Truth be told..
We aren’t IKEA shoppers.
We aren’t ones for ‘space saving’.
I have been known to keep my clothes in color coordination..
..and also among complete chaos.
Parker and Jolie follow suit with their parents {momma}.
To be honest I felt halfway self conscious to write this post. I’ve been sitting here in front of the blank Blogger screen for an hour with nothing that seems ‘good’ enough to write and explain my version of closet organization for two babies {and now toddlers}. I have been asked more times than I can count about how I organize Parker and Jolie’s things – headbands in particular.
Here I am to share my not-so-secret ways.
There are two bars running along the inside of the square walk-in closet, and those are arranged by size and shape of clothing.
Dresses, cardigans, and sweaters are directly to the left, and tees, tanks, blouses, shorts, & pants run along to back of the closet. The top shelving is less than organized.. books (that aren’t ready for baby hands yet..), shoe boxes (because I am weird and like to hoard shoe boxes), diapers, wipes, and travel accessories.
There is a dresser we bought right before the girls were born at an estate sale. It was brown with terrible pull handles. BB and Papa did their magic with a little paint and sandpaper to make it match the vintage/shabby theme of the girls’ nursery furniture. The top of that dresser is where I ‘save’ the new items I need to review – whether it be clothing, hair bows, or shoes. Most anything ‘new’ hangs out there until I can find a space for it and have done my duties with the promotional products.
This dresser in the closet provides amazing space-saving abilities for our small room made smaller by housing two cribs. I guess I am a space-saver..
Top drawer hold keepsakes. I have their preemie coming home outfit in this drawer, along with personalized bibles given by their Auntie and Uncle J, pearl keepsake bracelets.. and other things from those very early days of baby-hood.
2nd drawer is for the jams (and bloomers). We love jammies, and I’m a sucker for anything precious in the PJ form. I also have justifiable reasons for storing jammies and bloomers together. Not.
3rd drawer is where I keep the girls’ ‘play’ clothes. These are clothes that we wear when BB is here for the day, or when daddy is home with us and especially when we have plans to play outside all day, or when we are going to get extra messy.
4th drawer is when I keep clothes waiting to be rotated into the mix. We are in a pretty tight rotation of clothing, and clothes that are out of season or do not fit any more are moved out pretty quick to make room for the next size up. I am thankful my girls have gotten real wear out of their clothing overall. We have been in size 12-18 months since we were 15 months old, and for the most part are staying put for now. I refuse to buy anything new in the 12-18 month size because it could be any day they decided I don’t fit into this anymore.. so the 18-24 mo clothing hangs out in this 4th drawer.
Mel’s Sassy Scraps hand painted wood art hang out in our closet space. We are working on creating a collection of accessories for our neck like we have for our head..
While on bed rest and having unlimited access to Pinterest I had grand plans for Jordan to make this closet amazing and lined with shelving and baskets.
This is what we came up with. It works, and I love it.
Mini shelving from Home Depot, and assorted baskets from Babies R Us {
exact}. Fits perfectly under the clothing, and definitely not too crowded. The bottom shelving hold baskets filled with random items. To the left are extra wipes, and breast feeding accessories, and to the right are hair bows that are two small and I’m saving for the next little girl{s} we have.
I am determined to reuse all this stuff. BB has revived some of the hair bows and taken them off the smaller band and put them on the larger bands for longer wear.
Top shelf baskets are for shoes (in the left) and swimwear (on the right)
When fall and winter hit this ‘swimwear’ basket will change to socks and legging.
Headband Storage… more baskets.
One for the flower headbands and another for the wraps and halos. We have SO many (if I wasn’t such a proud momma, it would almost be embarrassing..) and I have found that this way works the best. There has been a time for two that I literally dump the basket out in its entirety to find a particular bow I have in mind, but otherwise it is fairly logistical. I also don’t have to worry when baby hands make their way into the baskets.. no rhyme or reason means that I can trust that Parker and Jolie ‘put things back in their place’.
Lets be real. There isn’t enough wall space to hold each of these bows and wraps.. x 2.
I have a terrible habit of thinking ‘coulda-woulda-shoulda’, and I have come under a massive desire to revamp the girls’ nursery {19 months later}. It isn’t amongst a crazy change, but it is in the process, and I plan to share it soon. Most likely the closet will be next, but this set up has worked for over a year and a half with two babies living out of it, so here we are.. don’t laugh at my less than creative abilities.
In Jordan’s words: Don’t fix something that isn’t broken..
But..what if I want to make it more pretty?? He’s all over my Pinterest these days pinning ideas for an outdoor living area we are building (called you out, bro).. perhaps if I start pinning ‘closet organization ideas’ he will notice.
If I pin it, he will build..
I love the signs with their names!!! We have almost no storage in our current home so our nursery storage is minimal. I dream of having that kind of space for her (and us lol) some day.
That dresser was an amazing steal! LOVE it! You've done such a good job on their closet!