Hall Closet re-do

I got the itch to reorganize something, and it ended up being the hall closet, which sits outside of the 3 bedrooms at the end of the hallway. Other than the kitchen pantry and doors that lead outside the house, it is probably the most opened door in the house.

Because - (1) it's small and should be easy to do in a short time frame, (2) because of reason (1) it shouldn't cost a lot of money, (3) it wasn't functioning in the manner in which I knew it could, (4) it could be soooo much prettier, and (5) I am seriously obsessed with wanting to redo everything because of my favorite blog {iheartorganizing}.

So I did it ...

I started by taking measurements - length and width of each shelf, height between shelves, perimeter measurements of the closet itself, floor to ceiling measurements - and then inventory of what I stored in the closet. Dental. Haircare. Medicines. Air freshener refills. Hand sanitizer. Soaps. TP. Sheets. Holiday hand towels. Vacuum cleaner. Humidifier. Sleeping bag/blankets.  To make it easier, I wrote the list on the lined side and drew the floor plan with measurements on the blank reverse side. Hence, one sheet of paper to carry on my handy dandy mini clipboard!

     

Then off I went, after deciding a trip to Target should be inexpensive and give me plenty of options. I found a couple of different options from the get go in the dollar bin area. Some wicker-like baskets, but I found 3 in royal blue and 1 in lime green (which I love lime green) and the metal see through bins in lime green and fuschia (my FAVE color combo). Then when I actually got to the bin and storage area, I found the collapsible full size and (way cool) mini bins in a multitude of colors; seriously pretty much something for everyone! Below is a photo of my go backs, because I'd rather have purchased too many and enough options, than not enough. This would have been upsetting and meant that the project would go unfinished for {at least} one night. Not what I wanted to do. Again.

I've had plastic shoe bins before, so I knew I didn't want to go there again. Yes, I could stack them higher and they'd all fit, but there were just too many of them (like 9 to a shelf) and I'd put only one type of thing in each. I didn't like it, although I could see what was inside - which helps with the function; it just wasn't pretty enough.

So ... I got home and took my before pics to document my journey (because this is what all good bloggers and documenters do, right?!).

    

And I went through my list of items to see what I could group together and determined which item(s) went into which basket/container. It was really, really fun to do! Especially to know that I was doing something wonderful. For me. So here, without further ado, I present some of the after shots to proudly display my organizing project. =)

A close up helps show what all these fantastic mini bins hold. I am {loving} them for their smaller size, and lucked out in the fact that they fit so perfectly on the shelving.

I decided that these media containers I had on hand from IKEA would be perfect (perfect measurement for the holiday hand towels) to hold holiday items. Since I had two, and know that I will ultimately purchase additional holiday items, I decided that one container per six months would be perfect. I haven't labeled them yet, but I will. Eventually. And when it is time to transition to the next container, I will rotate them on the shelf. Good idea, huh?!

And this fantastic bin that was on clearance holds the sleeping bag and extra blankets perfectly! It's like it was {made for this} ... love that! And it was only $5.19!!

I even purged some of the bedding. I have a policy that I only keep two sets of sheets per person, three in total for the bunkbeds. This allows that we can have one set on the bed and another that can be laundered. This helps prevent the shelves from being overcrowded and keeping items that we really don't use or need.

Now I do have one minor thing to do before I am absolutely, positively, 100% done with the closet. I didn't come up with a viable option for sorting and storing of the bedding that we are keeping. In the past I started putting the sheet sets inside the pillow cases so everything would be together and you could just grab and go, but then I stopped and just did regular. Sorting in stacks by sizes and a stack of pillowcases. I have to figure out what I'm going to do with those, and then it'll be all done. One idea that I saw on pinterest used shelf brackets as dividers ... this is something I am toying with. I'm also considering buying some more pretty bins from IKEA or The Container Store to put them in. I just don't know yet, but one of these days I'll see something and manage to get that done and can officially cross this project off my to-do list. But for now, I am extremely happy and proud of what I have done.

{Baddah Bap Bap Bahhhhh} I'm loving it!!