Spare Room Closet Clean Out

Ok, I owe you a closet clean out post… Sorry that it didn’t come at the end of last week. We were headed out to our Middle School Fall Retreat and I ran out of time to get it posted, but better late than never, right?

This one goes out to all of you organizers. If you recall, we already did one closet clean out in our bedroom some time ago…

Which, quite frankly, could use some more attention these days. It’s amazing how fast piles accumulate in our house, but how loooooooooong it takes us to make them go away. Cripes. ANYWHO, back to the issue at hand: the Spare Room closet. Here’s what it looks like all closed up and un-disaster ish:But inside, things had gotten out of control…

Left Side Bottom (BEFORE):

Left Side Top (BEFORE):

Right Side Bottom (BEFORE):

Right Side Top (BEFORE):

It wasn’t so much that the closet was bursting at the seams (ok, it could have used some paring down too) but more so that nothing had a specific place. As a result, things just kept piling up only to topple down on us whenever we tried to get something out. Especially those stupid spray paint cans- grrr! So, everything came out to give us a fresh start:We needed a system to organize things and give everything a designated “home”. Because custom-built shelving was out of the question (and not something we wanted to invest in if we didn’t know what this closet would be used for in the future), we went for something a little less permanent. The cool thing is, our solution ended up being the best organization system we have in the whole house. And all it took were a few Rubbermaid containers from Target…

Left Side Bottom (AFTER):
All of those boxes of “good dishes” got moved to our bedroom closet so that we could use the floor space of this one for things that we use on a regular basis- things that are very frustrating to take out and put away when they’re tucked far back in corners and on high shelves. Let me break down what’s happening above. As for the top container, we needed a better method of storing gift wrap supplies. Before, they just got crammed into a plastic bin way up high in our closet. Now…

Drawer One: Bows and Ribbon

Drawer Two: Gift BagsDrawer Three: Tissue Paper

Drawer Four: Boxes and Extras

As for the wrapping paper, it now has a home on the shelf above. We used an extra-long storage bin to fit them all. The boxes on top are all of the Christmas stuff and on the highest shelf, we left the paint from various walls in our house that we don’t need to have access to regularly.

Left Side Top (AFTER):Back to that white drawer system… We grabbed two smaller three-drawer units to house all of our home maintenance supplies. Having more drawers for this came in handy because it allowed us to break up the stuff into categories and give each item a designated space.Here’s how we broke it down:

Drawer One: Paint Supplies (Rollers, brushes, etc.)

Drawer Two: Sanding SuppliesDrawer Three: Spray Paint

Drawer Four: Misc. PartsDrawer Five: More Spray Paint

Drawer Six: Small Tools and Supplies (Spackle, zip ties, stud finder, etc.)And as for the rest of the closet, well it might not look all that much cleaner, but trust me- it’s organized.

Right Side Bottom (AFTER):Right Side Top (AFTER):

Maybe this is not all that exciting to the average human, but let’s just say it’s made our lives a little easier and a little less “piles everywhere”. And that, my friends, is a win.

Have a great day!

-Leslie

PS. I’m working on finishing up a montage video of this year’s family vacation (mentioned in this post), so hopefully that’ll be coming this week! Stay tuned…