You may have heard me mention that my parents recently moved…NINE HOURS AWAY. Oh yes. It’s been a bit of an adjustment from living less than half an hour from them, that’s for sure! But they’ve always wanted to retire to the mountains, and that’s what they were finally able to do! Exciting times!
Their new house in the North Georgia mountains is very cottage-esque – there is a space right behind the house and in between the mountain that’s behind the house that I’m DYING to get my hands on and turn into a little shady English garden…but that’s not what this post is about! (I DO get distracted by that little shady spot!)
The house is a 3-bedroom 1.5 bath, with a living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, a bonus room off the laundry room, a 2-car garage, and a bonus room off the garage! It’s “vintage”, so it’s got all those great nooks and crannies…and it’s not so great on closet space. So when we took our first trip up to see my parents at the beginning of the summer, my mom requested some organizational help with her two large closets: the hall closet and the bathroom closet.
It hadn’t been long since they moved when we got there, so these closets were still in the shape all closets are in soon after you move. “Oh, I’m not sure where to put this, so, for now, I’ll just put it in the closet.” I know y’all know what I mean, right?!
Here are the befores…
After assessing the situation, I started from the ground up…with a vision in my head of the most gorgeous finale ever. Like this:
Wouldn’t you love to have a closet that looks like this? I mean, even the dirty laundry in the basket looks pretty!
Anyways…my method with these kinds of organizational projects is simple: plan, purge, place.
Plan: How do I want this space to look? In order for it to look that way, what do I need? Where can I get what I need and when can I get it?
I really just wanted the space to look bright, fresh and clean. I also wanted things where they could be seen, so there was no confusion when searching for any needed items.
Purge: Pull everything out of whatever space is being organized. Set out box for “keep”, a box for “donate” and a box for “trash”.
When I do this I do it fast. If you stop and think about items for too long, the whole exercise loses its effectiveness.
Place: Take everything that actually needs to have a home in the space and arrange it in a clear and efficient manner.
After dusting and wiping down all the shelves, I applied a shelf liner, and, using the organizing supplies that I purchased at their local Walmart (and my label-maker, of course!) everything was placed back into the closets.
And now…ta-da!
Remember the closet in the bathroom? This is what we started with:
And look at all this wasted space in the bottom!
Once I was done…
We followed all our “P’s” and that’s what came of it!
The top of this closet was originally full of blankets, which really should have been placed in the hall closet…so I did that, and look how much room is left! You can totally put another shelf up there!
I corralled all the “little” things into these nifty drawers. Notice the space all around for extra items to be place in. It’s always great when you finish organizing something, and there’s ROOM for MORE!
My relationship with my label maker may or may not be an unhealthy one…
Even more space! And yes, I put shelf liner down on each shelf, just for a cleaner look!
And to make use of the bottom space…
Perfect! All organized with room to spare!
Now, on to the hall closet. Remember what we started with?
With the same process, here’s how it ended up:
Again, room to spare! I LOVE that! All these extra storage tubs, just waiting to be used!
Plenty of extra linens for when it gets cold in the mountains!
More clear-bin-storage so they can see things easily…
…and the perfect place for luggage and overflow laundry!
Whatcha think? My mom is thrilled with how everything worked out! Which is all I wanted, really!
If you have a space that needs a bit of organizing, just remember: PLAN, PURGE, PLACE!
Due to the amount of comments from all of my wonderful readers, it is not always possible for me to respond to each one. However, I absolutely do read them all, and if you’d like to address something specific, or have a question for me, please don’t hesitate to email me at Kristen@theroadtodomestication.com. I will respond to your email as soon as possible! Thank you for visiting the blog!
When can you be here to give my closets a new lease on life? Really, you did an amazing job. One of my summer projects was going to be reorganizing all of the closets in the house. I guess it will now be my fall project because it just never happened. I’ll be sure and use your helpful tips!
I love how they turned out! I love closets with extra space. I roved y book shelves to use a the hall closet for books. At first it looked great but now, well you know. Junky again! You mom is happy to have you help her! Sorry about that being further away but hey, you get to visit Georgia evey once in a while! And that spot outside for a garden…sounds so beautiful! I love all the vintage homes down south!
Wow what transformation! My linen closest has way too much in it, that I can hardly find what I am looking for!
Love before and after pictures. You project by far came out very good. Come over and do my closets?
Believe me, I bless the day you did this. I’ve been able to keep it pretty much the same. I guess when you organize it’s easier to keep clean. My favorite part: the laundry baskets that I can pull instead of lift!
Your closets look great! This might be the motivation I need to finally start cleaning out my closets. Maybe.
They do look great. I love seeing everything neat and organized in this way.
I like how you organized your closet. I need to do the same. I love how you have more space now.
The after looks great. I need to reorganize a lot once we move and I’ll be for sure labelling because I lose everything!
I use those plastic shoe boxes too. They fit perfectly on the shelves and even in some drawers. I love an organized bathroom space.
I have purged a lot of crap from my home, but finding the motivation to get to my closets is just beyond me lately. I think I needed to see this to spark my motivation! Great post!
Those are great ideas. My closets are horrible.
Oh the joys of moving! I’m sure your Mom loved your organizational assistance. The final look is wonderful. Now I know I need to do my closets, especially the linen closet! I’d be devastated if my parents had moved so far away. I know that is really a time of adjustment! My baby girl lives 2 hours away and I hate that.
would you pretty please come do my closets? that’s what we have been working on today. The bathroom closets and our bedroom closet and Bella’s closet. I donated 4 big garbage bags full of clothes and still going. No more mount wash more for us.
It’s amazing the things you find when you organize.
You did a very good job organizing your closets! It definitely came out with a lot of extra space. I will be cleaning out mine too!
Your closets ended up looking so nice! We have been needing to organize our closets for a while now.
Plan, Purge, Place–I have to remember that. My hall closet could use a lot of reorganizing and those bins with drawers would really help-gotta find a couple of those! My pantry could also use a bit of reorganizing–heck so could all my closets–who am I kidding! Thank you for the ideas!
Ugh I have to organize the closets. We just moved and already it’s a mess . Great tips, I’m going to attack it today
You did a great job! Your closet is so neat. Would you love to do mine? 🙂
I wish I had more closets to organize in our home. It is one of the things I hate about our house, not enough closet space.
These closets look so amazing. I need to do this to my house. I will have to get the supplies i need this weekend.
It always feels so good to have a clean and organized closet. I need to add it to my to-do list.
Wow i love how the closets came out. I’m an organization freak! I love to be organized.
You have done a great job & the closets looks just amazing. I have been so lazy to clean my closets for long & I think you have just pushed me to go for the makeover right away.
Love your 3 P’s! The closets look fantastic. I love the sound of cottage-esque … and that little shady spot. 🙂
~Lorelai
Life With Lorelai
I try, really I do… It’s just that you have magic fingers, and I don’t!
😉