Conquering the Walk-In Closet

I am absolutely in.love. with my new apartment. It's absolutely perfect for me and it's only 5 minutes from my school.

The coolest thing about starting over is that I was able to completely design/decorate/organize everything my way 100%.

I have a walk-in closet in my bedroom. It's fabulous for getting ready in the morning, but so spacious that it became a "catch-all" for things that I didn't feel like putting away. It ended up becoming more of a pain to work around than anything, leading to the perfect post...closet organization!

It took me two hours to fully clean everything out, sorting into piles.

chevron shoe organizer from Kohl's

jewelry tree from Gordman's; owl bank from JCPenney

I had so much stuff in my closet that I completely forgot I possessed. Those things were purged.

The chevron shoe organizer is something I bought from Kohl's. I keep things in the pockets like Command strips/hooks, batteries, pens/pencils/markers, etc.

Hopefully I inspired you to clean a closet, too! :)

February 2013 Challenge: Office & Closets {Inspiration}

In getting ready to revamp my office space and closets, I've been searching for inspiration. Where better to look other than Pinterest?

In an effort to not have others' images repinned from my blog post, I'm not going to post any pictures in this post. Many will just pin an image without seeing that there is another owner to the image, linked through Pinterest. I, personally, will only pin an image if I know I'm pinning it directly from the original owner of the image because I think they deserve all credit.

Here are my pin boards, which you can view, with or without a Pinterest account...

Home: Offices

Home: Craft Rooms

Home: Closets

DIY: Organize

DIY: Paper Clutter Solved

If you have a Pinterest account, which you've used to pin inspiration, please share below! =]

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 2013 Challenge: Office & Closets {Identify Purpose}

I read your comments in last week's intro post and it sounds like most of us struggle with the same basic issue - your office {room or space} and your closets have become catch-alls. Paper clutter, holiday decorations, "extras" of items, etc. - nothing has a real "home". I can totally relate. In our one bedroom apartment, we have a small coat closet, a small bedroom closet {which Chris uses} and a hallway walk-in closet {which I use for my clothes and storage}. My "office" is a kitchen table I've transformed into my workspace - for blogging, bill paying {and all other paper management}, running my small businesses, planning for school, etc. Since it's located right inside our front door, it catches everything that comes in - mail, school materials, purchases, receipts, etc.

I mentioned above all of the ways I use my office space, so I definitely have a lot going on in this area. I have a lot of unneeded items on my desk and in the drawers underneath - something that needs to be repurposed. I need to only keep those things I need for my office at my desk. Everything else needs to go or be housed elsewhere.

The coat closet kind of accumulates random stuff we purchase and needs a thorough cleaning. My closet is fine on the clothes side, but the shelves are an absolute mess and also accumulate random things that don't have a home. Part of my whole New Years goal was to simplify. I think it's time to purge and donate!

I have Monday off for President's Day, so I plan on working on my office space and closets this weekend. I will be sure to take before, process, and after photos and share next week.

Your challenge this week is to look at your office and/or closets that need help and identify the purpose for these spaces. For your office - what tasks do you manage in this area and what needs to stay? For your closets - what items will you store in each closet? What can you donate?

April Challenge: How Are Things Going For You?

This month has been a trial for me, for so many reasons. We're experiencing a lot of change and stress in our home this month, from jobs mostly. I have been absolutely exhausted and have therefore, not been keeping up with my challenge (or housekeeping for that matter) this month. I guess I also haven't been keeping up with blogging either. My bad. Last week was tough, but I think this week will be better.

Since I have epically failed this month's challenge, I'd love to hear how you've done, if you've cleaned and/or organized any closets.

If you haven't already, enter my Scentsy giveaway! It ends this Saturday, April 28.

April Challenge: Closet Inspiration

Confession: I don't have a closet completed to show you this week. Boo (I know). Spring break has ended and getting back into the "swing of things" has really kicked my butt. I am literally so exhausted at the end of each day that I've come home to take a nap. Ridiculous.

Here's my inspiration for you for this week. (** Please do not PIN any of these photos from my blog. Click through to the blog post, which is directly linked to each blog name/photo and pin from their site. They deserve the credit, not me! **)

Reader Shirley at Motivated Mommy of Two revamped her coat closet. I absolutely love it! (Thanks for sharing!)

Lina at Fancy Frugal Life has an amazing craft closet/office transformation you have to see if you love bright, beautiful color.

I absolutely love this coat closet from Better Homes and Gardens.

If I only had a linen closet...(from Real Simple).

See all of the closets on my Pinterest board, here.

April Challenge: Coat Closet

This month's challenge is closets. I shared my "before" pictures on Monday. Some people commented/emailed me and said it doesn't look messy/unorganized. I wasn't insinuating that it was. My biggest issue is that my closets are currently not functional for our needs, not that they're messy/unorganized. I don't want anyone to be under the impression that I'm calling these pictures either of those things.

With that being said, here's my before picture for my coat closet. This closet functions as a space to hold jackets/hoodies, stockpiled items (laundry and cleaning supplies, dog supplies, flavored water [when we have it], etc.), winter accessories, tools, and extra folding chairs. For me (and my husband agreed), it felt too busy. Too much going on in here. We weren't able to keep up with a system for this closet because it's constantly changing - not that it's a problem for a closet to be like this, it just wasn't what we wanted.

While clearing things out of the closet, I found that we have an overstock of dog treats. I don't think we'll need to buy more for a year (at least). The dog treat container was getting low, so I decided to refill it.

Because we have a small dog, we give him small treats. Many need to be cut up. We mostly do this to save money. He only gets a treat when he comes inside if he goes to the bathroom.

I didn't do all of the bags, just two, but it filled up the container enough to last for a month or two.

I obviously have an addiction to candles, Wallflowers, oils, Scentsy, etc. {Am I really going to use all of this?} My box is overflowing.

I had an empty storage box under my bed which fits everything perfectly. These items are being relocated to under my bed.

Here are the insides of the baskets that sit on the top shelf (after they've been cleaned out/reorganized).

cleaning supplies

sports equipment/dog toy/baby supplies (for the future)

napkins/toilet cleaner/light bulbs (in the container)

Hanging on the door is an over-the-door shoe organizer. We use it for the following (see the image for the text).

Command strips

Here are some close-ups of the shelves.

Okay, so it doesn't look a lot different than the before photo, but I can definitely tell the difference. I got rid of a bag full of junk, relocated some things, and cleared out some coats for donation/to sell on eBay. It was hard for me to part with some of the coats...although I'm not sure why. I haven't worn them in the last year, hence why I'm getting rid of them. I know it's for the better. =]

If I were "allowed to", I'd paint the inside of the closet or stencil it to give it a nicer look, but our contact says we can't. Boo.

Do you have a coat closet/multipurpose closet that is driving you crazy? If so, your challenge this weekend is to clean it!

April Challege: Closets

This month's challenge will be closets.

I haven't started yet, because I'm still debating on what exactly to do with my closets. I've cleaned/organized my closets and shared before. They're not messy really, they're just not functional for our needs. It's time to simplify.

I have inspiration, on Pinterest, for ways to organize my closets.

Being on spring break this week, I have plans to visit IKEA and other organization-friendly stores. When I do, I'll post about what I've bought and how I used it to get organized.

So my first course of action is to take a look at the closets and figure out what exactly I want their function/purpose to be. Our coat closet is the least functional at this point, so that one is going to need some creative thinking.

I will post later this week, after visiting IKEA and reorganizing a closet.

Here are my before pictures.

coat closet

my closet

my closet

Chris' closet

Chris' closet

The Great Closet Cleanout...Again

My first project that I ever posted on The Nest Effect was my walk-in closet. (See previous the before and after posts.) It's a catchall for all sorts of things...my clothes and shoes, board games, office supplies, crafting supplies, etc., etc... It needs to be cleaned often unfortunately. So yesterday I did a quick clean out and it looks a-ma-zing.

Before:

Planning Process:

I don't usually do this, but I did yesterday to help streamline the process of cleaning quickly. Excuse the messy handwriting due to it being a quick draft.

Cleaning Out Process:

After:

where i'm linking up my project