taxonomy of a closet
some harmless voyeurism
A couple months ago, I helped a friend tidy up her apartment before someone came to take photos for a rental listing. I know this friend very well, but in the short time I spent putting away her clothes, I felt like I got to know her even better. It’s not that I was handling anything particularly intimate, rather that I got even more of a window into how her mind works just by way of how she organizes her clothing. A certain type of shirt belongs on the bottom shelf of this cabinet, these jeans go on the hanging shelf on the left side—it was fascinating. The closet in her new apartment is pretty similar, but even something as small as the placement of a closet door or the height of a closet rod forces you to consider a different organizational structure.
Earlier this year, I got to go through another friend’s wardrobe when I visited her in San Francisco. I’ve known her for about thirty years, so I’ve seen quite a few iterations of her wardrobe, and I learn something new each time. (For example: some pants are dresser pants, others are hanger pants, which I also agree with.) She also keeps her shoes in a metal cabinet, which I wanted to do with my shoe collection immediately after seeing that.
Everyone has their own taxonomy of clothing, their own systems dictated by the confines of their furniture and storage space—and I love when I get a chance to see it, both IRL and online. Every week I look forward to
’s outfit planning videos on Instagram, and it was such a treat to read ’s post on switching over her closet for the changing seasons. So for those of you who are also wardrobe voyeurs, you’re in luck. This is my closet!
95% of my clothes are in my closet right now, though I remove winter clothing for a few months because it makes me too sad to see it hanging there when I’m miserable in July. Under my bed, there’s a storage bag of t-shirts and clothing from the school where I used to work, but otherwise this is it.
On the left side we have: shirts, dresses, skirts, jumpsuits, jackets. There’s no particular order, but anything long has to go further back because of the dryer underneath the front part of the rack.
On the shelf above the rack are most of my pants. A couple pairs of nicer trousers are hanging, but otherwise they’re all folded and stacked up here. I rearrange the piles occasionally, and try to rotate lesser utilized denim to the top. My tall boots are also up here, along with a couple structured purses I don’t like to hang.
On the top top shelf is a basket of colder weather pajamas / lounge clothes, a basket of camping / hiking clothes, and a basket with a wearable sleeping bag (the Poler Napsack… not sure if they make it anymore!) that I used to use in my old apartment when the heat was broken. I don’t know why I’ve given it its own basket, or why I keep it there?
That cardboard box holds an untouched American Girl doll. I was desperate for one as a child, but only had Magic Attic Club dolls (shout out to Megan and Alison). They were a more than serviceable stand-in, and I had a sizable collection of doll clothing from the American Girl catalogue. But a few years ago my mom bought me a brand-new American Girl doll to make up for the fact that I never got one as a child… I don’t know what to do with it, so it’s just chilling up here!
On the right side is this shelf, a (requested) Christmas present from the MoMA store several years ago that I use to store belts, bags, jewelry, sunglasses, and scarves. There’s no rhyme or reason to which scarves are hanging vs. which ones are balled up on the shelf.
This is the back of the closet. On the top top shelf, we’ve got more baskets! The first one contains swimsuits and my summer straw hat. The next one holds all my tights—I’m not sure why I have these all the way up here. I think it’s because I used to have way more dresses and skirts. Over the last few years, as that part of my wardrobe got smaller, I relegated them to this location that takes slightly more effort to access. That last basket is full of old workout gear, mostly winter running clothes, which I can’t use for barre class because they’re too warm.
On the lower level of shelves, there’s a HAY basket with a couple pairs of shoes. It doesn’t really make sense to store them there (all my other shoes are on a shoe rack outside the apartment door) and I often forget that they’re here. The next basket holds hats and a scarf, and the last one has sweaters and scarves. Again, my decisions merit some interesting questions: why don’t I try to put all the sweaters together in one container, and all the scarves in another? On the shelf below, is a basket of long-sleeve shirts, and another basket that holds an assorted mix of sweatshirts, sweaters, and more long-sleeve shirts.
On the bottom shelf, there’s a basket of long-sleeve shirts, a basket of tank tops, a basket of short-sleeved graphic tees and t-shirts, and a basket of socks.
The top drawer contains bras and underwear, and plain cotton camisoles that I sleep in or layer under sweaters. The next drawer down is workout clothes: leggings, sports bras, barre socks, workout underwear, workout shirts. The very bottom drawer is where you’ll find the t-shirts I’ve retired to sleepwear, along with the couple of nice sets of pajamas I own and a few pairs of sweat shorts. So how do I make the decision to relegate a shirt to pajamas, workout clothes, or keep in “wardrobe” rotation? No clue! There are a few shirts that end up changing categories each time they emerge from the dryer, depending on how casual I’m feeling.
Oh—and my baseball caps are hanging on the door!
How do you organize your closet? Are there any “rules” you have or sorting things that make sense to you but wouldn’t make sense to anyone else? Feel free to post pics in the Rabbit Fur Coat chat!
“my decisions merit some interesting questions” - lol!
I really appreciated this post because I think we’ve all come to see influencer’s very ~interior design~ closet set-ups, and I hadn’t really realized how this affected my psyche until now. Making a space work is super normal. Thanks for the peek into yours!
I’d love to do a study on women’s closets and the stories they tell, especially with regards to sizing and body image.
Eleanor, I love the inclusion of the American girl doll! I had a Samantha doll as a child and still remember the excitement of receiving her for Christmas, I honestly think it’s the best Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten, still. I remember riding around with her in my bike basket to show friends on Christmas day. I asked for clothes and accessories for her every birthday and Christmas which I cherished so much and played with so carefully. I still have the whole collection and thought I’d give it to my daughters one day. Last time I was home at my parents I got some of it out to let my daughters play with it but felt weirdly uncomfortable about the whole thing! They just treated the doll and clothes like any other toy and I somehow couldn’t express to them how special she had been to me, and how much care I wanted them to take with her. I remember my mum having this china doll from her childhood that she would never let us play with - I guess it was kind of like that. Anyway, living in London now nobody knows what an American girl “means” and I feel even for children now it’s probably not as special as it was in our youth when there were limited dolls to choose from. I think it’s so sweet of your mom that she got you one.