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How To Manage Your Floordrobe

How To Manage Your Floordrobe
Carly Jacobs

Let me preface this article by firming stating that floordrobes are unnacceptable. How anyone can sleep at night with piles of crap next to their bed is beyond me, but I’m here to assist those who weren’t born with weird paranoid insomnia that’s spurned on by dirty knickers all over the carpet. This is my gift to you. Floordrobe be gone!

How To Manage Your Floordrobe

Have designated places for all of your clothes

If you don’t have specified areas to store your clothes, it’s impossible for you to ever be able to put them away. Grab some cheap drawer dividers from a storage store or Ikea if you have one near by and make little spaces for different types of clothing in your drawers. One for underwear, one for socks, one for t-shirts. Whatever works for you. Keep things like jeans, jersey items and knits folded on shelves or in drawers (or you can stay tuned for the Smaggle method). Hang up shirts, dresses and business pants and put labels above the rack so you know what goes in each area. Get an accessories holder for things like belts, scarves and hats and put things away as you take them off. If there’s an empty spot in your wardrobe where the item should be, it makes it much easier to put things away.

drawer

 This is my underwear drawer. You can see my Sport Sock, Boot Sock and Not For Sexy Time Underwear sections. Feel free to create your own categories.

If your clothes are dirty put them in the washing basket

This seems super obvious but apparently a lot of people struggle with it. Where ever it is that you get naked most, put a washing basket there. It will make it so much easier to just strip off and throw the dirty clothes in the basket rather than letting them fall into a pile at your feet. Have two washing baskets if you need, one in the bedroom and one in the bathroom, just make sure you have somewhere to put your dirty clothes when you take them off that’s not the floor.

washing basket

 This is my washing basket and I keep it in the bathroom because that’s where I’m naked the most. Note: There’s no clothing in or around the washing basket. Be very aware of the bathroom floordrobe… they are way damper and stinkier than bedroom floordrobes. 

Get rid of clothes that you never wear… even if they’re really expensive

You know that super expensive shirt that you bought 2 years ago that you loved in the store but every time you put it on you look like a magician on steroids? News flash. It’s never magically going to look good, no matter how many rental payments you missed to buy it. Whenever I see my friend’s floordrobes they appear to be full of clothes that I’ve never seen before. Rogue expensive items that get tried on, rejected, then flung on the floor in disgust. These items have no place in your life. Sell them, donate them or give them to a friend because from what I can tell, 90% of most floordrobes are made of items like these.

no floorrobe

 This is a picture of the bedroom I share with Mr Smaggle just so you know that I really and truly don’t have a floordrobe… but sometimes if we’re feeling particularly fancy free, we’ll chuck our jackets on the bed when we get home instead of hanging them up right away. Watch out world… the Smaggles are cutting loose. 

If you can get another wear out of today’s outfit… put it back in your cupboard

If you’ve worn an item and it’s still clean enough to wear it again, for god’s sake put it away. The washing basket is for dirty clothes, your wardrobe is for clean and cleanish clothes. The floor is for feet. If you MUST have a place to put your clothes overnight have a Holding Bay, like a chair or a stool. Personally, if I had a Holding Bay, I’d only use it for pre-planned outfits or gym gear for 6am workouts but if you must use it for semi-clean, already worn clothing then use it as a stepping stone. A Holding Bay is much better than a floordrobe and once you’ve gotten used to your Holding Bay you can graduate to full wardrobe use. Baby steps, petals, baby steps.

And finally… The Smaggle Method

This is a method I developed a few years ago. Although I’m pretty tidy, I’m also super busy and as such you won’t find piles of perfectly folded and laundered clothing in my cupboard. Please. I have cats to look at on YouTube, thank you very much. For anything that doesn’t need ironing, my belief is that it also doesn’t need folding. So that means singlet tops, knits, anything jersey, everything from Metalicus. For these items, rather than driving myself mental trying to keep them folded in a pile on a shelf or in a drawer, I keep two Ikea cloth boxes down the bottom of my wardrobe… one has basics like t-shirts and singlets and the other has knits and cardigans. When I’m looking for an item, I grab the box, empty it on the bed, find the item, shove the other stuff back in the box and put the box back in the cupboard. Below is a short video to demonstrate the method. I don’t want you screwing it up now.

cloth box

This simple cloth box may be the answer to all your floordrobe problems. Observe. 

Do you have a floordrobe? How do you keep it all under control?

24 Comments

  1. Bek 10 years ago

    OMG. The Smaggle method is actually amazing. I am going to IKEA this weekend and you can be dang sure I’m coming back with two of those nifty boxes. I agonise over my folded crap.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I know it’s brilliant right? I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever invented.

  2. Jess 10 years ago

    I am going to Smaggle method the crap out of my clothes this weekend! Brilliance!

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I can’t say too much because I reveal all in an upcoming article but the Smaggle Method works in other areas of the house too. 🙂

  3. Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella 10 years ago

    LOL sending this to hubby! He has a massive floordrobe and at the moment it looks like a giant ant’s nest! He has been told that he needs to get rid of it this weekend. We’ll see!

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      OMG. I would NOT cope with a man who had a floordrobe. Mr Smags occasionally has one but not for long. Whip it baby. Whip it good.

  4. I have a chair-drobe instead of a floordrobe but tonight I am sorting it using the Smaggle method. I am going to be a new person by the end of this challenge.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      Flipping sweet! The ikea boxes are like $7. Bargain!

  5. kate 10 years ago

    I have a chair that is my holding bay, so no floordrobe at my place. I could not handle having my clothes all over the place! I like the boxes idea for non foldy things. I already have one that has my swimners and scarfs in it (cos they clearly go together), but I definitely need one for the million tank tops I own!

  6. Tahlia Meredith 10 years ago

    Smaggle method is genius! I could nearly get rid of a whole tallboy that way… It would also be excellent for PJs, cos who cares if they’re wrinkly? That’s two drawers gone already! (Yes, I have many many PJs but we’re not talking about my stuff ok!?! Oh wait…)

  7. cilosophy.blogspot.com 10 years ago

    I am getting better (ie less tolerant of mess) in my older (mid-30s) age.

  8. Eliza Bateman 10 years ago

    This post made me so very happy, particularly as I am also an obsessive cleaner and I abhor the floordrobe. However, after many discussions with my girl Fee, I have accepted the need for the ‘resting’ pile of clothes. This covers clothes that go in the category of ‘things I have worn once that are still clean enough to wear again’. But they might smell like chinese take away. Or cigarettes. Or wine. And thus cannot contaminate the totally clean clothes in my drawer. Hence, I developed the resting chair. I plan to patent this and become insanely wealthy.

  9. allysonpotrebka 10 years ago

    You’re a genius! I can not believe how simple yet completely practical your bin idea is. Closet overhaul happening this weekend!

  10. 26 Years & Counting 10 years ago

    Hmm. So I won’t invite you to see my floordrobe then. I’m getting better at decluttering, but I was terrible to begin with, so I doubt anyone apart from me could see the difference.

  11. Nessbow 10 years ago

    I can’t do the floordrobe thing. I am obsessive about making sure that everything in my wardrobe is carefully put away. I’m also a total washing nerd. Laundry is my favourite household chore and I could happily spend ages doing it. I’ve even had friends bring me to their houses and give me tea and cake in exchange for helping them to deal with their wardrobes.

  12. Raquel 10 years ago

    I had a stupidly messy floordrobe until a few years ago when I decided to analyse my mess. I discovered that it was mostly made up of clothes that were good for another wear. I didn’t want to put them back next to the clean clothes in the wardrobe, or in the laundry. So, I grabbed a plain old cardboard box (I was a student and poor), put it in the bottom of my wardrobe and designated it the place where cleanish things live.

  13. Jane 10 years ago

    Cloth box = genius. Suddenly I wish I hadn’t such a penchant for fricken stiffly ironed shirts.

    I don’t have a floordrobe, but my laundry usually dries in a hall next to my bedroom. Lacking a proper laundry station, I often dump all the dry stuff on my bed, then go run through my day completely forgetting that my bed is otherwise occupied, and late at night find myself a reluctant bedmate to a pile of aforementioned though not yet ironed shirts. And bedsheets. And towels. And socks.

  14. Nicole 10 years ago

    That cloth basket method is simple as shit… I have 10 million jersey items (approx.) that would work incredibly well for *and* fool my husband into thinking I don’t have 5 of the same dress.

  15. IfByYes 10 years ago

    You are my new goddess.

  16. Gina 9 years ago

    I’m there with Nessbow, I cannot tolerate a floordrobe. I do have a small stack of library books beside my bed, but that is it. My clothing is hung in my closet. Worst case? If it’s something I need to hand wash, I’ll drape it over the 3-drawer dressing for a day or two — max. I don’t think I could handle the Smaggle boxes, as a jumble of clothing in a bin would drive me bonkers. I don’t own loads of clothing, so folding it isn’t time-consuming.

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