We all have a spot in our houses (or many, many spots) that is a total DISASTER ZONE.
I’ll be honest – I have two personalities when it comes to cleaning and organization.
#1 – The slob my parents saw while raising me. The Barbie graveyard in the basement playroom, the dirty clothes heaps, the unmade bed… Enough to give me a nightmare as a mom now. My poor, poor parents.
#2 – The daily-to-do-list-making employee, the tab-organized-binder-maker for every project, and the every-toy-has-a-home-in-a-basket mom. I got frustrated at work one day and said “Weigel’s is hiring – I’m going up there,” and one of my staff members and friends said, “it’ll be the cleanest gas station in the county.”
These two different cleanliness personas don’t seem to match – until you open a closet.
Y’all, the closet situation… It’s real. And it’s bad.
I had a meltdown over it. So then I had to clean it.
Here’s the [very embarrassing] before picture. I actually forgot to take a before picture and this is it after I pulled a few things out and into the floor space in front of the closet. So an almost-before picture.
You can tell I was already planning to do SOMETHING with my closet space – because I’d already purchased my favorite inexpensive hangers when I moved into my rental. The neurotic part of me that craves order and gets excited about color-coding desperately wanted all matching hangers, and I found these plastic hangers in white from Walmart in a pack of 18 for under $2. I bought like 4-5 packs. (If you’re looking on Walmart’s app for them, they’re the store brand, Mainstays. They also make them in children’s clothing sizes.)
As I started this project, I decided I needed a few items to really make the most of my closet space. I went to Walmart and Dollar General to pick up some supplies that were budget-friendly. At Walmart, I purchased two Mainstays 6-shelf closet organizers that hang from the existing clothes-bar. I also bought a clear and white Sterilite 3-drawer cart, a Mainstays fabric and plastic shoe hanging organizer, and two small, round battery-operated touch lights. At Dollar General, I bought a 3-cube storage shelf and two canvas bins.
All in all, the purchases cost well under $100, and the work took just a handful of dedicated hours on a day when my son was with his father.
Here’s what I did: I took EVERYTHING out of my closet and got to work. I made a few different piles: one for tossing, one for donating, and one for keeping. That helped organize clothes and random items.
I also assembled the cube shelf, then laid it on its side against the back wall. I also set the Sterilite drawer cart beside the cube shelf. Instantly, that created additional storage and made use of my floor space. I put the shoe organizer on the side wall beside my drawer cart and put all of my flats, flip flops, and sandals in there. I put the hanging closet organizers above the drawer cart to fill with boots, sneakers, and heels. I put my jewelry box and small workout items in the cube shelf and put miscellaneous storage items in the canvas totes on top of the shelf.
I also put batteries into the touch lights and installed them, with command strips, to the wall beside either part of the doorway. The idea is that it’d shine a light onto my clothes or shoes for early mornings as I got ready – especially since there isn’t an existing place for a lightbulb or fixture in my closet. This is actually my favorite part of the makeover because it’s so dang useful – and really easy to replace the batteries.
The last part was actually putting my clothes in, taking the donations off, and taking the trash out.
All in all, I think it turned out pretty decently. It definitely calmed my anxiety and lets me leave my closet open from time to time, instead of closing away the madness that is my wardrobe.
What do y’all think of my end result?
Kate with a Twang 