Friday, August 15, 2008

Family Closets are For More Than Just Skeletons

I first heard of the idea of a family closet from watching the Duggars on TV. Then again at LotsofKids.com. Then again when my friend, Lisa, asked for help organizing one in her laundry room.

Now I may not have 17 children but I do have enough kids in a small enough space to appreciate organization. One of my few children also happens to be a 2 1/2 year old girl obsessed with clothes. At least with throwing them all over the floor. So I decided to convert our hall closet into a children's closet. It was previously used to house the kids' coloring books and crayons, rarely used books, our Gazelle, and board games. It was a mess. I even took a before picture, but now I can't find it. (I guess organizing all my computer files will be a near future project.)

Here's how it looks now:



One shelf per child, the plastic shoe boxes hold pajamas, underwear, socks, bloomers, ties, belts, etc. A cloth cube on the floor holds diapers and wipes. Not pictured is an under-bed storage bin without a lid on the floor for all their shoes. All their backpacks go on the floor under the hanging clothes.


As this is the only place we seem to be able to keep "locked" we still keep the board games on top.



Somehow the games still get a little beat up. The organizing junkie in me would love to see uniform stacks of neat and sturdy boxes with labels like this awesome GameSavers box, but $10+/box is just not something I can justify when there are so many more visible flaws (anyone know a good, inexpensive carpet cleaner!!!) to spend my money on. But they ARE a pretty cool idea, no?



A few years ago I assigned each of the children a color. Brandon is orange, Sam is blue, Matthew is green, and Elizabeth is pink. This has been soooo handy. For example, when a towel is left on the floor I know immediately whose it is. It eliminates the "That's MY {fill it the blank}!" confusion because we use this system on everything we can. Towels, cups, folders, toys that come in different colors, etc. AND NOW. . .closet dividers.

I love the children's closet! The children no longer have any clothes in their rooms. No more going back and forth to put away laundry, either. I just take my basket over and unload it all at once. It's really helped me keep up with all the laundry (HALLELUJAH! I no longer find folded items thrown into the hamper!) and it's helped keep their rooms so neat and tidy, too!

10 comments:

Stephanie said...

Assigning each kid a color is a GREAT idea! I think I will steal that one... :)

Nash said...

Looks Great!

AZ SMITHS said...

I love it! Now that we have unpacked our boxes, now it's time to go through the house and organize it all! I want to start with the closet as well!

Krissy said...

Well how cool is that!?!?!?!

So, did the closet already have those awesome shelves? Please don't tell me you added them yourself. lol

Ok, here's a project for you ... compile your BEST organization ideas into an email for me ... I might put you as a guest poster on my blog. lol :) Oh the things I could do ... lol

Kristal said...

No, I did not build those shelves (I did build the ones in my post "The Great Garage Cleanup" though :P )

Hmmm, my best organization ideas (all of which I'm pretty sure I've stolen from other people)...that's hard to pinpoint. Do you have any specific topics in mind?

Linn said...

Kristal, Thanks for your comments on my blog. I really appreciate them--great ideas. I too have a binder that I use for everyday things and will share that later. Thanks for the reminder. Oh, and your closet looks great. Very organized! Thanks again, Linn

emily.brown said...

Awesome! You totally helped me with mine. I wish mine looked like yours, but alas, I don't think it ever will. I am still working on the color coding. It is hard to find everything in as many colors that we need, but it is a process and we just keep moving forward.

Lisa

Anonymous said...

That really is a WONDERFUL idea!!! I love that!!!!

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)

Kristal said...

Thank you, Mr./Ms.Anonymous :)

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