Big Boy Closet

I have so many fun updates and projects that we've been working on this summer, but first up is the little man's closet.  Our goal was to maximize the available space to allow for clothes and some toys and to make clothes accessible to the little guy.  He likes to be independent and do things for himself and we like to encourage that as much as possible.

I looked into a variety of options for the closet. They ranged from closet organization systems such as those available from Home Depot and Lowes to home made custom built ones.  The closet organization systems came in at around $400 and were a bit too pricey for our budget.  A complete custom one built by my husband was tempting but given his time availability and fact that we wanted it done before school starts, it didn't seem practical.  Then I came across this idea on iheartorganizing that uses a $60 Expedit self from Ikea.  This one won me over at hello.  The price was right and while we (meaning my husband) would need to do some carpentry work, it would only take a few hours (last famous words right).

Here is the closet before.  I always get so excited and impatient to start a project that I forget to take a real before picture, but just imagine lots of toys in a huge pile at the bottom of the closet.

I'm usually an over estimator of how long things will take and I estimated a day for this project. I would have been right except that I didn't account for painting.  Once we took the shelf out (it was nailed into the wall) we realized that we needed to paint. So off to Home Depot I went to get some satin paint in off-the-shelf white.  I painted the closet (with oversight from the little man) while Moe cut the rods and shelves to size.  Then we primed and painted those too.  The next day when everything was dry we assembled the pieces and added all the clothes and toys back into the closet.  Tada!

And here it is today. Coats and sweatshirts are on the top left, t-shirts and the bottom left, and pants and dress clothes on the right.  The shelves from top top to bottom have swim suits, toys, shorts, socks and underwear (in drawers), and shoes.  In the little drawer unit on the right there toys in the top two drawers and sweatpants and PJs in the bottom two.

If you notice there is some space between the shelf above the unit and the top clothes rods. Just goes to show that even with all the pre-planning we didn't quite get it right the first time. Eventually we'll move those rods up to just under the shelf to maximize the space and give more room between the top and bottom rods.  I also still need to get some curtains for the closet "door", but that will have to wait until a few other things are finished.

All in all I love the organization, the little guy loves that he can reach his clothes and get himself ready. And all for under $100.  Can't beat that.