Closet cleaning!

Once or twice a year, my beau and I throw a Purge Party for our friends. It's a chance to go through everything we own and ask the ever-difficult questions: Why do I own this? Do I ever use it? Why am I still hanging on to it?!?

Hard as this can be, it is also wonderfully freeing. Making room for new things is great, and so is getting rid of stuff that's just gathering dust. I find it difficult - I wouldn't have bought something in the first place, if I didn't think it had the potential to be pretty or fun - but I'm always satisfied when it's over, when my room is neat again and I can actually FIND the things I do use all the time.

Right now, I'm trying to apply this process to my lolita wardrobe. If getting rid of normal clothes is difficult for me, getting rid of lolita is five times the challenge! I spent so much time saving up for this clothing, or making it myself, that's it's hard to think of letting it go. Even so, my closet is stuffed past capacity, and my past month of wearing lolita almost daily (a topic for a future post!) has taught me a lot about what I do and don't wear, about what I have enough of already and where I need to fill in some gaps.

I'm hoping, by the end of this process, to have a much more organized and functional wardrobe. Right now, my stuff is spread out over three spaces: a closet in the hallway, a wardrobe in my room, and an accessory unit on the other side of the room:

What a mess! Getting ready in the morning involves a lot of running around: blouses are in one closet, dresses and skirts in the other, not to mention accessories EVERYWHERE because I am terrible about putting things back where they belong. Hopefully if I prune down my collection a bit, I will be able to impose some sort of organization on the whole she-bang in time for the new year.

Any advice? I'm thinking of switching over to vintage suitcases for storing socks, bloomers & accessories, and getting a lot more skirt hangers, but I'm not sure that's enough to fix the problem. I'd love to hear your best solutions for taming a wild closet!