Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Organization Makes the World Go 'Round: Emerson's Closet Edition

Organization should've been my middle name. Chelsea Organization Lanford. Yep, has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Mom, why didn't you think of that?!

But for real, do you love knowing where things are and having things appear orderly? If you're anything like me, you thrive on it and you feel anxious when it's otherwise. This is particularly true for me when it comes to our home. I may not be great at organizing paperwork {it could've used serious help when I was teaching}, but otherwise I'm ALMOST a pro. I love lists. I love baskets and bins. I love labels. I love not having clutter, as I've mentioned before. I love all things organizational, which leads me to today's post on Emerson's closet. My hope is that this post will give you some ideas on how to organize all of your kiddos' clothes, shoes, and other random crap. I'm not going in depth as to where everything goes in her entire room because you'd literally be here for far too long, but I am going to zero in on her closet and how I keep it "decorated", organized and uncluttered. Shall we begin?

Due to the size of her room {which is almost no longer a nursery *tear*}, her main dresser is in her closet. She does have another "dresser", if you will, that houses diapers, wipes, blankets, + her changing pad {which is also almost a thing of the past}. Her closet is a decent size. I haven't measured, but I'd guess it's about 4ft wide by 8 ft tall by 2-3 ft deep with one main clothes hanging rack + a high top shelf. To keep this post organized and as least confusing as possible, I'm going to separate each "part" of her closet as a new paragraph, so hang with me. Don't let all of the words scare you away, they're helpful, not hurtful. * Pinky swear *




Let's start with her dresser. My brother was tossing it after he moved out of his college apartment, and rather than let a perfectly functional dresser be buried in the trash, I swiped it. It was originally brown, then he painted it on two different occasions, I believe. A DIY'er after my own heart. HAHA. Anyway, when I got it, I think it was a weird greenish-grey color {no offense bro, if you're reading this}. I used some light grey paint I had on hand to repaint it. Then, I added some $1 yellow knobs that I found in the dollar bins at Michaels and some drawer liner from Dollar Tree {that actually is really cute + matches her room perfectly}. In her dresser I store the following items:
TOP DRAWER: leggings + pants of any sort {she has entirely too many, but they're SO cute}
MIDDLE DRAWER: socks, tights, and pajama sets {not footed though}
BOTTOM DRAWER: all of her shoes {no real organization honestly, they're just thrown in there}



On top of her dresser is a gifted picture frame {also yellow} from one of my baby showers. Inside the frame is one of the 15+ game cards that were played at my shower. I rotate them periodically so I can see what my friends wrote. I loved this little game + it's a fun reminder every time I open her closet. I  store all of her medicines {Tylenol, Zyrtec *dang allergies*, Nose Freda, etc} in that wicker basket. And the most asked about piece in her closet: her headband holder. It's actually just a standard jewelry holder sold at TJ MAXX + similar stores, that is meant to hold necklaces + bracelets. My mom gave it to me + it isn't really my style to display jewelry, so I repurposed it + now it holds all of her headbands {mostly DIY by the way-click here if you want to make some of your own like those seen below}. 


You may be wondering what that random silver bar is going across the picture. That's actually a tension curtain rod that doubles as a clothes rod because the existing one wasn't large enough to hold everything. I don't hang clothes on it anymore because I purged her stuff {Shh! I know you can't even tell. She's got SO many clothes}, but now it holds extra hangers, which yes, are organized by color {light pink, white, and hot pink}. I can't stand the hangers that clothes are sold on, and I like uniformity, so this helps with that. On that same note, all of Emerson's clothes, aside from what's in the dresser, are hung up like you see in the picture above. I hate wrinkles + folding, so this was the obvious option. Plus, I like being able to see everything without having to dig through tons of clothing to find what I want. Her clothes are organized by style {onesie, dresses, short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, footed pajamas, coats, etc} AND by color. You may think I'm crazy, but hear me out. I do it this way for two reasons: 1} it's easy to find what I'm looking for + to hang things back up easily and 2} It helps daddy pick out outfits that match. ;) 

The plastic Sterilite drawers seen beside her dresser were taken from my classroom when I "retired". I needed a few extra storage places for pacis, receiving blankets, hats/mittens, and other random baby items. All I did to spruce it up a bit was add some scrapbook paper cut to size to the front of each drawer. So even though it's not high-end or anything {shocking, I know}, it helps it appear a little less "cheap", plus it matches her other room decor.



Finally, are the inside of the door and the top shelf. The door has a white over-the-door hook that has like 10-12 separate hooks. It holds her bibs, lightweight jackets, swimsuits, and her scarf. Yes folks, she has a plaid scarf that mimics my blanket scarf. I found it at Goodwill for $1 and I couldn't resist. She absolutely hates it and it was a total waste of $1, but I'm keeping it in hopes of her wanting to "be like mommy" next winter. *FINGERS CROSSED* The top shelf is not ugly, but it's not super attractive either. It houses labeled {by size} plastic storage containers full of baby clothes/gear/books that I'm holding onto in case of another baby girl in the future. Should I get pregnant again + it be a little boy, I'm going to be sad to depart with all of these super cute clothes, but that just means my friends will have great free stuff for their baby girls and/or I'll have some fabulous stuff to sell.

So that's Emerson's organized closet tour. I hope you found it helpful, and if anything in particular caught your attention, please share with me! Or, if you have any great organizing tips related to children's items, I always love + appreciate your feedback! 

P.S. My blog got a little makeover too! Whaddya think? XO!




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