5 Tips for Closet Organization

So, organizing closets is actually really fun... I'm always working on organizing my own closet (although as I write this my closet needs some TLC... ha), and I have a friend who often has me come over to help with hers. I mean I actually really enjoy it! Is there any sort of career opportunity here? No? Dang..
Well whether there's a money making opportunity here or not, I've picked up a few tips + tricks for closet organization and decided to share with ya'll my top 5.

1 | CLEAN OUT YOUR CLOSET
Aw, this dreaded step. I don't know if it's just me, but I seem to get emotionally attached to clothes. Like what is that about? But, I've gotten better at getting rid of things I don't like and you guys can too! Guys, it's simple: if you don't like something, or you don't wear it or it doesn't fit you or it's ratty- get rid of it. You can use your judgement to decide whether it's thrift store worthy or just toss it- whatever you decide, as long as it's out of your closet, good.
A good rule you could use is ask yourself, would you buy that now if you saw it in a store? If the answer is no, you might want to get rid of it.

2 | SEPARATE DRESSES, SHIRTS, SKIRTS, ETC.
Organize by type of clothing, NOT by color. Organizing by color may seem like a good idea but it usually just ends up looking messy instead or streamlined and it makes it difficult to find anything. Why look through your whole closet looking for something when you know you want to wear a dress? If you organize by type of clothing you can go right to that section, easy peasy!
Now, if you want you can organize by color within each section, or it might be a good idea to organize by pattern... Or both! Hey, it's your closet, go crazy with it.

3 | FACE YOUR CLOTHES AND HANGERS
I hang all of my clothes facing the same way, with all the hangers facing the same way on the hanger. This makes my life so much easier; I can flip through the clothes on my rack and see the front of ALL my clothes, and I can take big junks of clothing off the rack without hangers pulling and making it difficult. It also just helps my closet to look streamlined and not all messy. It will only take you like an extra 2 seconds to make sure you're hanging something up the right way after you've organized your whole closet properly, so it's an easy tip that will help a lot.
Sometimes you might want to face your clothes different ways, like if you have a walk in closet where the door is in the middle of your rack- you could face all the clothes so they're facing you when you walk in.

4 | UTILIZE YOUR DRAWERS 
Definitely use your drawers for things like camp tshirts and pajamas, but you can also save space in your closet by designating a drawer to your shorts & jeans. I personally keep a drawer for my shorts & jeans, but it's really up to you what you do with yours. However, I would really encourage anyone to have a drawer or, even better, a shelf for their sweaters and other things that can't be hung. When you hang stretchy fabric, like sweaters, they get terrible bumps in the shoulders and the sleeves get stretched out. It's no fun at all to have that happen to one of your shirts.
I'm surprised sometimes which fabrics get bumps, I have a few that I definitely didn't expect. When in doubt, hang it for just a few minutes and see if it gets little bumps on the shoulders (which can then be smoothed out because they won't be too permanent after just a few minutes).

5 | PUT ASIDE CLOTHES YOU'RE UNSURE ABOUT 
If there really are clothes you just can't get rid of, try putting them in a closet apart from your regular one, or a box if there's no where else. Then, if you ever have nothing to wear you can go look those over and see if you like any of them. If you end up wearing something from there and liking it, move it to your regular closet. If you've gone for a really long time without wearing something from there, you could probably just get rid of the lot of it!
If you have some things with just too much sentimental value to get rid of, put them in a 'keepsake' box and store it in your closet. You might want to look over those things again someday!

Well, I know you guys have probably picked up some tips about closet organization too- leave them below in the comments, I'd love to hear them!

-Ash xx

Trends // Floral Kimono

I've finally jumped on the Kimono bandwagon (is that still a trend or did I miss it?) and I gotta say I'm loving it. Normally I'm not one to rock the more trendy pieces, but I feel like this outfit, with the kimono and button up skirt, could fit in the 'trendy' category. It just sort of just came together in my head and I really like it. 

Of course, a lot of styles that I really like are super trendy right now, which is both good and bad: good because the clothing I like is a lot easier to find in stores, bad because I try to dress semi uniquely- I just don't like it when it seems like everyone is wearing the exact same thing as everyone else.

Of course, since I typically like to stick with thrift stores anyway it doesn't help me quite as much that the styles I like are trendy right now. It might help a little because people will be donating it more, but it helps in an off-hand way.

kimono - hand me down // shirt - thrifted // skirt - target // sunnies - walmart // necklace - gift // shoes - cvs // nail polish - sinful colors in hazard

What do you guys think about trends? What's something you like that's really trendy right now? Let me know in the comments below!

-Ashley, xx

Pros and Cons of Thrift Store Shopping

Hey loves! I'm back from an impromptu blogging break (sometimes a girl has just gotta take it easy for a minute) to share with you guys the pros and cons of thrift store shopping! It's definitely no secret that I love thrift store shopping! (This blog is called Thrifty Toppings for goodness sake.) But, as with anything, there are pros and cons to thrift store store shopping, and in this post I'm going to break those down for you guys. If you've been recently getting into thrift store shopping or have been considering it, perhaps this post will help you figure out if thrift store shopping is for you or not!

PRO: Inexpensive clothing
You can often find good quality and name brand clothing for much less than what you'd pay in stores.

CON: Harder to find the correct sizes
If something doesn't fit, you can't just go get a different size to try. In department stores you can try on all different sizes to see which one fits you best; however at thrift stores you're stuck with what you've got and it either fits you or it doesn't.

PRO: Proceeds don't go to the same place
There are certain brands that I don't like to support because of the things that they stand for or the way that they run their business, etc., but when thrift shopping it's okay to buy those brands because it doesn't support that brand at all.

CON: Proceeds don't go to the same place
This can also be a con, however, for brands like TOMS; when you buy a pair of TOMS new, a pair is donated by the company to needy children. When you buy a pair of TOMS from a thrift store, no pair is donated because it wasn't bought directly from the company.

PRO: Thrift stores usually support good causes
 Despite the last con, people in need can still benefit from you shopping at thrift stores because almost all thrift stores support some charity or donate to the needy in some way.

CON: Takes more effort
When thrift shopping, there's normally a lot of low-quality things that you'll need to sort through in order to find anything worth buying. In this way, thrift shopping takes more effort than going to a department store and shopping. In department stores everything is organized and everything is expected to be good quality and up to date with he latest styles and trends. When thrift store shopping it's a lot harder to find anything that is good quality and stylish, and harder to find anything specific that you're looking for because thrift stores are not as organized.

PRO: Better chances of finding vintage and unique things
If you're looking for unique pieces that you know you won't be able to find in stores, thrift stores are definitely the place to look. Plus you obviously won't be able to find anything vintage in stores.

CON: Bad exchange policy's
Thrift store's return policies normally are not as good as regular store's return policies, so you have to be pretty certain that whatever you buy fits and that you like it before you buy it.

PRO: Always getting new things in
Thrift stores are constantly getting new things in and as things are being purchased the items in thrift stores are always changing.

CON: Environment is not as nice
The overall environment in thrift stores is generally not as nice as you'll find in regular/department stores. Every thrift store is different and some are worse than others; some seem to be actually dirty and others only have curtains for their dressing rooms, etc. It's just overally a better experience shopping in regular stores.

Are there any pros or cons that you would add to this list? What do you think about thrift store shopping?