Well I got so excited with the results of the downstairs hall closet that I decided to do some work on one of the upstairs ones as well. Now this one isn’t quite as dramatic, but it needed to be done nonetheless. We started homeschooling Jackson this year, and boy do you need a lot of supplies to do that! We set up a little desk in our landing with a computer, pencils, pens, markers, glue sticks etc. However, he has binders, extra markers and glue sticks, papers, crayons, scissors, and more. I also need to have files to keep track of his grades.

This closet was being used for guest towels, towels for the kids, and extra blankets. Since the kids routinely go in the closet, it was all shoved in there in a half hazard way. Not really working for me. So I found another home for our extra blankets and got to work making this closet more functional and as a place to put Jackson’s extra school stuff.

I don’t know why I am so bad at taking before pictures….oh wait, yes I do. Because many times when I reorganize/redecorate something, it is because I am so fed up with how it is currently set up that I just start moving things or pulling things out of closets before I really think about it. These are not usually planned moments, but spur of the moment, “if I don’t do something with this space right now, I’m going to pull my hair out” type moments. Am I the only one that has these??

So just close your eyes and imagine a hall closet with big comforters on the top and next shelf, folded messily, spilling over the sides, towels on the next shelf, and photo albums strewn all over the floor, along with a happy family dollhouse that was shoved in there. Don’t ask me why. My daughter is 12 and has long since stopped playing with it.

So now that you have imagined the before, here is the after.

I found yet another set of drawers that was not being used. Why do we have so many of these things all over our house?? In any case, I was happy that we do because I used it for all of Jackson’s school things. The mini filing cabinet next to it has all my graded papers and home school association paperwork. The first shelf has projects for Jackson to do on one side, and books that he commonly likes to read when we are having quiet time on the other side. Above that are some of our photo albums. That was another big project I did recently. I had an entire drawer in my dresser filled with pictures. At one time they were separated with little cards to distinguish Jackson photos from Katie photos and so on. But that little organization system went out the window as soon as the kids found pictures in there and looked through them every now and then. So I took a few hours(yes it took a few hours) and grumbled my way through lovingly sorted through all the pictures and put them in albums. It felt so good when I was done!

So there is my happy little closet. Again, no beautiful wallpaper or paint, but it is organized and makes such good use of the space and that is enough to make me happy!