Addicted to Organizing: Boys Closet Part 1

Lately I have been obsessed with organizing.  Literally addicted.  I mean I've been up late nights reading... no lets keep it real... stalking quite a few blogs... but my three new favs are iheart organizing, Delightful Order, and Organizing Made Fun.  Because of these ladies... Munchkin's closet has been totally purged.  Baby/ toddler clothes and been packed and are ready for donation.. or passing down to Bear or another baby (no I'm not preggers... at least I hope not!).  Toys have gotten a home, or have gone into a donate box (lol... I was actually thinking of the movie Toy Story as I did this... hope I didn't split up any friends.... heheheeh) The playroom has gotten a new system for clean-up, which is working out quite niccely.  I also have a mini project list as long as the Mississippi River.

I'll keep you posted on how operation organize is going.  For now I'll leave you with some pics of my progress so far.  This week I worked on Munchkin's closet.  I don't want to overwhelm myself, so I am attempting to contain my new found excitement for organizing and work on one mini project a week.  I figure that should satisfy my needs, and keep me looking forward to the next project.  So back to Munchkin's closet.  It actually wasn't toooo bad.  Just too much extra crap things on the top shelves, and the clothes were all out of order.  I was actually storing some of the nicer books we have in there even though we have an office/library downstairs.  I also keep some of his toys with smaller pieces in his closet.  He isn't allowed to play with them unless I get them down, this ensures I will be able to monitor the small pieces and clean-up easier.  Not sure if you can see, but the floor is a hot mess as well.

Before 

       

I first started by staring at the closet.  Really I was standing there in front of the doors just staring, I had to figure out what I wanted it to look like, what the closet needed to be used for, and what had to absolutely go.  My next step was to empty everything out. EVERYTHING! Among the items I found: his discharge papers from the hospital when he was born, two year old Valentine's Day cards I never sent, a glass frame that I never used and a lot of other stuff that has just been building up. After everything was out,  I dusted the shelves and corners and vacuumed the floor.

Then I had to go through the hand me down clothes that have been accumulating.  We have very generous friends and family, so we get tons of clothes.  Too many to actually use.  In this post I explain how having less clothes is a great solution for laundry in our family.  I was pretty ruthless when I purged.  I only kept items/outfits I loved and knew I would use.  Next  I put all the clothes in order by size, sleeve type, and last color.  I have all of the clothes he currently wears directly in front of the door.  Clothes he still has to grow into are to the right.  Using the ROYGBIV method I color coded them.  LOL... I realized he needs more colorful clothing.  There were a few pairs of pants that he won't fit for quite a while, I placed those in one of the blue bins.  The other bin has shoes and sneakers that will possibly go to his brother.  Above the clothes he doesn't quite fit yet I placed a colorful box of puzzles and games that are still a bit advanced for him.

                                      

I watch Clean House a lot and the organizers always say you should be able to have about an inch between each hanger.  I try to follow this rule in all our closets (this doesn't mean they don't tend to get cluttered in other ways... lol)

I am very pleased with how the closet turned out.  It should be very easy to keep it this way.  Everything has a place.  As long as I continue to place things in the proper place this closet will stay this way.

AFTER

Thanks for reading... Next stop Little Bear's closet.