Rites of Spring

It’s finally April, which leads many Washingtonians to thoughts of cherry blossoms, sunshine, happy hour on the rooftop deck, and obnoxious tourists (http://musical-guru.blogspot.com/).

But not me. Spring means one thing only: it’s time to reorganize my closet! I’ve been looking forward to this since January. The Spring Closet Reconfiguration is a major weeklong process, and it isn’t for the timid. It’s also a pretty good indicator of why I live alone. So, here we go:

1. One of the hanging sweater organization systems will be taken down to make room for the larger number of hanging items (such as sundresses and skirts) that I wear in warmer months.
2. Sweaters will be categorized into cardigans, light sweaters, and heavy sweaters. Heavy sweaters will be examined for overall health, folded, and stowed until October.
3. Long-sleeve t-shirts will be sorted, prioritized according to frequency of use, and merged with the lightweight sweaters and cardigans. These items will be deprioritized into the dresser, and the t-shirts and sleeveless tops currently inside the dresser will move to the hanging organization system for easy access.
4. Wool skirts, corduroy slacks and long-sleeved dresses will be moved to the hallway closet. Lightweight dresses and skirts will be retrieved from storage, and short sleeve tops will be retrieved from the hall closet.
5. Dresses will be sorted by length and relative appropriateness for work and hung in Slot 1 of closet. Special Category: Extra Effort Dresses, those which require a specialized form of bra. Those get moved to the back, because really, who has the time for a strapless bra these days?
6. Skirts will be sorted by length and relative formality and hung in Slot 2.
7. Short sleeve shirts will be sorted by color and relative formality and hung in Slot 3.
8. Capri pants will be hung in Slot 4, along with jeans and other slacks.
9. The scarves and gloves currently stored on the accessory bookshelf will be moved to the hall closet to make room for summer handbags.
10. Closed-toe dress shoes will be moved from the front of the shoe hanging organization system and moved to the back. Sneakers may remain in current space, where they are sorted by frequency of use. Sandals will be sorted by heel height and placed in the front half of the organization system. Note: prior system of alphabetizing shoes by color, while deeply amusing, proved inefficient and somewhat unwieldy. Particularly in light of my inability to discern navy blue from black.

Doesn’t this sound like a lot of fun? Well, for me, it truly is. Being insane about the small things lets me be relatively calm about the big stuff. Plus, a meticulously organized closet informs visitors that I am not a woman to be trifled with (or, perhaps, spoken to at all). I’m an organizational badass.