Organized Closets = Organized Life

A few months back I offered to help my friend organize her cabinets and closets. Her and her husband we beginning to entertain the idea of selling their house and I always feel like the more organized a home looks, the more it feels like there is alot of storage. So the first thing was to see what we were getting ourselves into.

I promise I didn't scream. I was more excited then anything. All we had to do was start grabbing things out of the closet so we could actually get the door open. And I mean it. If you're really going to organize take EVERYTHING out. Decided then what you want to keep, donate, or just throw away. Second, decide if the item should even be in that closet. Bath toys should be in the bathroom, books should be on the book shelf, etc.

I was finally able to get in alittle further to make an attempt on a better before picture. Once we sorted through every tiny thing we put what belonged back in the closet on the shelves.

Pretty crazy huh? She already had the cute little baskets so there was no money spent during this organizing project.

I did suggest a few things like extra clothes hangers and a hamper to help keep it neat and clean though. After this was done I came over a second weekend and we did the same with a kitchen cabinet.

Notice that none of these items look like kitchen tools, dishes, or food. Ok, so if you have alot of cabinets it's ok to use one for household items but just looking at this is giving me an anxiety attack. I would never be able to find anything in here. So we did the same thing we did with the closet. Take everything out and put things where they belong.

Looks to me like alot of stuff didn't belong. What a difference! So now when folks come over to look at there house to buy and open up the closets and cabinets they will feel like there is more than enough room for all of their stuff. Yay!

Now all of these pretty closets made me take a second look at my closets. They weren't too messy but I realized the shelves were less than user friendly.

If you notice the shelves are a nasty particle board and they are too shallow. Our towels are literally falling off. And see how the brackets are actually longer than the shelves. These are not right! The same thing was going on in the linen closet.

This was driving me absolutely bonkers so I made Ryan take his truck to Menards to get me some shelving (they were too long to fit in my SUV.) A few cuts here and another few cuts there and done.

What a difference! I don't even know what to put on the top shelf now that I have so much room.

I purchased some baskets at Ikea for $12 a piece to keep some of our wash cloths and all of my extra hair and makeup tools.

I just love my closets now! I don't get stressed out everytime I have to put away blankets. Plus I have more room for all of our stuff.

My super cute sewing box.

And what is this you ask? This stores all of the owners manuals for everything in our entire house. Plus, it's organized by room!

The last thing on the bottom of the closet is another one of my favorite. Ryan's Bin O'Camoe. Seriously, I have how he only wears his camoflage a few times of year and it was always taking up space in our closet. So I put it in here.

I get really excited whenever it comes to organizing. One of my favorite blogs is I Heart Organizing. You should check it out for some very clever tips. You might be inspired just like I was.