Cleaning Out my Closet with Oxo & Giveaway

Over the course of the last month I have become a disorganized mess. I have too much stuff - and no where to put it. I have been so busy that I am neglecting to keep anything organized or put away in the correct spot - and then I can't find things when I need them! I put away my summer clothes at the beginning of October. Then, because of the freakishly warm weather in Chicago I had to take them back out. Now, I have a closet full of summer and winter clothes...and a headache.

Some of my mess comes from the fact that I am a product junkie and the other because I have a hard time throwing things away. Yet I seem to always be cleaning out my closet because I have so much stuff - yet I complain that I have nothing to wear (woe is me!). At the end of each season I try to get ride of clothes that I haven't worn. It's always very hard to let things go - despite the fact that I live in the city and have a very small amount of space to work with.

Recently, via the power of Twitter, I saw that Oxo, one of my favorite companies (I swear their salad spinner changed my life!), announced that they were looking for bloggers to test out a new product. I jumped at the chance. The product was closet hangers, too, so talk about fate. Just what I needed to get me out of my closet-hating funk.

More closet inspiration came from a fashion challenge on one of my favorite blogs, Kendi Everyday. In this challenge, participants are urged to take a second look at their closet and use 30 different items (clothes and shoes) to make outfits over the course of 30 days - and no shopping is allowed. While I would love to participate in this challenge, my brain can only handle one challenge at a time. Still, I find this challenge inspiring and I decided to get rid of things I just do not wear and focus on the things I do have, and how to make them work. Now that I have less clothes to fuss over, I can spend more time in the morning at the gym and less time in front of my closet deciding what to wear!

The hangers given to me where shirt hanger, suit hanger, skirt hanger, and multi-tier pants hanger. Let's see how they fare.

Before

I actually cannot even believe I am sharing these photos, this closet was a disgusting mess! I had things everywhere. Clothes on the floor, jewelry tangled up in my jewelry box, mis-matched socks, nothing was put in its proper place. Ugh.

During

My bedspread is green, would you even know? And why do I have sports beans and GU in my bedroom? (note: not all of these clothes are mine, we both cleaned out our closets this weekend!)

After

Clean and organized, just how I like things. Note the gigantic pile of magazines I have to tackle next weekend!

These hangers were the perfect motivation to get this job done. It was lot of run trying out a new product - and also finding a solution to many of my closet woes.

In the photo above the hooks on the wall next to the mirror are attached with velcro - a great way to display jewelry and also prevent it from getting tangled! I also use plates and other small containers (above) to hold jewelry that I wear the most often, that way it's easy for me to find.

And for the closet - clean, concise and color-coordinated! Although it doesn't look like it, black is not my favorite color (and maybe this is a hint I need to add more color to my wardrobe - but no shopping for 30 days!). I cannot find anything unless it's in color order, either.

The oxo hangers worked wonders. I have (too) many pairs of pants, and while I thought the multi-tiered pants hanger was a bit bulky, I loved the convenience that the bars snap in and out, making it that much easier to get the pants out. The suit hangers are great, too but I used them to hang up my dresses - I only own one suit! They are wide enough to prevent dimples in the shoulders of a dress, which is fantastic!

My two favorites, however, were the shirt hanger and the skirt hanger. The shirt hanger (bottom left) has a non-slip grip so my green shirt - wrinkled from always falling off a regular hanger and getting buried at the bottom of my closet - now stays put. This is also a good hanger for tanks and other delicate items. And the skirt hanger (bottom right) has a good grip on my skirt, but doesn't dig into the fabric.

Now, while this closet/bedroom organization couldn't have been done without the help of my Oxo hangers, some wine helped, too.

Las Perdices Malbec - medium bodied with a taste of blackberry. Perfect for forgetting that the Patriots got spanked and that your closet just shrunk.

By the end of the day we had two bags of clothes to donate to charity - such a good feeling. But best part about this is that Oxo has offered to give away a set of these fantastic hangers to a reader! Hopefully you will enjoy them as much as I do!

To enter, please comment on this post and let me know what your favorite item in your closet is! I'll randomly pick a winner on Friday.