It's pretty much done. We both ended up sorting clothes this morning, me because I couldn't sleep because the arthritis was bothering my knees, then James doing his portion. We tossed a 33 gallon garbage bag full of nonfitting, too worn and/or spotted old clothing. We have another 33 gallon garbage bag full of perfectly good, clean clothing that simply doesn't fit any longer; off to Goodwill it will go for someone else to get use from--so sorry I had to give up the pretty blue-and-white Cheryl Tiegs ski sweater James got me one Christmas! Once we restocked the closet, we could see other organizational things we could fit and we bought a narrow vertical three-shelf arranger (31" tall and 11" wide), a wooden step-stool that was on clearance (so shrimp-short me can reach the top shelves), two brass hooks for James' belts, and another of the plastic drawer units that JoAnn stocks (I like these because they stack and the drawers do not stick like most plastic organizer drawers.

We put several things in space bags and compacted them, including the beautiful cloak James used to wear to SCA events and some high-school clothing of his (he was a member of the "Gator Guard" in high school; they "guarded" the team mascot). Unfortunately the third bag did not seal properly, so we simply boxed some convention t-shirts that had sentimental value and my wedding dress (which is a simple blue gown and not one of those several-thousand-dollar white confections). We can get more space bags, if we like, on a coupon at Linens'n'Things or Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Everything's now stacked neatly, all the suitcases and other travel bags off the floor, and we actually have room on the floor for slippers and shoes! I have to get shoeboxes for the dress shoes and a bit larger box for the items we couldn't space bag, but that's about it (a trip to Dollar General ought to do it; if not, to Michael's).

I do have to sort out an enormous number of hangers! I swear we have enough hangers to stock an orphanage. About half of them are those cheap white wire hangers they give you from the dry cleaner; when we take in James' dress shirts next weekend, we'll give them to the cleaner folks with pleasure.

I don't have a "before" shot of the closet. Suffice to say that it was the usual deal: rod across with a shelf mounted on top of it. On top of the shelf we had a four-compartment wire organizer to keep such things as winter clothes in the summer and vice versa. The suitcases were all stowed on the floor on the righthand side.

The shot below sucks: I should have used a flash. But you can see all the organizer, except for the top shelf on the right side, and that silly-looking slightly-bowed vertical on the right of the center section.



Now it's still pretty full, but it's nowhere near as crowded as it was. It also contains the overflow that was in the spare room closet: my flannel and terry bathrobes, some bulky winter shirts, etc. Suitcases are almost out of sight, top left. You can see the useful plastic drawers from JoAnn center bottom. The spacebagged stuff is out of sight on the upper right hand shelf.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:06:00 PM

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