In my quest to get my house organized, I knew that I would need to start with one of my boy’s rooms. How did I know I needed to start there, you ask? My first clue was the sore foot I got from stepping on a toy car few weeks ago. The second was the constant morning wail, “I can’t find any socks!” when I know for a fact that both of them have socks in their drawers. The final straw was when I finally uncovered the strange smell coming from my son’s closet…a forgotten sandwich shoved under piles of clothes after his last attempt at cleaning.
Grant's long narrow room leaving no room to play
So what did this mama do? After praying a very frustrated prayer for patience (and throwing the sandwich away), I got to work. Knowing I would need a clean slate to start with, I took everything, and I mean everything, out of my oldest son’s closet and piled it on his bed. I don’t have a before picture, but let me tell you, it was really bad. I had willingly allowed my kids to color on and put stickers/pictures on their closet walls (I thought it would curb the urge for them to do this to their room walls). My oldest, a packrat in the making, took this a little further by taking weather striping and making roads on his closet walls (that was fun to remove…trust me). After scraping off the stickers and weather striping, I cleaned the walls with damp rag, also cleaning the baseboards, ceiling, and light fixture. Next, I grabbed a can of white flat latex paint and gave the inside of the closet 2 coats of paint. After about 2 hours of cleaning and prepping, I finally had an empty, clean closet to start organizing.
Organized closet
While I was working in Grant’s room, I had decided to get rid of his long dresser and move all his clothes to the closet. This would hopefully make his narrow room seem much larger than it is. With an empty closet and a bed full of clothes, I headed to Target and Lowe’s to explore my closet organization options. At Target I picked up a ClosetMaid 3 Drawer Organizer and Closetmaid Stackable 3 Cube Organizer for about $60.00 and also a few more children’s hangers. I wanted to add more hanging space, so I bought 2 Real Organized Adjustable Closet Rods at Lowe’s for about $8.00 each.
First, I assembled the two ClosetMaid Organizers as directed. Next, my loving husband anchored the bottom drawer to the wall. Unfortunately, this took some time, because there were no wall studs where I wanted the shelves (right in the middle of the closet). Now, I know many of you are asking, why do you need to secure the drawers into studs? Two words… my boys! I once found my youngest straddling the fireplace mantle and the TV cabinet to retrieve a toy that had been put out of reach as punishment. So trust me when I say, it’s always a smart idea to secure heavy objects, or items that might be used for climbing, to the wall studs.
Another run to the store for a box of wall anchors and 20 minutes later the bottom drawers were successfully anchored to the wall. My husband then added the top shelf organizers, once again anchoring them to the wall. The top shelf that you see was already in place, but it was difficult for my son to reach his clothes. To make clothes more accessible, and add more storage space, we screwed closet rods to the lower half of his closet on both sides. This took two people, lots of measuring, and a small level to get the rods in the exact position we wanted. The last thing I added were a few Command Medium Hooks to the inside of his closet for hanging items such as his backpack, robes, belts, etc…
I was finally ready to start putting items back in his closet and cleaning out his dresser. Here are some organizing tips that I learned along the way:
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Delete. Get rid of those clothes your child has grown out of, damaged, or they just won’t wear. Make 3 piles, one to keep, one to donate, and one for trash. I also added a fourth pile, clothes that will go to little brother. Be fierce, keep only what you think your child needs.
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Hang like items together. You can see from Grant’s closet, his shirts are on one side, and his pants are on the another. I also further organized them by season, use, and color. For example, his long-sleeved shirts (shown on top) are organized by function (school shirts, sweaters, dress shirts) and then by color. This has made it easy for him to find his favorite things. With his pants, I placed the more frequently used jeans on the bottom rod and have his dress slacks on the top.
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Fold neatly. I know it’s a pain, but well folded clothes make it easier for kids to see what they have. Here are a some great sites if you need help folding clothes:
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Keep it clean. That’s right, the solution to a clean and organized closet is to…..KEEP IT CLEAN! No more clothes on the floor, writing on the walls, smelly sandwiches, or any other closet disasters you might face. Try to encourage your kids to keep their closet clean and organized (and a little 5 minute help from mom every day doesn’t hurt either).
Grant’s closet has been like this for a few weeks now, and after a few minor mama/son misunderstandings (like your clothes DO NOT belong on the floor!), it’s still looks really good. We did add a small laundry hamper to the corner, but other than that, the closet looks the same. This project took most of the day to complete, so if you decide to do a total closet redo like I did, plan accordingly.
Grant's desk, an organizational nightmare
Next week, I plan to show how I got my little packrat’s desk more organized. Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions.
Emily
Katie
Hilary
Tory
