I love hearing from my blog followers about their organizing dilemmas and, of course, their organizing achievements too. Knowing the benefits of organization first hand, I get truly excited for others as they embark on projects which have the potential to make their day-to-day lives more efficient and less stressful, and their spaces more functional.
When Amy shared on Facebook that she was going to tackle her step daughter’s closet, I was eager to see the progress and the finished results. This is what Amy wrote about her project: “My step daughter’s closet was always messy, always cluttered and never nice to look at.
One of the biggest issues was that she could not reach the top half of her clothes storage area. When she was asked to put stuff away, she would throw it on the floor because she couldn’t reach. So first things first, we got a new full length shelf to replace the smaller shelf that was already in the closet. It lowered the hanging rod to a height that she could now reach. It also provided more shelf storage for the games she has. I was able to fit all of her games on the new shelf, freeing up the remaining two short shelves for other items, such as small toys and some containers with winter gloves and hats.
I sorted through what was up on the top shelf and pulled down all the blankets and items she no longer needed. The blankets were moved to the laundry room shelves so she could keep her larger, less frequently used toys up top and out of the way.
Her shoe storage was not ideal. Some of the shoes were years old and no longer fit. So I went through them and removed the ones that were too small. Then, I took the two pink crates from her book shelf and put outdoor toys in one and purses/bags in the other. In the tote on the floor are all of her dress-up clothes. She can easily pull it out for play and then put it back. The remaining shoes fit nicely in between the crates. We are still looking for something that will fit there to organize them even better.
My step daughter was happy with her new closet and is much better at putting clothes away now.”
Amy, you have done a great job! Thank you for sharing the before and after.
Often, it is simple changes that make a big difference. Amy effectively sorted through the contents of the closet, purged, and assigned new homes to some of the items. Replacing a short shelf with a longer one helped resolve a technical issue and allowed her daughter to go from not being able to do something on her own to developing the independence to hang her own clothes.
Are you making progress on a project? Would love to hear from you about your organizing successes and challenges.
