Thanks, bruglover! I do feel pretty good about my progress so far. :-) Congrats on finding such a simple solution to your problem!! I can honestly say I never would have thought of that, but it's partially because of how *I* travel. I've never actually unpacked clothes while traveling. Granted, I don't iron, so I don't generally own anything that will wrinkle badly, but it was a completely foreign concept to me when I first traveled with my husband to see him unpack his clothes into hotel drawers. I've always just "lived" out of my suitcase, no matter where I went. Anyways, I'm sure your guest will be much more comfortable for all the organizing you put in. :-) Last night, I got going about 10pm, and ended up spending an hour and a half on the "bad" side of the closet. I didn't take "before" pictures, just dove right into the mess. And while I still have all that yarn to sort through (and untangle/cut apart), it's now much more organized so I can see what I have, and pull portions out one at a time to go through. I also sorted my "cool weather" clothing into type and color, so it's easy to see and get to. Here's what that side looks like now: I've decided to leave the sweatshirts hanging for now - there's plenty of room, and it won't hurt them. Those boxes on top the shelf are both full of yarn, as are the containers below on the floor, but I'll sort through them eventually. Then the sweatshirts may move to that shelf. And I finished the floor on the other side, so it looks like this: Much better, I think. The basket on the floor is for hangers once I'm done with them, so it's easier to carry them downstairs. They are jumbled now, but that's because there's three different types. Next payday (the 31st), I'm replacing all of my hangers with satin padded hangers. They won't tangle up as badly, they hold the clothes a bit higher on the rod, and I think they just look nice. :-) The table underneath is an antique I don't really have a place for. So I think I'll get some baskets to fit on that lower shelf, and use them for belts and whatever else I need. I've decided I don't need a second lower rod after all - there's plenty of room on the main rod for all my clothes, even spread out. :-) Finally, I've decided to take the doors off the closet, and replace them with curtains. I feel "stifled" by the small amount of space I have access to with these big doors, and having to move them around when I need something from the other side. With curtains, I'll be able to access my whole closet at once, which means I won't have to just use the left side for storage, I can keep my cold weather clothes there permanantly, and just use different areas of the closet as needed. I have a wonderful full-lenth mirror surrounded by mosaic stained glass that my mom made for me - it's in the hall right now (sitting against a closet door that it's too heavy to hang on). I think I'll set that in the center of my closet, and attach the top to the shelf above, so it's right there where I'm dressing in the mornings (and out of the way of the hall closet door). That's about all I can do for now (aside from sorting yarn). I realized last night that I can't take down those wire shelves until I make curtains for that window, because it opens towards the neighbor's house, and I dress in there every morning. So the "stuff" on the shelves blocks the view from the neighbors'. ;-) My mom is giving me one of her old sewing machines this weekend, and around payday, I'll head out to find some fabric to make matching curtains for the closet and windows in the room (or I'll find some I like and buy them...either way works for me). Anyone else with progress to report?

Don't forget that you might not want the clear ones if you are storing items which could fade. I keep some paper items and you'd be suprised how much sunlight will even get under a bed and cause fading/drying on the edges. I keep my quilts in blue storage containers. Again, I don't want any fading. I really like the colored lids/boxes which are now available for holiday decorations. Since they are clear with green lids, I can easily tell someone to bring down the containers with the green lids, instead of having to make sure all of the sides are marked. Our long term storage here at the house doesn't have any natural sunlight, so fading isn't a concern. We have a good sized amount of storage away from the house for dh's client files. Rather than try and do something with an alpha system, he just set up a spreadsheet listing what was in each box, then printed off a copy for the side of the box. Now, rather than trying to read all of those lists, he just pulls up the client name and knows that he has to go find box #14. As he creates new boxes, he just continues the system. It's working well so far. Gloria

Oh, I have more clothes than the three t-shirts left in the livingroom closet. The clothes in there were things I never wore anymore and kept hanging onto. I have a chiffarobe (sp?)that holds my daily clothes according to season. Like lynn, I'm getting ready to shift the summer clothes out of that and into storage(which there is never enough of); then put the winter things in. BUT - I also purged alot of my winter clothing so I get to buy all new! Good luck with that it's always hard for me to find clothes I like, but anyway. The cube idea is a good one. I'll remember that when I remodel the big closet.

She emailed me this evening to say how happy she was. I know that this is going to be a work in progress-I can't expect her to change over night, but I think she really felt a lot better when she looked at what we'd accomplished. Oakley-I only came home with a purse eyeglass cleaning kit! A lot came to my house to be rehomed/donated/sold for her, but I'm just keeping that one thing. LoL. I think her biggest issue, also, is paperwork. She literally had paper stashed in every corner of her home. I think it overwhelmed her so much that everything just fell off course after that. I had been working with her how to handle paper and it was good to see her follow thru with my instruction. She's a very good pupil-she'll do what she's told. My DD commented that she's the exactly the type of consumer that ad agencies love: the kind who believes what an 'authority' tells them. She also mentioned to me that she wants to tell her counsellor about what we did and how good that felt for her. She's quite proud of what we accomplished and I really hope we can keep that momentum going.