A Bit of Sound {Wisdom}…Oh, and an Organized Closet

It's been one of those weeks.  Sounds foreboding, I know, but stick with me. There is a silver lining, I promise.  On Tuesday, one of our dear students lost her grandfather to leukemia.  It was sudden. Very sudden.  He was really like a father to her.  My heart hurts for her and her family, and I marvel at the fact that as I spent about two hours at their home today, our conversation was punctuated with tears AND laughter.  Sweet stories were told and happy memories recounted.  While telling me of her joyful forty-one year marriage, my student's grandmother passed on to me some simple yet sage advice.  She said, "Cherish every moment you have with your husband. Never take him for granted."  And she didn't! That's for sure.  Just hearing some of her stories made me triple think about my own relationship with my husband. I went there to be a blessing and ended up being the one blessed.  Humbling.

Now allow me to usher you into one of the most private rooms in my house: my closet.   For some reason, putting all my clothing on display for the entire world to see leaves me unsettled.  I just tell myself it's for the greater good.  That seems to always make things worth while even though I'm not exactly sure which greater good we would be talking about here. I don't consider myself an extremely organized person.  I do, however, love to organize. I mean REALLY love it.  It is ultra therapeutic to see an unorganized jumble of "stuff" in front of me and have the green light to start "placing things here," and "stacking things there," and throwing things away!  Ask anyone who knows me well. I love to purge.  We have now been living in our home for four years.  In the course of these four years, I believe I have rearranged the orientation of the clothing in my closet about five times.  I really had to see which way worked best.  And I'm still figuring it out.  This closet is NOT complete.

To the left is my hub's side of the closet.  This center shelving unit gave me a whole lot of problems.  Clothes stored here used to just feel like toppling towers of fabric. I decided to use a wire rack to get some of his sweaters under control. His long sleeved T's are rolled up to conserve space.  I saved some of his shoe boxes to store his shoes in.  I'm planning on investing in some clear ones in the future. 

This lovely space has held just about everything over these past years.  Not sure if I'm settling for this arrangement, but it has seemed to work well so far. I've housed my bulky sweaters and tall boots here. 

Right up there with my love for organizing is my love for the Dollar Tree.  I snatched up these "shoe" boxes and put every single pair of shoes, with the exception of some of my sandals and flats, in their own little comfy home.  They are clear which allows me to quickly find what I'm looking for. And I imagine that this will also keep my closet from smelling like stinky shoes : ) I always feel good about sealing up my sneakers in one of these bad boys after a long workout. 

These hanging organizers were actually being used in another room to hold linens.  I found that they were put to much better use here.  The narrow hanging shelf is used for some of my flats and sandals and the wider shelf for scarfs and sweaters/tops.