Organized: Littles closet

About a week ago I finished a BIG project. It took me just a hair over a week to finish it and so far (!!) it still looks like it did in my after picture.


Living in 1700 sq. ft. with 7 other people sometimes proves to be a challenge. Ask personal friends how much I like a challenge? Buahaha - I like to take a challenge head on and I always dive in with both feet (sometimes that is dangerous).


Master bedroom is biggest bedroom in the house (duh!), but why (?). Two people stay in there. You generally have a bed, a dresser, nightstands, and.... Yes. That's about it. We have had many things in our bedroom at different times, but right now that is all that is in there. 


Challenge: We needed to maximize our storage space and that meant putting the youngest 4 children's clothes in our bedroom.


Benefits: 

1. I would be able to consistently keep an eye out for clothes strewn about, as well as wet towels. Ugh. Teachable moments.
2. I could keep hanging clothes and folded clothes together, based on our setup.
3. Meant going to one place for putting up all the littles clothes. This is a big deal, though we are working on teaching them to put their own clothes away.
4. There were boundaries with how much could be kept at any given time - and that is a good thing!
5. I could stay on top of the hand-me-down clothes with ease.

Requirements:

1. Had to be easy to maintain.
2. Had to be flexible.
3. Had to add to my bedroom, not take away from it. (haha - quite the challenge!)

So, here we go (with pics!): 

 Before

Pete moved the Expedit (from Ikea - because everyone asks) into this section of our room. Then he installed two rods, since the kids clothes are short. :) Basically the decor looks so bad because we didn't take it down before doing all this rearranging. It looks plain tacky, not to mention the horrible clutter.

 Before

Yes, more clutter. The boxes are bankers boxes. We used to have boxes from Ikea that I paid and arm and a leg for. They were plastic. Plastic + kids = no bueno. Also you'll notice that the 2nd column, 3rd shelf is broke in the back (that is why the box is leaning). We have had this for about 5 years, and that is the only broken part. Someone tried to climb up. 

So before I get to the big reveal, let me tell you....

I just can't say enough wonderful things about Organizing 101. She has a roadmap in there that will help you get through just about any project if you are a DIYer. Because I had a plan and action steps, I was able to really move forward easily on this project.

The big reveal...

 After

 After

It probably looks like the rod sags a bit. Well, that's not an optical illusion - it really is sagging. And we are working on a solution. 

Rod Dividers

One of the things I really wanted was rod dividers for the littles clothes. Enter this excellent pinterest idea while I was looking for pins to fill my Inspiring Closets board. 

 The Collage Boxes

If I had to pick one favorite thing about this space, this would be it. It met my requirement for adding to the space! They really turned out more perfect than I imagined them to be. 

 

Banker's Box Close-up

Banker's box, one pad of scrapbook paper, mod podge (glossy), chipboard letter painted, and laminated labels with kraft scrapbook paper. If I had a request for how I did this, I would consider doing a tutorial, but it is really easy. Really!

 The other boxes

You'll notice that the other boxes don't have the chipboard letter. The top row is currently Noelle's (4 boxes), Brason next row (3 boxes), Landon (3 boxes), and Aiden (3 boxes). The other 3 boxes I hope to use if we add another baby to our family (praying!). Eventually, Noelle will not have her shoes up in the top right box because we can trust that she won't drag them all around the house. When that happens, we'll have 4 boxes vertically for the baby's clothes (praying!! :) ).

 Boxes on top of Expedit

These are fabric boxes from Dollar Tree. The left one holds hair bows for Noelle.

 The other one is for ties and belts (1 tie and 2 belts missing somewhere in the house).

Third box is there because I needed to even out the look and I know I'll need it at some point.

Basket for hand-me-downs

We use the dot system for hand-me-downs. Use 1 dot for the first child to wear the outfit, 2 dots for the next child, 3 dots for the next (they are probably wearing thin by this point). Noelle doesn't have anyone wearing her clothes, so none of her stuff has dots. I put the sharpie markers in the basket, black and silver, for adding a dot, then folding the item and putting it in the basket. It's a small basket, which means that there is a boundary for distributing the hand-me-downs regularly. I found the best hand-me-down idea here.

That's it. On to the next project - toys! I'll try to post that one by next Sunday.