Beware the long post on organization. The
short version is still, “less is more” so you could stop reading now! But, I am
trying something a little different for me, for organizational junkies out
there.

After adding things for summer events, and falling for white pants x 2, I need to review and cull and all that.

I still waffle on closet organization in
terms of what to keep in main closet vs. store away. Obviously have to
moth-proof some deep winter items, and don’t need linen T’s in January.

Where I go back and forth is on whether to do
that 3-month (or whatever) “capsule” thing with a commitment to those items and
swap out completely every few months, vs. what to do with “transition” items or
multi-season items.

With air-conditioning, I sometimes wonder if
I need any “summer” work wardrobe at
all ! Yet I do, mainly for 1) strong
attraction to shifting color palette at least somewhat and 2) benefits of
having a reasonable selection of washable items (meaning, will I really wash/handwash this) in high summer, and 3) lighter toppers
really are helpful.

My original plan a year or so ago was to keep out all
multi-season items year-round. Then I fell off that wagon and started more of a
shorter-term focus thinking, keep out only stuff I'm wearing right now. However, I think the reason was because I had too many
items, some great and some maybe, and it was too much to keep out,. However, I
like and want to repeat more times per season and per year than would be
possible with the larger number of items. For example, if I have 20 tops that
are seem limited to summer, that’s only 3-4 wears in 3 months. That is not only a
resource issue, I actually don’t find fit/quality/versatile happiness items in
that many items ! (perhaps I’m not shopping in the right places, thank
heavens!

I have enough main closet space to have “for sure seasonal” items on a top
rail, and multi-season, “might wear in July in A/C items, might wear on a cool
fall day items) on the lower rail, if I
don’t have quite as many. Then I can “see” the
next weather system and “shopping season” in advance, since they overlap
anyway, and am less likely to buy what may be duplicate/wear-splitting items.

The second organizational concept, which is
not mine either, but borrowed from blogs, that I want to combine with this, is to
focus the main closet almost exclusively on the
definite “yes” items, even if a little behind or in advance of season, so I will definitely wear them more often and less seasonally-restricted, and use
the spare closet/holding zone for all of the “maybe’s”. Then I “shop” that , maybe focusing on just an item or 2, to
see if they can be recombined, keep or toss.

I expect this will seem so obvious to others,
but it is a shift from viewing the spare closet as mostly a seasonal concept,
to more of a division between “yay” and “maybe .