When the Lights Go Out

I had three fluorescent lights in my closet. You know what it's like when they start acting up. Two out of three weren't working and we'd replaced the kitchen light with an LED fixture. This could be the solution for the closet. I would have preferred a chandelier but with the 7 foot ceiling height, a chandelier was not an option. The LEDs come on instantly. And while it's not  flashy like a chandelier, it is nearly flush with the ceiling, which means you don't really notice it at all. And that works for me - if you're not going to look at it and say "Wow" just don't look at it at all. And that's what is perfect about the LED, it does it's job quietly and without fanfare. It provides illumination without calling attention to itself.

They are also smaller than the fluorescent lights we took out. Which means I have a few small holes in the ceiling where the other lights had been screwed in. Those holes will need to be filled and painted. Of course, if you're going to have to move everything out of the closet to paint the ceiling you might as well paint the walls, as well.

And if you're going to paint the walls, you might want to look at rearranging the closet to maximize efficiency. A classic case of scope creep. The entire closet will need to be redone.

Two ways to redo a closet - 1. Go to the Container Store and have one of the "experts" in closet design help you spend thousands of dollars or 2. Start looking online at sites like Pinterest. Pinterest served me well on the laundry room makeover so that's where I started. What I really wanted to do was change the way my handbags were stored. I had a series of hooks on one wall and that's where the handbags were. Some of the hooks were two or three handbags deep which meant that between the handbags on one side and the clothes on the other, it was difficult to make your way back to the shoe rack. Plus the shoe racks that were attached to the walls near the baseboards kept falling off and had gaps in them where shoes fell off. These were the issues I wanted to fix.

While looking at different pins on Pinterest, I came across an article that said you should have your clothes on the same type of hangers. Guaranteed to up your game seven times. Hmmm. I'd never paid for a hanger in my life. I have some padded hangers that I received as gifts but other than that, my clothes were on wire hangers from the dry cleaners, plastic hangers from stores, and tubular plastic hangers of unknown origin.

I went shopping for hangers. The Container Store, Bed Bath and Beyond and IKEA. The Container Store and BBB had the most options. Wooden hangers (light or dark), tubular plastic in a variety of colors, and plastic hangers, like the ones used to hang clothes in stores, and thin profile flocked hangers.

I opted for painted wooden hangers. The best price was in IKEA. I bought them in black and white. I couldn't find wooden skirt hangers anywhere, so I ordered them online in white.

I started on one end of a rack putting my clothes on the white wooden hangers and putting whatever hanger the item had been on into the recycle bin. (With the exception of the padded hangers. The padded hangers are now used to hang lightweight jackets, beach cover-ups and lingerie.) What I hadn't counted on was how much room those wooden hangers took up. I was going to have to take some of the tee shirts that had always been hanging up, fold them and put them in a drawer. Which meant that I had to do some drawer re-arranging. The things you find when you're cleaning out drawers! I had two small drawers filled with buttons - the little envelopes of spare buttons that often come with clothes. These dated back years. I don't even have most of those clothes anymore. But I now have a button box that would be the envy of my grandmother.

Anyway, after clearing some drawers and filling at least three of them with tee shirts, I was still finding the wooden hangers a tight fit. I wouldn't be able to fit another thing on that rack, which would be unfortunate because I know I have some clothes in the RV. I know of two tops and one pair of shorts. There's probably more than that, but I can't be certain. Besides, with no place to put anything, shopping would no longer be an option. Unacceptable! I was going to have to change to the thin profile flocked hangers.

The gold standard on those seems to be the Joy Mangano Huggable Hanger. I decided to go with that rather than the knockoff version at Bed Bath and Beyond or WalMart. (At this stage in life, I don't do knockoffs.) I ordered them from BBB so I could take advantage of the 20% off coupons. I got them in pink and white. What a difference!

So I was on a roll. Mark's closet got redone, as well. His pants are now on the black wooden IKEA hangers. His shorts are all on wooden hangers and I bought new heavy duty wooden coat/suit hangers for his sport coats and suits. (Thank goodness we didn't need dozens of those since they are $10 each - $8 with a 20% off coupon.) And I got more of the Huggable Hangers in black for his shirts - 20% off at the Container Store this week.

Incredible difference in both closets. And here's how I solved the handbag problem. The open shelving makes it easy to see what I have and there are no hooks to damage the straps. (I didn't even realize this was a problem until I started taking the bags off of those hooks.) The bins are good for thick wool scarves that would take up too much room elsewhere. The bins are also good for bathing suits and other odds and ends.

And the shoe problem. (There used to be some hooks that held bathrobes, and some hats where the shoe rack is now. Things were hung over top of each other and I could never find anything.)

The hooks that once held the handbags now hold scarves, hats and belts which don't prevent me from getting to that back rack of shoes the way the handbags did. And with that other shoe rack, I can once again buy new shoes.

And someday, I might actually get around to painting the ceiling and walls.