavy
It only looks a little bit better now. The clothes in the hallway and the clothes on the floor are gone. Everything else is about the same - and I hate it! Do you like the way your closet looks/feels? Or does it bring you down - like mine does me? Anway - I feel for you - but am the last person to give you any advice!

So, amount is relative--the amount is not wrong, but sounds like may be wrong for your space, so I'm hearing you need less, but not some minimalistic less.

Sounds like you need to pick one or 2 gimmicks that can work, such as trying on one stack per week, or toss one item from each stack, or focus on youre suburbia category as where you think you need less, or something. Otherwise it will be like the Cat in the Hat--you cannot pick it up, there is no way at all.

Oh, Otello and Desdemona (humming her aria from the opera now). Well, that might classify as artistic inspiration --- they can stay. Until he kills her, of course.

You could try "Favorite Things," it has fewer high notes, and it's about keeping the good stuff and forgetting the bad! (And she sings it in a nightgown, which beats a full habit any day).

As I read your post, the lyrics from Phantom were going through my head "Down once more through the darkness of my black despair."

Not terribly helpful

You do have some great advice already. My $0.02:
1. Plan to spend a whole Saturday on this project
2. Sort through anything that is not in great condition. Missing buttons, snaps, etc. Move into another area.
3. Go through and get rid of anything not worn in the last 2 years.
4. Start looking at buying handgers, shelving, etc. to better make use of your storage. You have a lot of storage space.

The good, you have a neat closet. The bad, it's not the size closet you want. I've been working on purging my closet for 3 years and it is still on going. I've purged items unworn at the end of a season, duplicates and the usual doesn't fit, don't like, worn out strategies. My latest challenge, is just to select a small capsule and wear the pieces until they wear out or I am hopelessly bored. By not seeing everything in one place I hope to have my own "boutique" to shop when I am bored with my clothes vs shopping for something new from a store.

Lol. It's gonna be a full-on opera! Or you've heard of musical chairs...

Maybe that's what I should do. Just work on grinding my clothes down to nubs, wearing them out...