Saturday, June 26, 2010

Success At Last!

We have lived in this house for over three years now. When you "rent" instead of own you treat things differently. I absolutely detest home improvement and organizing "tips" that talk about things that someone that rents could never possibly do. Bully for you that you added lights in your kitchen or ripped out a closet! We are not allowed to make any structural changes to our house, because trust me, I would love to! But, the one good thing is that it does teach you to work with what you have. Other "tips" such as buying coordinating baskets or hanging racks don't necessarily work for me either. I don't really have $100 extra laying around to invest and sorry, I don't have any fabulous neighborhood flea markets to shop, either! However, I realized that being frustrated with what must work for the public at large (or at least sell magazines) doesn't solve my problems so I have to find my own solutions. I copy some of my best organizing tips from my sister (she also rents so she understands my frustrations).

Anyway, one of my biggest problems has been my upstairs hall closet. It didn't matter how I rearranged it, it never stayed clean for more than 2-3 days. I added little 3 drawer chests for storage. That helped a little. I bought a wire shelf to add vertical storage. Also helped a little, but not enough. Part of my problem is that the closet has a ton of space-but it is barely accessible because it is up behind the top of the doorframe. That makes it difficult to reach because you not only have to be tall but you need long arms! Also, the top shelf is only half the width of the lower shelves so it limits what can be on there.

I have rearranged that closet dozens of times. Finally I decided to really think about what I had-also, I implemented my new "throw everything out policy". I had managed to control the bottom shelves with my linens, books and stationary a few months back. The main problem was hairthings, toiletries and medicines. Here is what I finally came up with:


This is the top shelf. It has my bathroom cleaners and extra shampoo, soap, etc.


This is the next shelf. The two chests on the left have medications and the one on the right has Josie's and my hairthings. Don't you love my fancy labels? Good 'ol masking tape. That's how we roll in the ghetto!:)


These shelves are towels and stationary.The boxes on the far right have my greeting cards in them. I love those boxes! They organize the cards by category and I know when I need to get more. I rarely have to buy a card for a special occasion.


These are the bottom two shelves. Mostly books and photo frames on the top one. The floor has all my linens and my travel cosmetic cases. Like my Longaberger? Maybe someday my whole closet will be organized with them...


The finished product!

May not seem like a big deal to you, but it was definitely blog worthy to me. I am proud to report that almost a week later the whole closet still looks like the photo!

6 comments:

  1. Yeah for organizing! I love throwing stuff away:P My linen closet looks similar, I have used those 3 drawer things for forever! The masking tape look fab, but if you ever decide to spring for the label maker they really aren't that spendy;)

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  2. Yay! I *totally* understand at least as far as the sense of accomplishment after getting something like that conquered. I, too, have had trouble with areas like that in our home. We have a hall closet that has to act as a pantry, linen & cleaning closet lol Yours looks awesome & I agree w/ Robyn the label makers *aren't* very expensive at all, esp if you have a coupon for Michael's or similar :)

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  3. Clare - your organizational skills are exceptional. Unfortunately for me (and your mom) we have far too many medicines, linens and toiletries to tidily fit into one cabinet. We need an entire medicine cabinet. I LOVE the tip about throwing things out though. I need to apply that in my daily life :) And don't spend money on a label maker. Tell your mom or sister you want one as a gift :)

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  4. BTW girlie, I need your email address...Somehow someway :o)

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  5. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to clean out and organize things. LOVE it!! So I am loving this blog post immensely!! I am also noticing we use a lot of the same things..... hahaha. =)

    ~ Jen

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  6. The closet looks MARVELOUS!!!

    You did an amazing job, but the best part is that it works for YOU - I think that is the key to anything that is "organized."

    Wanna come help me in my new classroom? J/K!!!

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