Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Off my chest

It was everywhere.


On the bed, in laundry baskets, on the floor.


Clean laundry was everywhere I turned, demanding to be put away. Normally, I'd tell the laundry to hold the phone until Saturday but I found myself with a "free" hour this morning as my BOB run got rained out and Miles decided to take a nap after spending 15 minutes screaming in his crib while I took a shower.


I began separating the mountain into piles - Mark, Miles, Kim, Kim's running gear. As I made some headway, I made a shocking discovery: I have more work out clothes than I do actual work clothes.

And what's so sad about the situation is not that I end up wearing the same handful of outfits to the office. Nope. It's that my tech tees, tights and wicking socks are relegated to the most unfortunate of places.


A paper box on a shelf next to the chest of drawers.

Mark and I are in desperate need of a sizable, quality dresser (have been since we got married) and are currently sharing the chest of drawers he had ... as a child. I have two small half-size drawers and three mediocre-size drawers that are just enough to store tank tops, knit shirts, T-shirts and leggings. I would love to have room for my workout wear in the chest but I just don't have room.

Or do I?

Seeing as a complete revamp of my clothing organization system was the best way to spend my "ohmygodmilesisnapping" time, I dumped the contents of my dresser on the bed and quickly began working. Underthings were put in a basket on the shelving system, tank tops and pajamas were moved up to their spots.Any top with a sleeve was hung in the closet, and T-shirts, which I rarely wear, were thrown on a chair. Because, you know, that's where they belong.


I did have to make some room in the closet for the new additions. Anything deemed "outerwear" was moved to the hall closet downstairs.

I now had three drawers to put all things wicking - and let me tell you, I needed them. Tanks and bras in one, short- and long-sleeve tops in another and pants and socks in the last one. The only items that didn't fit were running jackets/half-zips and I figured they could count as outerwear, shipping them downstairs.

The box of shame was empty. Giving me somewhere to put my T-shirts.

How do you organize your workout wear? Do you find that you have more Nike Tempos than Nine West pants?

9 comments:

  1. I actually have an entire separate dresser for my workout stuff! I didn't buy one specifically for it, but we have one in the guest room with nothing in it, so it became my workout clothes dresser.

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  2. My workout clothes used to be in a bin at the bottom of my closet, but that doesn't work for our new house... so now it's in the guest bedroom closet. Which will work out well until we have company.

    It's funny because Michael and I each have our own dresser. You would think I'd have more room. But somehow I manage to fill it up!

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  3. gahhh you know how you thought my post I wrote yesterday was for you? Well I'm pretty sure you wrote this for me! We have a tiny dresser and have been in the market for a bigger, more affordable one foreverrrrrr. I hate laundry because I think the same thing, we don't have room! Right now I have some shelves I fold all my running stuff, but I'm running out of room. I need a separate room just for workout attire :)

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  4. I bought a Rubbermaid 3-drawer thingy for my workout clothes. One for tanks and short sleeves, one for bottoms, and one for long sleeve and sports bra. Worked out well actually. :)
    And while I dont know if I have more workout clothes than work clothes, I DO know that I have more 'wearable workout outfits' than my work outfits. Sad!

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  5. I had to laugh when I read this. When E was born we actually had to build a new closet because we were using the one in her bedroom for Greg's stuff!

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  6. Ha, I think we were on the same bloggy wavelength yesterday!

    I'm sticking to one load of laundry per night and clumping sets of clothes that go together.

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  7. haha, I love that a simple hour of laundry turned into a complete reorganization project.

    I have a delicately balanced laundry system where my washer, dryer, hamper, dresser, closet and drying rack are all full at all times. Any back-up (too much dirty laundry OR clean laundry) messes up the whole system. I have a problem.

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  8. We ended up buying one of those super tall, configurable wardrobes at Ikea, which allowed us to get rid of 2 old dressers and even have room left over. Well, technically we kept one of the dressers and put it in the guest room, and it is starting to be the overflow for the kids' clothes now. Anyway, the wardrobe is rather tall...my husband calls it our sarcophagus. We have dedicated space for workout clothes now. yay!

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  9. You're right. If everything is clean there wouldn't be room to put it all away.

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