The great closet clean-out

Like I said in my post on organizing my recipes, this summer is the summer of organization! When I got dressed the other morning and had to step over a pile of shoes and clothes to grab my shirt I knew it was time to organize and de-clutter.

I’m ashamed to show this picture, but it’s best for you to see what it started out as and how it ended up.

The scary closet before…

The pile of clothes that didn’t make it into the closet to be hung up…

I was originally going to use those blue bins from HomeGoods but I ended up taking them back.

The faithful dog and husband who stayed in the room to keep me company…

The piles of shoes and boxes that I dug out of the closet, sorted through and eventually got rid of…

Shameful, isn’t it? I know my mom is hanging her head right now (sorry mom!) I’m actually really good about cleaning out and getting rid of clothes that don’t fit any more or have lost their shape, so imagine my surprise when I had three huge bags of stuff to donate to Goodwill! I’m sad that I didn’t manage to get a picture of it, but trust me, there were three packed bags of stuff in just waiting to go home with someone else.

Three days, three trips to three different Target stores, a trip to Walmart and two trips to HomeGoods and now I have a closet that momma can be proud of!

Goodbye boxes and bags on the top shelf. Hello bins!

I bought these bins from Target after seeing similar ones in Caitlin’s post. At first I wasn’t sure that I liked them, but they seem like they’ll hold up and I loved that they had little spots to put labels in them (long ways and wide ways!). I found a font that I liked on my computer, wrote what was in each bin, printed them out and viola! now I know what is in each bin without having to pull them down to look inside them. Plus I can ask hubby to get things for me too.

Three medium bins – $7.99 each

One large bin (next to my Mary Kay bag) – $9.99

Goodbye cluttered hangy thing. Hello neatly folded clothes! (even though it looks like one stack is a little off there…)

Goodbye shoes all over the floor. Hello floor!

I bought the plastic bins from Target on sale for $16.00 (thank you dorm sales!) and was able to store my Mary Kay stuff in there. It had been living in Carl’s closet so I was really happy to get rid of the big boxes and free up some of his closet space in the process.

I bought the shoe rack from Target for $29.99 and it can hold 30-35 shoes, depending on how you arrange them.

It’s really tall and I wasn’t sure if it would work out but it does – until I get more clothes and have to figure out where to put it 🙂 I love having all of my shoes out in the open and hope that it will get me to wear my heels a little more often, although I’m not counting on it!

We also bought some bed stands to raise our bed so we could use two under the bed storage bins to keep our seasonal clothes (ie. big bulky sweaters), traveling items (the stuff that you put your shampoo/conditioner/etc. in) and a duvet storage bag for our winter duvet. This summer I decided to get a lighter blanket/quilt so we wouldn’t sweat to death with our normal duvet. I think our electric bill has gone down since we aren’t sleeping with the temp set at 74 degrees.

So there you have it! The great closet clean out is over and yes, it is possible for a messy closet person to have a beautifully organized closet too!

Coming soon: the guest room/office make-over!

Do you have an organized closet? What are your secrets for keeping things in their place?