Organizing an Out of Control Storage Closet

I have this great closet, right off my boys’ toy room.   It’s just a long, narrow closet and I use it as a storage closet.  It’s kind of my “attic” or “basement” storage, as I don’t have either.

I have YET to show you the rest of my upstairs toy room, because I have yet to finish it. I plan to (hopefully) soon!! and I promise, when I do finish it, I will show you.  If you missed it you can see how I’ve organized the toys in the upstairs playroom

HERE

,

HERE

and

HERE

.

See that door off my half finished toy room? It leads to the disaster closet. The door has a lock on it, because it’s my storage closet and I don’t want the little ones digging through the bins inside.

However, my little guys are getting bigger and they keep finding the key to get inside.  BUT now that I’ve cleaned it out, I hid the key, where ONLY I can find it. So if they need something from inside, they need to talk to mama. ;)

I’ve said before that if you are building a new home and have the option to plan for plenty of storage, do so.  That’s what I did and I am SO glad that I did.  Anywhere and everywhere that I could find extra space, I would add a niche or a closet.

NOW what you probably shouldn’t do with that extra storage space is let it get the way that I’ve let mine get these past few months.

Be prepared, because what I’m about to show you is real life here in this Delightful Order house. It’s certainly has become quite un-delightful and I MUST show you because there are way too many of you who think that my home is never out-of-order and that it’s this perfect place, always clean and orderly.  For real, we do live here and it’s NOT always perfect.  Messes are made,

un-organization

is here, OFTEN… trust me!!

GASP!! … this is

really

how it looked when I opened the door.  I couldn’t walk to the back of the closet if I wanted to. BUT allow me to explain…

… most everything on the floor is garage sale stuff (the garage sale happened this past weekend and I plan on sharing that with you later.)  If you’ve ever planned and hosted a garage sale then you know how crazy busy the weeks ahead can get.

I had gone through  just about every stitch of every square inch of my home and the garage sale bins that I keep in the garage were completely filled, the little closet in the garage that I also stash garage sale stuff was overflowing, so the rest ended up in this closet…

… and that’s my reason for this dis-order. 

The other week, I spent some time taking the closet over.

First thing I did was clear the entire closet out and vacuumed it.

Next, I hung up the bags and small suitcases.

With simple hooks that I had screwed on the wall.

I put the empty suitcases and backpacks on the wire shelves.

I’ll show you more details on how I’ve organized the bins in another post.

and now, I can walk to the back of the closet…

… without a problem.

Now take a peek at the before and after’s together:

So much better!! That’s it, this closet has gotten a little Delightful Order and it feels great to have it done. :)

Tell me, do you have a closet that you feel is out of control and you need to "take it over" or have you "taken over" a closet lately?  Do share, I'd love to hear from you.

May you be a little inspired!

Until next time,

DaNita

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Storing Children's Hand Me Downs & More

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Organize a Ladies "Grab & Go" Tool Bag & a Thirty-One Giveaway