Make-Do Mondays: Imperfect Closet

At Make-Do Mondays, we discuss how we’re simplifying, downsizing, repurposing, buying used, and using what we’ve got.It’s a carnival you can visit to celebrate creative problem-solving, contentment, patience and ingenuity. If you want to participate, you can share your own make-do solution in the comments or write up a Make-Do Mondays post at your blog, then return here to link via Mr. Linky.Here’s a mini-tutorial on Mr. Linky:

Click on the icon and a separate page will pop up. Type in your blog name and paste in the url of your new Make-Do Mondays post. Click enter and it should be live. If it doesn’t work, just include the link in the comments.To visit people’s posts, click on Mr. Linky and when the page comes up, click on a name. You should be taken right to the page that they provided. If I have time, I come back and update the post by hand.

Make-Do Mondays Participants

1. SunnyDayTodayMama (art easel in a small place)
2. My Practically Perfect Life (where to put kitchen towel)
3. Like Mother, Like Daughter (make-do with cardboard boxes in your freezer)
4. The Goat (zippered bags)
5. mominapocket (seasonal table)
6. Trish Southard (thoughts on poo)

Make-Do Mondays with AnnThose closets in Real Simple magazine with the wooden hangers and color-coded clothing?I like those closets.Sometimes I think if only I could put all my clothes on wooden hangers, life would be so much better. Nicole Balch at Making It Lovely has a closet like that with cute dresses hanging straight down from rows of wooden hangers (to be clear: this is, sigh, not my closet):Dreamy Closet (not mine)

Credit: Nicole Balch, Making It Lovely

Isn’t that beautiful?And in this Real Simple closet makeover, they may have opted for less expensive plastic hangers in place of wooden, but everything is uniform and pleasing to my eye (unfortunately, this isn’t my closet, either).Another Dreamy Closet (also not mine)

Somehow I could never quite bring myself to invest in all those wooden hangers to replace my mish-mash collection. Over time, I’ve accumulated mostly white plastic hangers, but even those aren’t exactly the same. Some have notches in them for strappy dresses and tops, while others are smooth. Some have an extra strip of plastic in one spot that others leave off, and some hang a little higher or lower than others.And then there are several wrapped wire hangers my grandmother used to make.This lady wrote instructions for how to braid material around a metal coat hanger, creating a slide-resistent surface for a slick blouse or jacket.I have some hangers like those. If I had my dream closet, I probably would have banished Grandma’s braided treasures to a box in the basement.But I’m making do. After years of hanger hankering, I still use those braided hangers.Here—see for yourself (this, sigh, is my closet):Make-Do Closet (mine)I could have straightened everything up for a more attractive photo shoot, but that wouldn’t be honest. This is my closet, where there’s no uniformity at all. See the braided ones here and there among the white?And in my closet, when I reframe the way I think about hangers, I find that I appreciate the way nostalgia offers practicality: Mingled with white plastic is an occasional memory of my grandma, and thanks to her handiwork, several jackets and blouses stay on their hangers instead of sliding to the closet floor.Make-Do Closet (mine)But you know, I’m glad. When I let go of that craving for clean lines, I see something more beautiful. Some summers I would spend a week with Grandma, and we’d sit in her living room watching The Lawrence Welk Show while she taught me to knit, crochet, do needlepoint, sew, and press flowers to make cards. And though I don’t remember a precise day or moment when she pulled out the long strips of stretchy fabric and some old wire hangers from the dry cleaners, I’m sure I braided at least one of these when I visited.We’re making do, and it’s good.How about you?