Closet Organization Freak

I'm a closet organization freak. There is nothing I love more than being organized so every time I opened the closet in our living room, I cringed, grabbed what I needed, and quickly shut it. But after scanning the blogosphere and seeing all the wonderfully organized closets, I knew I had to make a change! So I went on a shelf finding mission. My original plan was to do it all by myself but I have recently discovered that if I try to do something, my dad will just do it for me. Is this a clever way to get all the little projects done in our house??

Here's what I started off with. This used to be the main coat closet in our house until my parents added an addition about fifteen years ago. It has since become the home to my ever growing movie collection and the place where you shove everything that doesn't have a spot.

First I took everything out and sorted it into three piles: Thing I want to Keep, Thing I Want to Donate, and Things I want to Donate but Need to get Parental Permission. Isn't it amazing how much stuff is in one TINY closet?

Then I put in the shelves my dad got for me at Home Depot. He kindly installed the bars on the walls so all I had to do was put the shelves where I want them.

And then I filled it back up with stuff. It sure seems like there are more movies than we started off with...and that's because there are! I had a little storage cabinet in our spare bedroom with my Disney VHS tapes in it so I brought that upstairs. A few of the series and DVDs were also in the family room where my parents kept their movies separate but I decided to combine them. We ended up giving a lot away which is great.

The top shelf has my cupcake carrying trays and a box of photographs my mom kept as well as all of my knitting supplies (including the poor, poor knitted blanket I will never finish). The next two shelves are normal DVDs which carried a bit to the fourth shelf although that is mainly TV shows. The fifth houses my Disney movies I can't part with and the last has all our VHS tapes. The bottom is unorganized with some of my craft stuff which will hopefully have a new home if my parents allow me to complete another organization project I have in mind for our computer room involving a large unused desk.

My goodness, it looks so much better! I know we could have saved more money by buying wood and cutting the shelves ourselves but this was so much easier. Maybe next I'll do the linen closet?!