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Ahh, relationships: to have and to hold; to love and to cherish; to share…closet space? Nothing puts a bump in the road to happily-ever-after like sharing a closet. Unless you’re moving into a palatial estate with his and hers walk-in closets, space is at a premium and conflicts will arise:
Who straightens up and puts the clothes away? Who’s always late? Whose shoes get prime real estate in the bedroom and whose shoes go in the closet down the hall? Clearly, combining two wardrobes can get pretty intense for even the happiest of couples.
It doesn’t matter if you’re newlyweds or you’ve lived together for years. One study found that 48 percent of couples who live together argue about tidiness — with 7 percent finding something clutter-related to be upset about every day.
Your closet doesn’t have to be a point of contention. With some teamwork, commitment (you’re already good at that — that’s why you’re here), and a few tips from mDesign, your bedroom closet can look as bright and beautiful as your life together.
Before you even start, take hold of your beloved’s hands, look deeply into their eyes, and remind yourself of all the reasons you fell in love in the first place. Why? Clothing has an emotional charge. You could be blindsided by something that you didn’t know was an issue.
Take Katlyn and Shane, for example. Where she sees a ratty, old football jersey, he remembers the night he threw the winning touchdown. So when Shane notices his cherished jersey on the donation pile, he gets upset. “Are you giving this away?” he asks. “It’s ancient and, besides, you never hang it up,” Katlyn shrugs. Shane explodes, “Maybe if you didn’t have fifteen pairs of jeans, we’d have room for my stuff!”
Whoa, that escalated quickly.
Safeguard against tension-filled arguments by grounding yourself in what really matters — your love. You love each other. You’re making a life together, of which home storage is just one part. Keep coming back to your shared goal — your dream closet — to help the process go smoothly. Make sure you’re clear on things like morning routines, clutter tolerance, and how you want to divvy up the storage space.
Remember: closets are for clothes, not arguments.
Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye to the stuff we love, even when that stuff is no longer useful to us. One reason we cling to clothes is because we’re imagining our future selves. Dreamy visions of an idealized version of you or outfits you might need — “I’ll fit into those jeans one day,” or “What if Beyoncé invites me on tour?” — rob you of precious space for your real-life clothes.
Enough with the wishful thinking, it’s time to get ruthless: toss it! If it’s tattered, torn, too small, too large — toss it. Studies show, on average, people wear 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time. That means most of your clothes never see the light of day. You could toss them, and you’d hardly miss them at all.
Consider donating used clothes to a local charity or gifting them to someone with a flair for making old things new again. Rotate seasonal clothing out of the mix by storing it in organizer bins (like mDesign’s Large Fabric Zipper Storage Bag). Purging your wardrobe (think of it as a “clothing cleanse”) is a great way to create more space — in your master bedroom and your life.
Try this hanger hack: hang your garments with the neck of the hanger facing you. Each time you wear something, put it back on the hanger and put the hanger back on the rod facing the opposite way. After a couple of months, it’ll be obvious which clothes are keepers and which ones need to go.
Remember: you need to purge if you want to merge.
Organization can transform your entire closet, but it takes a lot more than a rod and hangers; you need the right mix of organizational and storage tools in your arsenal:
Take a moment to stand back and bask in the glow of your handiwork. But don’t let your guard down — purge often, maintain your closet boundaries, and make the most of every inch of your space with mDesign’s innovative storage solutions and home organization ideas.
Don't stop at the closet — check out our office blog to create a functional shared work space at home.
Lisa Langford is a Senior Copywriter at mDesign
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Posted: May 6, 2021
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