Extreme closet makeover

Last night, I got a call from my building manager asking whether a prospective new tenant could come take a look at the apartment this morning. "Sure," I said breezily, thinking that I would just need to straighten up a few things. After hanging up the phone, it dawned on me that any prospective tenant would want to check out the closet space. Uh oh. Though I keep my walk-in closet relatively neat, there is also a sort of closet-within-a-closet type of thing that you access by opening a door inside the walk-in closet. This, my friends, has served as a sort of secret repository for all manner of unsightly things these past couple of years: piles of unwanted clothes, shoes that have mysteriously lost their mates, a purse with a broken zippers that I keep telling myself I'll get fixed someday and hence cannot get rid of. You name it. I'm pretty sure there's also a spilled box of Altoids in there somewhere (fell out of one of the purses), and approximately $847,000 in pennies, though I can't be positive because it's hard to find anything in the tangled mess of clothes, shoes, and other debris.

So, I'll spare you all the gory details, but let's just say I was up rather late last night dealing with this, ahem, situation. I'm proud to report that I am now in possession of six neatly organized bags of clothing to donate to charity and/or pawn off to my sister; a suitcase filled with expertly folded sweaters and other winter clothing; a box of boots and other pairs of shoes that I won't likely need between now and our moving date; and a darn clean closet (I even vacuumed it!). I'm still debating what to do with the purse.

It's actually a huge relief because I've been stressing about it ever since we bought the condo and I realized I would, indeed, need to pack up my apartment. Speaking of which, the whole moving thing is starting to feel really real. We close on the place next Monday, and will probably be moving sometime in mid or late July. Which means I only have a couple more weeks to pack and do a million other moving-related things. Oh, but I am feeling rather accomplished because I've picked out this Anthropologie rug for the living room. Pretty, huh?


So, tell me everyone, what's your best moving or packing-related advice?

Image via My Favorite and My Best.