When my girlfriend and I moved into our first home together in October there were many things I was expecting to happen from this change in life - living out of boxes for weeks to organising various bills and all that grown adult stuff. If you don’t include us breaking the front door lock and the toilet and sink leaking on the first night everything has gone swimmingly well. Most people will know and remember from their own experiences that went you first leave home you don’t have furniture, so making an apartment feel like a home can take some time. We had the essentials with us on moving day, well only a bed, but by the end of the first week, we had a dining table and chairs, chest of drawers, a bedside table and a desk to work from. Since then we have collated even more but you may have noticed one important piece of furniture is missing from these lists - a wardrobe.

Living out of boxes when you move house is unavoidable and almost a right of passage, but no one wants to have their possessions roughly shoved and jumbled up in a piece of cardboard for months upon end. It would then, of course, make sense to purchase a wardrobe but oddly enough this wasn’t a priority for my partner and me. Wardrobes are expensive and given their size you don’t want to buy one on a whim. Due to COVID and other reasons, we were unable to view our new home before moving in, and while we had measurements for the bedroom we didn’t want to risk buying such a massive item before seeing the room in the flesh. But, we couldn’t stay living out of boxes and suitcases. Our solution? A wardrobe rail.

If you are unaware of wardrobe rails they are used in shops to display clothes and are highly versatile items. I used to use mine to hold up backdrops for photography sessions! I happened to borrow (okay, I technically stole it seeing as I’m keeping it now) an old IKEA wardrobe rail from my aunt last year to use for photography and we decided to use it as a temporary closet. My mother, while agreeing that we shouldn’t rush buying a proper wardrobe, warned us that we may not enjoy the rail. Spoiler: We adore it!

On our second day in our new abode, we began the task of placing our clothing on the rail. At first, I thought ‘looks like we live in a shop’ but after a few hours, I noticed how it takes up barely any room. At around the one week mark, my mum asked if we had looked into wardrobes but by this point, our mind was made up - we didn’t really care. Even after such a small time, our little old IKEA wardrobe rail has completely altered my relationship with my clothes and in the best ways possible.

I am a visual person. At school, I always learnt better in visual ways. I go to YouTube for information before Google. It had never quite occurred to me before how being a visual person would impact how I communicate with my closet, however. ‘I have no clothes to wear!’ was always a common phrase to pass my lips. They were shoved behind a door, and so all these items felt like a distant dream. The only clothes I regularly put my eyes upon were the ones piled on my chair!

It is silly really, just how simple it is to switch this issue. All I needed to do was actually perceive my clothes.
On my wardrobe rail mine and my partners, clothes are laid out for us to choose from every day. Ironically, it does almost feel as if we are shopping from our closets each morning. Being able to visually identify all the items in my wardrobe and also lessened my urge to buy new clothing. When we forget what we already own we feel the need to buy lots of new things when in reality it is already there. We just have to go and seek it out. It is unconsciously helping me slow down my fashion consumption, something I am always seeking to achieve.

It may have only been a month, but this accidental discovery is completely alternating the views I held on my own clothing for so long. It is a welcome discovery, one I will suggest to others for many more months to come.