Poor Excuse of a Closet Blogger

I mean that in the most literal of ways. Yesterday, I mentioned that one of the first things I needed to do to get a start on fixing up our bedroom was to move the big ugly storage unit into the closet. This meant first cleaning out the closet (mostly) and rearranging some things in there.

Being the poor excuse of a closet blogger that I am, I didn't take "before" pictures, but I have the following picture which might tell you something. On top of this built-in stands a jewelry box that my mom made for me a few years back. It's beautiful and I love it, but it can really only hold my smaller necklaces and some miscellaneous things that I've filled the drawers with. Because of this, the area around it has become a catch-all for chunky bracelets, random earrings that I never put in a drawer, large necklaces and other junk that has been sitting there for probably two years including a nice collection of tags that I've torn off after bringing a new purchase home. Oh, and half a roll of Rolaids. The picture below is what it looked like after I removed all of the jewelry from the area.

Search and find these items: Ace bandage, tampon, bra strap, shoe laces, half roll of Rolaids, Orajel, a different type of generic oral gel... 

I've since picked all of the garbage out of that mess, but I still have to deal with what's left. The rest of, well, my side of the closet has really come together. If I had a "before" photo, in it you'd see a pile of clothes and shoes on the floor, a pile of clothes and scarves on top of some storage drawers, purses crammed in a corner (actually, you wouldn't be able to see those, which is why I forgot I had them), and necklaces and other things hanging from the door knob.

In these "after" photos, you'll see organization! I rebuilt the cubes so that I'd have half a cube at the very top to put all of my bracelets, hang my dangly earrings and clip all my hair bows and such. For my necklaces, I used shower curtain hooks! My shoes atop the shelving were organized from their previous crammed and strewn about state with all of my heels there, then all of my flats in the storage cubes. My hanging clothes were separated so that all of my tops are on the left, then my dresses and some pants are on the right.

Now, my main goal is to keep it this way, but I will need a strategy for this. The clothing that I would take off then leave laying around in the closet was clothing that I deemed "still clean enough to wear again". What I think I need is either an over-the-door coat rack for the closet or a nice one for the wall just outside the closet to hang that stuff, which is mostly jeans and pajama pants, instead of letting it pile up on the floor where sometimes, something will get buried for weeks before I find it to wash. It's ridiculous, I know.

My short term goal is to finish the closet, which involves picking up the rest of the junk on the built-in, then organizing Jamie's side. We have a little bit of a lack of clothing storage, so this also aids to our build-up of clothing in the closet. I'm going to have to get creative, I think... I just don't know how yet. His side of the closet is about the same size as mine, but his floor area is home to luggage and various travel bags as well as more storage drawers, so we don't really have room for more cubes. That, and I want to try to do this without buying anything new! So here goes.