Crisis...of a sort

I'm an organizer. I like lists, making plans, having a place for everything (even if everything is not in it's place). Growing up I would rearrange my bedroom often, keep in mind my bedroom was about 8ft square with a radiator under one of the windows, so there were limited locations for the bed, dresser, desk and skinny tall chest but I managed to try every possible incarnation during my teenage years.

This continued through college, including the year my roommate and I moved our "bedrooms" about 3 times, trying each room at some point as a bedroom. My first job, I think I rearranged my work space annually, if not more. Usually after each major event I would do a clean out and try to get a new perspective by moving things. It worked, but drove my boss nuts!

So now I'm in a lovely apartment, that doesn't have much flexibility in moving things. There are limitations, such as where the plugs are, the amount and size of furniture compared to size of rooms. So I tend to scratch my "organizing urges" by cleaning and moving picture frames, pottery (which I have everywhere) and reorganizing the kitchen cabinets (a favorite pastime). But my office is closed for the week, so I thought I would tackle one of the "big" organizing projects I've been wanting to do for a while - the closet.

We have a pretty big closet - it's under the stairs so it has an odd shape, but can hold lots. The problem is, it's really the only closet - other than the tiny ones in the bedroom (and I mean tiny - the house was build in 1920 or so and even the hangers don't fit unless they are angled!). So being the only closet, it stores everything - camping gear, my boxes of CD's, old clothes we're not ready to part with, off season outerwear, sheets, towels, tools, pottery tools, boxes of books that don't fit on the shelves, stuff we're saving for a yard sale and random baskets, pillows, picture frames and posters that have no where to go. Over the course of the year, this closet got out of control, where you couldn't even step in.

So today I pulled everything out, and began to organize. But somewhere I lost my steam. I can't figure out how to get it all back in there in a way that when I need that roll of wrapping paper, I don't have to dig it out from the bottom of a pile. I know the problem is to get rid of half of what I have in there, but pack ratty I am, and I purged before the move and don't want to purge any more. So now I trying to decide if I have the energy to go to Lowes and buy some shelving, which may help solve my issues, or just give up and not care - shove it all back in and enjoy the night with a bottle of wine, and my two fuzzy babies. Who knows, maybe after a bottle of wine I'll be able to master the dilemma!