A Closet Makeover (or two, or three)

Not even joking, the nesting got INSANE this weekend.  I was like a mad woman wanting to clear anything and everything of clutter.  I used to think that woman claiming "nesting" was a pregnancy symptom were crazy.  I now join that group of crazies.

On Friday I ran across some blog that mentioned cleaning out your closets.  It looked so pretty.  So fresh.  SO unlike our closets.  And I knew something had to be done.

Immediately.

Since Evan was off this weekend, I was the kind wife I am and immediately told him "we're redoing closets this weekend."  You know, since he has SO much relax time otherwise (worst wife of the year award was already priority delivered to me, don't worry).

Off to Target we went.  We bought baskets and shoe dividers and spent you know, the typical Target amount (= entirely too much). 

And on Saturday while baby girl was napping, we started.  This is what my closet looked like to begin with.  Shield your eyes.

YOWZA.  It was a mess.  A mess of summer transitioning back in to the wardrobe, winter still rendering it's big coats face, and maternity clothes interspersed throughout.   So here was the plan of attack:

(1) DECLUTTER: take EVERYTHING (and I  mean EVERYTHING) out of your dresser and closet.  Start transitioning what you need, what you don't need, what you wear, what you don't wear, etc. 

(2) COME UP WITH A PLAN: once it was empty, I could finally see what I was working with.  Aside from a horrible paint job by the previous owners, the hubby in his brilliant ways realized that the closet wasn't working the way it was because I didn't have enough space to hang my dresses (what can I say, I apparently really like dresses).  So off he was to cut the bottom pole and shelf in half.  He was thrilled to have his picture taken and to be doing this with me until midnight on a Friday night (CRAZY life right?)

(2) MAKE THREE PILES: have one pile for "to keep in closet," one "to keep somewhere else since it's out of season" and "goodwill donation pile."  Be prepared for your room to look worse than ever for the next few hours.  It will get daunting.  Have Pandora on in the background.

(3) START REORGANIZING AND REEVALUATE:  I started putting up what I had envisioned just to make sure my plan was working well.  Turns out, we realized we could take a book shelf that was sitting in our garage and it would fit perfectly in the closet!  This just added a TON of space for me to put more clothes.  SCORE.

 Yes I need to paint that bookshelf and the entire closet for that matter.  But that wasn't a project I was willing to tackle this weeked.  I still had more closets to go and hours to go on mine!  Now, it was all up to putting things away in an organized, functional manner. 

And let me tell you, I saw RESULTS!

(4) ORGANIZE: pants, particularly jeans, go brilliantly folded (unless you're one of those that iron their jeans, ya weirdo).  Purses go wonderfully in baskets, and the shoes you wear most often can go right in front of your face.  Organize dresses by fancy (to the left) and summer (right next to shoes).  Color coordinate.  It makes the OCD indiviudal happy.  As for the bookcase?  It has my workout clothes, my seasonal clothes (scarves, swimsuits), and some more shoes. 

Here's my new closet! 

Five hours later, I was a VERY happy lady.  VERY VERY happy.  I even joked about falling asleep with the closet door open so that I could look at it all night long.  Here's a comparison shot for you:

This inspired me to keep going ... so on Sunday, Evan did his closet while I redid Liliana's! 

For kiddos, my biggest suggestion is having a "too small" and "too big" drawer.  It's impossible to keep up with their growing bodies so this is a good way to contain it all before collecting everything in to boxes.  Liliana has a HUGE amount of built-ins in her bedroom so her closet isn't packed and only took about 2 hours to handle it all.  It was still an embarassing mess beforehand though.

Before for Liliana:

After for Liliana:

We were stupid enough not to take a "before" picture for Evan, but you're just going to have to take my word for it when I saw this is a HUGE improvement.

Needless to say, I am closeted out!  Well, until I handle Gloria's, the guest room, and the hallway closet.  But that's for another weekend!  : )

Linking to Serenity Now. 

Linking to Tatertots and Jello.