Monday, April 6, 2009

Closet Clean up

I've been meaning to organize our coat closet for a while now. No better time than the change of season. You get to remove the items that you will no longer use (like boots for shoveling snow) and you also get to see the items that you will have to replace before the season is in full swing. I never realized how many shoes we owned until I took them all out of the closet. I separated K`s from mine, flip flops, dress shoes and runners. Then I took a look at the closet to see where they should really go based on how often we use them.




(cute little fur ball decided to help me sort the shoes)


My new favorite shop is Zellers. Okay maybe second favorite shop. You can`t top HomeSense, come on now who was I kidding. While I was at Zellers, searching for storage solutions I grabbed this cute little basket to go on top of the shelf.

I love the look of natural baskets, but sometimes their texture can scratch the finish of where you put them. I know this is a coat closet, so scratching the shelf wasn't an issue but the texture is what drew me to the basket, the colour is what made me buy it. This shade of blue can be found in almost every room in our house. So when I saw this basket I thought it would be a great storage bin for the odds and ends in the closet that always end up on the floor and it would even inject the blue into this tiny space in our home. In my basket I have a lint roller, shoe cleaner some purse cleaner, Milo's harness and leash, etc. So many items that really don't belong together all contained in one pretty little basket.


Here's another one of my great finds at Zellers. These hangers are meant to hang multiple pairs of pants. I took one look at them and knew that they could be re purposed to hang pashminas. My pashminas always end up on the floor because they fall off the hanger On these neat hangers I can see all of them at once and they take up very little space.




A bit more work was needed on these Ikea shoe racks. They were down in the basement and fell victim to a falling wooden table and broke. Only a few of the pieces were actually broken, so I thought maybe I could keep them and use them somewhere else. I realized that if I cut them off the broken slats the rack would fit on the top shelf. Normally there aren't shoes on the top shelf, but lately I noticed that our dress shoes were being ruined by the loads of running shoes and boots that were landing on top of them. The shoe racks were also a little wobbly, so I grabbed my nail gun, and after I sawed the broken pieces off, I nailed the legs to the shelves. Now our dress shoes are safe and we can see exactly where they are.
Don`t be silly, all those shoes did not find their way back into the closet. Some were donated and others were moved down into the basement for storage. I am trying to do one little project every month. Not only is it a good way to regulate how much money we spend on home decor, it also makes us focus and finish one thing at a time. Now if I could only get my dad to come back and finish all the odds and ends he has left unfinished here :)

4 comments:

Jen @ RamblingRenovators said...

Great idea about the hanger for the pashminas... I just might have to steal that ;)

In all your organization travels, have you come across any wooden hangers for child-sized clothing? I'm on the lookout and only found a few at HomeSense (my favourite store too!) but haven't seen more lately.

SAB said...

Awesome re-org. Nothing is better than a clean closet. It looks awesome.

Liz Harrell said...

Looking good! I wont even begin to show anyone my closet.. it's a tiny little disaster!

Have a great Easter weekend!
Hugs,
Liz

suzanne cabrera said...

Wowzer...that is a lot of shoes.

You've inspired me to work on my closet..right about...now!