Closet Organization - Master

Can we talk about organization a little bit?  I can't be the only one who enjoys looking at other people's closets.  You know, to see how they organize. ;)

Well, I am a bit of a organizing freak.  At least I was before I had my 2nd child.  Now I can hardly find the time or energy.  Fortunately I pretty much had my system set up before her arrival.  Now I just need to put everything in it's place.  I try to arrange my (and my husband's) clothes by type, season and color.  It's not a perfect rainbow but I try!

I will admit that my master closet is a bit on the large size. ;) This helps to keep it organized, but I also added boxes and baskets to find a home for everything.  I also need to get out of the way that yes, my baby's pack-n-play is STILL in my closet.  Yes, she still sleeps in there, but I am happy to say that it is only for naps and the early morning hours.  The rest of the time she sleeps in her big-girl-crib.  Progress.

Now back to the closet.  I also want to say that it is a bit messy.  I literally just went in there this afternoon and snapped a few photos.  I could have straightened it up a bit but who has the time?  I was borrowing baby-nap-time to take these photos as it is!

Here's what I've done:

Except for the permanent wood shelves pretty much all of my organizing is thanks to IKEA products.  The baskets, boxes, shoe holders and even the hangers are IKEA.  The large boxes on the very top shelf hold off-season clothes.  The next shelf holds seldom used items like hats and hose (this is AZ, nylons are rarely used).

I highly recommend getting all matching hangers.  This is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to have a cohesive look in your closet.  And NO WIRE HANGERS.  Those things are horrible (looking), bad for your clothes (makes them misshapen) and can encourage overcrowding.  I prefer wooden hangers myself, but even all one color plastic are better than mismatched or wire.

The smallest boxes on top are more seldom used items (one is a sewing stuff box) and all have labels on them to remind me what's inside.  The next two shelves hold things like scarves/hats and not often worn t-shirts.  On the open shelves I fold (not very well sometimes as you can see) tank tops, t-shirts, pj pants, and sweatshirts.  As the seasons change I will move around what is on each shelf and trade some of them for items in the big off-season boxes.

In the middle I hang dresses and above them store purses.  I am not a huge purse kind of a gal so I don't have too many to store.  The seldom used bags (evening bags) are in one of the white boxes.

Below my dresses I keep shoe racks.  These are IKEA also and I've had them for some time.  They are a fabric/wood combo and I love them!  I have two fabric drawers, one for white socks and the other for colors.  My girls love hiding in the space between the shoe racks. ;)  You can also see that I use the area on top of the racks for extra storage.  I'd like to take the time to organize those better and use the boxes above, but I haven't gotten around to it recently so they're stacked instead.  Mostly hidden though, so not too bad.

I use baskets to hold my unmentionables and swimsuits.  It's hard to tell but below those I have two dark brown (leather) larger open boxes.  One box holds gym clothes for easy access.  The other hold pj tops and short bottoms.  In the shelf above those boxes I have shorts (sort-of) folded.  I will trade those out (hopefully) soon for winter pants.  The white box holds bags and I have larger bags (carry-on type) on the shelf next to it.  Suitcases are also in the closet btw, they are hiding under my husbands hanging pants.

Yes, my husband has clothes in the closet too.  He has the other half, and although it is smaller than mine he still doesn't fill it all up.  So I am using some of his space too. ;)  Note the stool behind my daughter.  Having somewhere to sit while getting dressed (or feeding your baby in the middle of the night) is helpful.  That open space above it would be great to hang a mirror but we haven't gotten around to that yet.

The boxes on the top shelf of this side hold my daughter's outgrown clothes (saving for baby).  They have labels with the sizes inside.

We had extra space behind the door since my husband didn't need the hanging space.  We put a dresser there instead.  This way we don't have to use any of the bedroom space for clothing furniture.  Those white boxes hold more of my things of course, but hey it looks more balanced this way. :)

So there you go, you saw my closet.  What do you think?  I've got more closets and organizing to show you another day if there is any interest.