When I first knew that I was coming for a year abroad in Firenze, Italy, at least half of my days were about doing research on what was the weather like here, how Italians combined staying classy and put together while on their everyday routines, and above all, how the heck I was going to balance not only the fashion-blogging-thing with college, but also, how I would pack a whole year of my life in a 20kg suitcase (plus, two cardboard boxes which arrived at the mailbox soon after settling in. Thanks mum!).

So, when I finally arrived to my home away from home and discovered nothing but two beds and a tiny, tiny cupboard in my room plus tons of drawers in my two nightstands, I couldn't do nothing but compare it to what I left behind in Valencia, and figure out how I was going to organize all my rubbish and sort it into my now limited and kind of impersonal space. The goals were clear: keep a system which allowed me to put everything into place quickly when doing laundry, avoid clothing wrinkles as much as possible and spend as less money as possible in hangers and things I knew would stay here when I left once the course finished. Lucky me, we found tons of matching hangers all over the house and my flatmates' cupboards, and although they don't match perfectly, at least I got to figure out some coordination between my colorful IKEA hangers, the wooden ones and those white plastic ones. I decided that the best idea was to just realign them and join the matching hangers in the cupboard spaces, so I could at least hang all my coats and heavier stuff together.

The fact that I like to keep my hangers the same is due to the cohesion, sense of unity and order it gives to any closet. Here I had to sort my lighter blouses and shirts into those colorful ones which are from IKEA, and then put all the dresses and longer dresses in different kind of hangers and put them depending their length in the sides or the center of the cupboard. Tricky.

Luckily, I don't think I'll accumulate as much stuff in a year, so for now, I won't need to save the  extra space I'd have if I had my matching hangers (and, which at home is essential otherwise I couldn't keep everything together). Talking about shoes, the only thing I could manage to store them was put them as in order as possible in the bottom part. As the great majority of them don't have a box, I had to manage as best as I could to join the available shoeboxes and use them to divide the space. Same goes for bags and hats, as I don't have anything as shelves or similar.

This is the part of the cupboard where I keep all the jackets, heavy stuff like suit pants and wool skirts. This last ones are absolutely a BASIC when it comes to battling North Italy winters, which haven't arrived (at least not very much) yet, but which I've already witnessed with some really cold walks to uni. To that basic winter season list of pieces to deal with Italian weather, I should add thick, over the knee socks and thermal tights. I store them in one of my nightstands' drawers, in which I strategically put an unfoldable fabric case which makes everything easier when storing sports socks, tights, cozy socks to use at home, etcetera.

At the cupboard drawers, which are way too much more spacious, I decided to keep the bigger clothing items as pullovers, jeans and trousers, T-shirts in one of them (I was tempted to try with the Konmari folding method but then I thought than I don't have that much stuff and this way the closet looked a bit fuller than it actually is. No depressive thoughts this way...) and then the Winter accessories and bigger sweaters in the other one (gloves, knit cowls, huge sweaters...) plus some extra toiletries as toothpaste, makeup wipes and tissues which can't be stored in my little bathroom.

As for that white squared tabs, it's my way to get rid of clothes moths and unwanted visitors in my cupboards. They doesn't smell like lavender or something, but they absorb humidity and keep your clothes safe from bugs. I have at least one tab on every drawer and cupboard space. Once they're worn-out, they literally disintegrate and it's time to put on a new tab.

And I think that's pretty much of my closet and a bit of a room-tour like abroad! If you've ever lived in another country for a while, how did you organized your clothes and stuff? Do you have any tips to share when storing clothes away from home?