Organizing My Closet!

The first step to really being able to organize the closet was bringing home this beautiful chest for some extra storage! It was Shaun's great grandparents wood chest and is quite lovely! Shaun was away on business for 3 days so before he left I asked him to help me move it into our room so I would have a project to work on while he was away. Drew and Isaiah had a lot of fun climbing all over it before I filled it up! 

K, so Tip Number One is this: If you are lacking in closet space but you have room at the foot of your bed (or elsewhere in your room) for a chest (or standup armoire against another wall), consider that for extra storage. You can sometimes find them at thrift stores, yard sales, etc for decent prices and could always paint them a fun color to spruce them up if they're not in great condition. 

Tip Number Two: Don't be afraid to invest a little money into some tools to help you get the organizational job done. These bins from target have helped a TON. (The fact that they're pretty just inspires me to use them even more!) I used three of them inside the chest to keep things separated. One for sweaters, one for sweatshirts, one for bags/purses. 

(fun fact, looks like Drews whale was hiding in the chest just above the bin when I took this photo... hehe)

While we're on the subject of bins, they can also be helpful in the actual closet. I used to keep my bin of sweatshirts and bags on the top shelf in my closet. However, it annoyed me that I had to pull it out and down to see into it (They were heavy!) and things didn't stay folded when I threw them up into it. LIGHT BULB idea!!! Put the bins on the floor of the closet instead! Very easy to slide in and out and find what I'm looking for now! 

The bins on the floor of my closet hold my tank tops (used to just be in a pile on the top shelf and always falling down on me- UGH!) and my flats. The flats are in vertically so I can easily pull a pair out and they take up much less space that way. 

Now the top shelf in my closet is dedicated to my jeans and the boots that I wear most often. (you can't really see the boots in this pic ) Pants are organized in piles of skinny, flare, and dressy. The boots fit great just lined up by pair. I'd like to get a small metal shoe rack for the bottom of my closet for the rest of my shoes. (going vertical in the bottom of the closet uses space more efficiently) While I was organizing my jeans and pants I realized that I still had a lot of pairs in there that are too big for me right now. So I took them out and put them into storage. 

Tip Number Three:

(well first, anything that you don't wear or doesn't fit you should be taken out of your closet and either stored if you could use it later or donated if you won't) But ALSO, the place that I store my clothes is in plastic bins with wheels on the bottom specifically designed to slide underneath a bed. I mostly keep my maternity clothes and and anything that is too big or too small but that I love and might need again someday in my pregnancy journeys in those... 

But, you could also use them to switch clothes out by season. Keep your shorts and tanks in them during the winter and then put your sweaters in them during the summer. 

SO! There you have it, a few of my tips on organizing your closet! 

Our closet is just a standard size, and I share half of it with Shaun. While I'd love to have a walk in, it's been a fun challenge to figure out how to use the space we have to its fullest advantage. 

And I LOVE that getting clothes out of my closet doesn't annoy me anymore!

(Bonus Tip: Having an organized closet will help to make you a better dresser because you know what you have and where it is!)