Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Master Plan - March Project: The Office Closet

I realize it's April...but it was intended as the March project, and I started it in March.  Either way, it's done!  This project was actually pretty simple and really just took so long since I was out of town one weekend and spent some time finding some decently cheap organizing materials to get the job done.

Here is the "before" state...


There were no major problems in the closet except the general disorder and lack of storage for things that weren't clothes on hangers.  As I was redoing the office, however, it became clear that some things needed to move into the closet.  In turn, I had to get rid of some closet clutter to make room.  After some shelving and a few plastic bins to contain things, this is what I ended up with...


The inexpensive (but sturdy) plastic shelving holds some relatively inexpensive plastic bins of various sizes (all Sterilite brand, all from Target).  My craft and sewing supplies were previously jumbled up in a bigger bin, so this gave me an opportunity to separate them out and make things easier to find.  My violin found a home as well as some of Tom's extra art supplies.  The filing cabinet moved to the other side of the closet (although I noticed you can't even see it in the "before" photo).  The shelving above has been re-purposed for holding extra linens.  (This room is intended to be a guest room, in case of guests, so it made sense to me to keep the extra bedding here as well.)  When I get to organizing the master closet, I'd like to move these extra clothes in there as well, which would give me some extra storage above the filing cabinet, but for now they're sufficiently off to the side in here.  Gotta take it one step at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed!

(As a side note, I noticed a sticker on the back of one of the lids when I was organizing things into the bins.  So, I'd like to thank Sterilite for reminding me not to put a child into a plastic storage bin!)


This project has made me appreciate (again) that my house is a renovated version of its former 1935 self...this is the smaller of my two bedroom closets, and I'm sure the original home's largest closet wasn't even this big.  However, it's good to keep that pre-war "small closet" mentality in mind...we surely don't need to pack every closet to the gills just because we have the space.

I'm glad to have another project under my belt.  This marks the 3rd project of the year, so I guess I'm 25% of the way through!  I know I still have a long way to go, but these accomplishments help to give me the confidence and motivation to keep on going!

3 comments:

  1. Looks great, as usual! I totally hear you about the old-school small closets. If that's your small one, you're lucky. Our house was built in 1928(ish) and the two bedroom closets are each a little over half that size, from what I can gather from the pictures. We do have a large, free-standing closet unit in the addition for extra, off-season clothes storage, but it's certainly a challenge. And I don't even have a lot of clothes!

    Oh, and I'm glad you didn't put any children in those little bins, as they could easily slip in without you noticing :-P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Closet looks great! - I'm enjoying reading your blog as I am interested in also doing a home declutter. got here from unclutterer site. I like that you take your time so it's not as overwhelming

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks! There is no way I could do it faster than one room a month. Even that is a challenge sometimes!

    ReplyDelete