Monday, June 27, 2011

Closet Storage

If I told you this mass of crazy mess lived in my house would you believe me? Well if I told you that today, I'd be lying, but if I told you last week I would unfortunately be telling the truth.



Sometimes even organized people have contained messes. It's true. Don't let us fool you too much!


The story behind this mess is simple. Due to lack of motivation and utter laziness this closet became a bottomless pit. I have seen this happen in so many people's homes. It is so easy to let the space fall by the wayside and allow junk to build up and take over. It became a problem in my house right off the bat when I moved in because no shelves were installed and nothing in particular was done to create an organized space. But that is no longer the case in my house! All I needed was a little motivation and a couple of hours.

Here's what I did to fix the problem:

I went on a mission to Target and Lowe's and found some stackable containers and a few shelves and I came back not having spent a whole lot of money, then got to work.

Small items now are housed in stackable containers and clearly labeled. Thank goodness for this shelf! You can also maybe see that I have photo albums and old yearbooks lined up here too. My loose photos are contained in either gift boxes or photo boxes.



I found these shelves at Lowe's - Target has a similar version. They are extremely inexpensive (yes, they look inexpensive too, but they do the job!) and easy to put together. They were just what I was looking for. I used the shelves to neatly store games, candles, magazines, old 3-ring binders and college paperwork that I am just not ready to part with, and wrapping paper/accessories. Hint: I use stackable bins to store ribbon and miscellaneous accessories and I use a gift bag to store other gift bags in. Wrapping paper is happily standing next to the shelf waiting for next Christmas.


These drawers I have had since I was in college, and boy did they come in handy in my dorm room! The top drawer is mostly an organized junk drawer - there is everything from a 3-hole punch to my camera to a box of checks. But! It's organized. In the bottom drawers I keep wires and electronic stuff. The wires are all coiled up individually and secured with a zip tie. If you don't have any zip ties, rubber bands or the twist ties that come on a loaf of bread work just as well!


We still haven't decided on any bookshelves that we can both agree on. So all of those books that were causing the problem in the first place are still here. But now they are neatly stacked in the corner instead of piled on top of each other.


I have high hopes that this new system of organization for the closet will work for me because everything is easily accessible, it's well-displayed and I am able to see everything inside the space to know what's there. No more laziness here! All I needed was a little time and a lot of motivation and the rest is history.

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