Project Simplify: The Closet

I've joined in on Project Simplify over at Simple Mom. She is assigning "Hot Spots" on Monday, and everyone is supposed to post about their progress on Friday. The first assignment surprised me, because I don't consider it much of a hot spot: The Closet.

I thought I really didn't need to do this, because I don't have that many clothes! My "Before" pictures are really fine. I may have clothing in four different places (closet, dresser, hatboxes, cedar hope chest), but they are all neatly contained:

(sorry for the crazy sun glare - I should have pulled the shade on the southern facing window)

But then she said to take everything out and pile it all up so you can see the whole picture:

And that's without doing all the laundry first, or unpacking the cedar chest where I've got my summer clothing packed away! I had no idea I had so much clothing. I discovered surplus in some surprising categories: athletic socks, black dress shoes that I don't really like that much, old worn out pants that I keep for gardening and painting and so forth.

All told, I sorted out this much to give away:

And the best part of the "After" is that I now have a Tshirt drawer that allows easy access and viewing of the Tshirts. (I didn't take a before picture of this drawer, but it was crazy overstuffed and the only way things would fit was by rolling the Tshirts).

I've already taken those bags of donations to Goodwill, and now I can just enjoy the simplified clothing situation. Oh, and it was also a really great chance to vacuum and clean the closet and dresser while they were empty.

I hope next week's assignment is this "Do-able", but we'll see!