{ sneakery peekery } inside my closet

many of you have asked to see the inside of my closet. truth be told, i've been a bit shy to share ~ it's not exactly the walk-in wardrobe of my dreams. in new york, those are few and far between!

at any given time, i have only just enough room to showcase a tightly-edited selection of the current season's clothes. even then, i've had to make clever use of every inch. anything that can't be worn today is in storage in my studio.

in a way, my lack of space is a good thing. it forces me to constantly rotate and reevaluate what's in my closet ~ thus ensuring that everything in there is: (a) truly loved; and (b) immediately wearable. inevitably, i'm sure this saves me tons of time on deciding what to wear.

on the top shelf, i used desk dividers from ikea (intended to separate magazines or office files, they clip to the front of the shelf) to create partitions between handbags and hats. this keeps things from falling into a jumbled mess, and makes it much easier for me to peruse my options everyday:


below that are expandable shoe racks from bed bath & beyond. i was careful to make this shelf tall enough to comfortably accommodate boots when winter rolls around:

to get as many clothes as possible into such a small space, i use real simple slimline hangers. thanks to their genius, built-in hooks, for every one hanger you see on the top pole, 2 or 3 more are linked and tiered below. they are amazing ~ a city girl's savior! they easily triple my potential capacity:

small trinkets, scarves and belts are stored and displayed on a variety of convenient carriers from the container store:

hanging shelves (unseen below, but visible in the 1st pic) are wedged into an awkward, otherwise unusable, inner-closet alcove on the far left. in these, i keep lingerie, gym clothes, pajamas, and extra bedding. on the floor to their right are separate bins for clothes awaiting either dry cleaning or hand washing. next to these, another shoe rack holds everyday errand-running slides and a bin of belts that can't be hung up above:

just outside the closet's double doors, a mannequin wears my current favorite jewels, jacket and vest ~ the better to throw over any ensemble on my way out the door!

finally, i'm working on repurposing the drawers of a nearby dresser to store my extensive collections of statement necklaces and sunnies. i'll post a follow-up when that project is finished!