Using the Space

If we ever get to move, closet space will be near the top of the list for things I will be looking for!  We have so few storage closets and it makes things a little difficult as we keep adding people (and therefore stuff!) to the house.  With another little one on the way and the addition of a bunch of new stuff for Christmas/birthdays, I decided it was time for another purging and organizing session!

The kids will all be sharing a room for a while until we can get another bedroom build in the basement, which means one closet for four kids!  Yikes!  I had already done a lot of sorting of the kids clothes and this is what the closet looked like before:

The bottom organizer was used to hold toys and a whole bunch of miscellaneous things were on either side.  The top shelf held sheets, blankets, and more miscellaneous things that couldn't seem to find a home.

I came across this idea on Pinterest and instantly knew it was perfect for us!  The closet is divided into four sections...each child could have a section to hang up their clothes and in the center were two six-cube organizers (12 cubes altogether) which meant that each child could have three bins. Perfect!  The goal was to have everything out of the dresser in the bedroom so that all the clothes were in the closet.  The bedroom is small and most of the kids toys are in there (a few in the living room).

We already had one six-cube organizer and with gift cards and waiting for a sale I was able to get another one without paying anything!  Score!  All we had to buy was one shelf, one long dowel rod (to be cut into four shorter sections to hang clothes on), hardware, and bins for the shelves.  Since the canvas bins were almost $6 each, I decided to check out the dollar store where I found these plastic bins for only $1 each!  They don't look as nice but I think they will hold up well to the kids pulling them in and on all the time.

The finished result:

Things I love:

• It is super easy to put the kids clothes away (and they are able to help me!).  We fold pants in half to go in the bins and t-shirts in half as well.  They each have a little blue bin for socks/underwear on the lower shelf.  
• The kids can all reach their bins and get themselves dressed easily (they did this before but often messed up everything in their drawers since the dresser was packed so full).
• Two of the kids can reach their hanging up clothes - before none of them could.
• There is room for some of the bigger toys and trucks at the bottom of the closet and it makes the bedroom look less cluttered.
• We are still using the dresser (for toys right now) and hope to get another bookshelf to organize the toys, but for now at least it stays clean and there is somewhere to put everything!

It has been fun finding ways to make our little house work for us and has been a good experience to get rid of clothes and toys, keeping only what we need.  I'm a big believer in "less is more" and I would rather have a few things we really like and use/play with than a house full of stuff we don't care about!

Now to fill up that last section with clothes for Olivia....eeeeeekkkkk!!!!