Downsizing your closet may be the hardest thing to deal
with when you move into a studio or small efficiency apartment. You may end up having only one closet to store everything. How you organize your closet is going to
depend on your own clothing needs. A lot
will depend on if you wear the same basic outfit most of the time, or if you
like have a whole new look every day. This may be just the excuse you need to design
a whole new wardrobe of mix and match outfits to fit your new lifestyle.
If you are living in a retirement home you
will be seeing a lot of the same people day after day. You will most likely be
dining, engaging in activities or going on field trips as a group. This means “dressing up” every day. It is possible. As a youth I traveled throughout
saddle pack. Shopping was fun and I put
a lot of thought into reversible skirts, shorts, various mix and match tops,
and dresses made of cream puff materials. I probably dressed better then than I
do now. Figure out what kind of clothes
you are going to need and then plan a storage system that will give you as much
space as possible.
Multipart hangers and double
rods will help a lot, but your choice of clothing is still the key factor. You
will need to get rid of clothing you no longer wear before you start
rearranging and organizing your closet. Take advantage of some of the wonderful organizational systems available and
pick the one that will work well for you.
After that it will be up to you to figure out how you will organize your
clothing. You can do them by category,
by color, or by how often you wear them.
The idea of organizing your closet is to make it
quick and easy to find the clothes you want to wear. It isn’t easy to fit all of your clothes in
one closet. We all have a tendency to
bring too many items and then try to jam them all into a small space. Use drawers and shelves to your advantage
too. Some people arrange clothes by how
often they wear them. This way they can hang clothes that they wear every day
in the easiest to access spot.
Create a place for shoes. A pile of shoes on
the closet floor may mean crawling on hands and knees to sort, and this could be
a safety hazard. Your housekeeper or caregiver won’t be too happy to find you
on the floor either; not to mention that you may have a hard time getting up.
If you are a shoe person you will have to resign yourself to having 3 or 4 pair
instead of dozens of keepers that you had at home. Check to see if your apartment building has a
storage area available, or ask family members if they could keep out of season
clothing and other treasures for you. It
would be nice if you could rotate various items in and out of your closet
either on a seasonal basis or just because you could use a change. Just remember that a small venue often means
smaller room(s) and one closet.
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