Our home is pretty much my dream come true, but there are still plenty of things that I’d love to makeover if I had the money to hire them out. I’d like to update the tile in both bathrooms and put down new flooring in the kitchen and hall bathroom. We’ve got lighting issues that I dream of addressing, and I also would love to tear out our primary bedroom closet and add back in custom wardrobes. But, alas, money is tight and I’m genuinely content to focus on little cosmetic updates for now until we can afford to hire in a crew to get some more intense work done.

You can see our closet pictured above. The only access point is that one set of louvered doors in the middle, but the closet actually spans the whole width of that jut-out into the room. The only way to access the large areas to either side of the doors is to crawl through the hanging clothes, so we essentially are forced to leave those areas empty. It’s a really bad use of space, so I’d like to eventually either rip out the front of the closet and put in two doors, or just tear out the whole thing and do built-in wardrobes instead. That’s not happening any time soon, though.

Since I can’t spend money to increase the size or accessibility of our closet, I’m instead leaning on things like organization hacks to make the most of the space and situation that we’ve got. This post is not sponsored in any way, but I happened to hear about a digital clothes organization app that I recently tried for myself and I thought I’d share the info in case it helps you with your own pint-sized closet situation. It’s called Indyx, and allows you to catalogue each item in your wardrobe digitally to make it easier to put together daily outfits and keep a clear head about what you’ve got, what you could stand to let go of, and also what you may need to shop for ahead of next season. Let’s discuss.

What I’ll be talking about today deals with just the free aspects of the app. As I understand it, you can pay for more comprehensive features, like a stylist to help you combine items in your real life wardrobe to create fresh outfits, and lots more customized actions, but I’m personally not that fixated on style. I feel like I’m creative enough to come up with outfits every day, but what I would like to know is what I actually have in my wardrobe at a glance, and what I can get rid of to make better use of our small closet.

The one thing I’ve heard from folks who have done this digital cataloguing before me is just how time-consuming it is, and there’s definitely truth to that. I invited my mom over one weekend recently to start the process of cataloguing my own wardrobe and we didn’t even make it halfway through in the two hours that we spent working on it. That said, it’s a “once and done” type of situation, and we had fun with it. We working on blazers, shirts, and tank tops, then took a wine break in the sunroom, and finally moved on to shorts, skirts, and shoes after that. I still have dresses, pants, and accessories to log in the app, but I’m taking a break before I get to all of that.

To catalogue, just lay out or hang each piece of your wardrobe against some spot that has a relatively simple background (I laid my items out on our white bedding), then use the app to snap a photo. It’ll automatically remove the background on your photo so that you have a nice clean visual of your one article of clothing. The screenshots in today’s post show all of these steps.

After taking a photo, the app will move you along to a few other slides where you’ll input specifics about the item of clothing, like brand, size, and then colors. Having this info logged for each piece will help you filter pieces later on when you want to curate an outfit based on colors and style.

It was a little slow-going at first to log such specific information for each piece in my closet, but I got the hang of it, and I was able to log each item in under 30 seconds from then on. Like I said, I haven’t even finished the whole process yet, but I like that I took a break in the middle. I didn’t get burnt out that way, and since you only have to log your entire closet en masse once, it’s really not too bad. Now, whenever I get something new, I just take a minute to log it into my app, and I’m done. Very easy.

Since I still have some logging to do, I haven’t been able to make any digital outfits yet, but I know having my app all set up will make that process a breeze. I love that I’m logging colors and brands, too, because I can then use the filter function to find exactly what I need if I’m feeling like wearing a certain color any one day. And if I’m shopping for something new when away from home and my closet, I can see exactly what size I already have so I can make better investments (ex. I know what size Madewell jean I already have and love at home, so I can choose the right size for a new style when I’m in store). No more second guessing!

The other aspect I really appreciate about this app is that it has helped me edit down my wardrobe. The initial logging phase was admittedly pretty exhausting, so when I pulled an item out of my closet to photograph and I just wasn’t excited about putting in the effort to document it, I knew that I should let that piece go. The process also helped me see where I had duplicates in my wardrobe, and now that I have the digital catalogue, I can make better decisions when shopping for new seasonal clothes. I can bring up my app while in the store to remind myself if I already have a pair of sailor-cut wide leg jeans, or a black blazer and floral romper. Repeat purchasing is a thing of the past now, I think.

Like I said, this post isn’t sponsored in any way and I don’t make any affiliate income if you decide to get the app. It’s all free anyway (at least what I’ve described for you here in today’s blog post), so there’s zero incentive for either of us to try it out. I was just excited to learn about the app, and I’m really enjoying playing with it as a user now. Maybe someday I’ll be able to address our tiny closet in terms of a renovation, but for now I’m able to make the most of it with organizing and the Indyx app.

Pssst…My latest newsletter is now live and features my picks for spring home accents from Etsy! Click here to check out the full list and learn more about what’s going on behind the scenes at our house this week.