Here’s a very personal question – do you have a wardrobe or a ‘floor-drobe’? Most clients I work with don’t have a full-on ‘floor-drobe’, where the majority of the closet is actually residing on the floor of their closet or bedroom. Hopefully, unless you’re a teenager (and even then, ummm, nope, not even then…), you’re long past this stage. Let me explain…

I came across the term ‘floor-drobe’ while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, “Happier with Gretchen Rubin”.  She originally came to my attention with the publication of her second book in her happiness series, “Happier at Home”, which talks about ways to make your home/life the ultimate happy-place. I subscribed to her blog, and then started listening to her podcast. In one of the issues (and I wish I had written down it’s number, but I didn’t) she and her sister Elizabeth (who co-hosts the podcast with her) talk about the ‘floor-drobe’. I thought ‘aha!’ – that’s what so many of my clients deal with – and not only them, but me too.

Yes, like many women (maybe you too?)  I have a modified version of the ‘floor-drobe’ problem. Now, I’m a real neat-nik – I like things in their place, and since I work with women helping them organize their closets, that’s a very important trait to have. But little bad habits can tend to creep in. So I’ll confess mine…the modified ‘floor-drobe’ problem.

First of all, I don’t leave clothes on the floor, for many reasons.

*They get wrinkly
*It makes a mess
*I like to take care of my things
*I’m a grown-up
*And the aforesaid, I’m a neat-nik

But, my modified ‘floor-drobe’ problem has me leaving out outfits, or pieces of outfits on the edge of my bathtub overnight. I do this to air them out, and/or because I plan on wearing them a second day. My husband has adopted my borderline sloppy habit by also laying his out on the tub-edge or across the pillows of the settee in our bedroom. If we should happen to change our plans for what we wear the next day, we just leave the original outfits laying out because…we’ll probably wear them the next day.

I also do this sometimes with accessories too (yes, it’s true-confessions time!) I’ll leave the accompanying jewelry for above outfit laying on the dressing table in the bathroom, which may continue to lay there if I change my mind about my outfit, because…well…read the above paragraph again. Same with the shoes, lined up next to the tub.

You can see how this one little bad habit can morph into something totally out of hand, can’t you?

Not only is it visually distracting, it’s bad for the clothing and for my inner peace. To quote Gretchen Rubin, “Outer order contributes to inner calm.” (You can see I’m a real fan of hers.)

Besides all of that, if you keep your things organized and put away in their proper place, you know where to find them. And that in itself, is calming. (And yes, I’m dealing with this problem of mine!)

Thanks for reading – stay stylish!

Adena