Our bedroom closets have sat like this for 3 months
Just patiently waiting to be organized. Why have they been waiting so long? Well, there’s a giant gap between the top of each cabinet and the ceiling, and I wanted to give the units a more built in look by adding some molding. We had to figure out which molding to use (very, very simple – we looked at what they used in the kitchen where the cabinets are original and will match that closely), so we would know how high to build them up off of the ground. And well, we’ve got a bunch of other stuff going on, so this wasn’t a priority. But I finally silently got frustrated enough that when we had our work party two weekends ago Chris showed me how to use our new Kreg Pocket Hole Machine (it’s awesome)
Chris hadn’t used it before either and bought it for a couple jobs for work we have lined up to make life easier (it’s amazing what having the right tool does…) It took about 3 minutes to figure it out, and after that I used it to drill out pocket holes into 2×4’s to build an extremely simple 2×4 frame that we would have the Ikea Pax units sit on top of to make them high enough for our molding. It took me about 30 minutes to get 2 of these constructed
Then we brought them into the bedroom and while Chris lifted the cabinets, I slid them underneath
NOT quite ready yet for organizing… At the end of last week Chris got those babies attached to the wall, and THEN it was time to organize! But of course my mind was on other projects. Like our succulent garden. Because that always makes sense
I wish I had finished it this past weekend, but we still need to add the rocks (it was a pretty busy Saturday and Sunday so despite waking up at 6am and working on it before I went to work at the A’s for the day at 10, we didn’t quite get it all done). But back to those cabinets! Yesterday afternoon after I got home from work it was time to organize the shit out of those suckers! There were still a couple things we needed to build, but mostly it was all about assembly. And naturally the children assisted
Things were looking pretty good
It took about 3 hours to get it all finally assembled. I had the plan printed out, but there was fine tuning and shifting things around. It definitely took longer than when we do it for clients, but I REALLY wanted to make sure things were exactly laid out as I wanted. So after that 3 hours I had a beautiful blank slate to get things organized!
Over the next 90 or so minutes I brought all the clothes out from the various places they are stored: the existing closet, the cabinet in the bathroom and my dresser in the big room and put things away very particularly. I really wanted things to be perfect and laid out in a way that made sense and how I would use them. I LOVE organizing like this and it was even more exciting than normal to work on it because I hate our existing closet so much and I have to go to several different rooms to pick my clothes out. After 90 minutes…. ta da!
There is still so much room!!! I was worried not everything would quite fit. But we have plenty of room and even some extra space. Ahhhhhhh, it was so nice to fall asleep looking at that 🙂
The left cabinet is my clothes
Along the top I have my very infrequently worn shoes (dress shoes, tennis shoes I don’t wear much and some of Chris’s infrequently worn shoes). The long hanging rod is my every day clothes organized into 2 sections: on the right are all of my tank tops. I have a long torso and a lot of times in regular shirts a little strip of my belly will show if I reach my arms up at all. I’m pretty modest about my body, so I always wear a tank top underneath so that doesn’t happen as much. Then on the left are all of my shirts in color and then sleeve length order, because, DUH 🙂 The shelf right below are my most frequently worn Converse – I wear Converse alllll the time. I’m basically a walking Converse or Nike ad, they’re basically the only shoes I wear (I’ve got really long and skinny feet) In all the drawers are my underwear, socks, sports bras, belts, pajamas, swimsuits…. all that fun stuff. All that used to be in my dresser in the big room, so it’s awesome to have it all in here now. The right full length is obviously dresses and then the shelves right below that are more shoes that I wear pretty frequently. The shelves are 2 shoes deep, so I can fit 8 pairs of shoes in these two shelves
On the right are Chris’s clothes and more of my clothes
On the left are his dress clothes (which he might wear something of about 3 times a year. In the 11 years we’ve been together I’ve seen him wear a tie 3 times). The shelf below are his sweatshirts and the drawers below are my workout clothes. On the right top shelf are extra work shirts of ours, the closet rod are his frequently worn non-work shirts and the shelves below are my pants). The very bottom shelf are my work clothes. Our bed has drawers in it and that’s where Chris’s socks, boxers, work pants/shirts are (he wears those every day). Ahhh, it’s so beautiful
We still have to get doors for it, but I’ll still sigh sweet sighs of beauty while staring at this. And so happy that I don’t have to stare at this anymore
The dungeon closet is no more! And my shoes will hopefully stay more organized because Zoe can’t easily get to them and wear them all over the house 🙂
Hooray for organization!!! 🙂