If you took time last week to flip your closet to spring/summer from fall/winter & edit your wardrobe along the way, you experienced a sense of freedom from stress.  You rediscovered garments long lost in the depths of your closet, gained space to view items & created order for easier retrieval.

What’s next?

How will you maintain your hard work?  During your hectic, frantic week of little sleep, stress & a million requests for your time, how will you keep yourself a little less stressed & your closet happy?

If you don’t care about maintaining your work, then you can select another show from your DVR to watch. If you do, bravo! There are a few things you can do every day to maintain your wardrobe. Caring is the more important step to a better way of living because life is better organized.

1. Time/Money Saver  By taking 5 minutes to hang or fold your clothes when you take them off, the heat from your body + the hanger or folds will bring life back into the garment.  This is a HUGE money & time saver as you are able to wear the garment more than once before cleaning; less dry cleaning = less money, less laundry = less time.

2. Matchy-Matchy  There are few things that will make a space look more organized other than like organizational tools. I proved this to a client simply by changing out 30 of her hangers from her mish-mash of wire & plastic to all black, felt hangers.  She conceded I had a point & purchased the remaining hangers.  Matchy-matchy is the name of the game in organization.

3.  Rut Abolisher If you seem to wear the same garments day in & day out, here’s a way to help you out of your rut.  Turn the hook of each hanger backwards.  Crazy, I know!  When you wear a garment, turn the hook the right way.  You will quickly see what garments you wear & don’t wear.  Now it’s up to you to decide if you will eliminate the ones that you constantly leave unworn.

4.  Loving Laundry  Okay, maybe you’ll never love doing a load of laundry, but maybe you could hate it less.  If you have endless loads of laundry, try starting a load each morning & flipping when you get home.  It will become a small chore in your daily routine instead of Mt. Everest on the weekend.  Who wouldn’t want that?

5.  Crown Jewels  You might not have crown jewels, but you do have beautiful accessories that once caught your eye.  Bring back the love.  First organize & edit what you have.  Next, store them in an easy to see location.  Hang belts/ties on the wall behind your closet door or on a side panel of shelves.  Reclaim a closet eye-level shelf for jewelry.  Hang scarves/pashminas across the bar of suit hangers.  Then give them the respect your jewels deserve by properly storing them at the end of each day.

With a little daily effort & a few matching tools, you can live like royalty, shopping your wardrobe in a boutique closet each day instead of digging through piles on the floor like the masses.

I’m here to help you by disclosing my knowledge of how to organize & be prepared for any situation.  I will show you tips & tricks through posts on the Styled & Organized Living Facebook page, @StyledOrganized on Twitter & the Styled & Organized Living Pinterest page.  Some posts will be simple tools while others will be ideas to consider.   But all will show you how to gain a little more control over your life through organization because Life is Better Organized!