Nesting. It’s apparently all the rage when you’re pregnant, although I think that I tend to nest even when I’m not with child…which means my nesting is slightly more neurotic than most…hence, my freakish desire to combine closets.
Whoever built our little 1947 house decided that closet size wasn’t a major necessity, and while I would love to say that closet space isn’t important to me because our material possessions are not our priority, I have to admit that I like having space for my shoes. And clothes. Bags. Belts. You know…girly stuff. But at the same time, I love that having smaller closets forces us to pare down and not hoard tons of extra junk. If I buy something new, I tend to donate something old. But I’m rambling. The point is that we have two bedrooms with small closets, so when we moved into our bungalow, Matt took the back bedroom closet and graciously allowed me to take the master bedroom closet. This system worked fine for quite awhile, but now that the back bedroom is being converted into a nursery, I decided it was time to truly unite as a married couple—it was time to share a closet.
Now some of you might say that a newborn doesn’t need a closet all to themselves, that we could get away with keeping separate closets for awhile longer, yadda yadda yadda. But I’m not good at doing things halfway. It bothers me. At some point there might be two kiddos sharing that back bedroom and then we’d definitely have to make the switch, so why not do it now and learn to live with it? Even if the closet isn’t loaded with clothing, I already have lots of baby items that will be making it their home, as there is nowhere else in our house to put them. So last weekend we bit the bullet and spent a good portion of Saturday morning paring down, moving seasonal clothing items to the basement for storage, and rearranging the master closet.
Here’s what the master closet looked like when it was just little ole’ me using it.
The back bedroom closet when Matt was using it…
And the combined master closet…
Here’s the now empty nursery closet (notice that the hubs converted that funky removable plumbing wall into a hinged door—yay!).
My goal is to paint the nursery closet a fun color (actually, I’m planning to have my mom paint it when she comes out to paint the rest of the nursery), so we’re not filling it up yet. We’re also replacing that nasty bar with a new white one, since we’re removing the closet door and hanging a curtain instead. The door doesn’t shut completely, takes up valuable wall space, and I like the idea of a cute curtain hanging in its place.
As for our newly combined master closet, I have to say I LOVE it! I’m not sure if Matt would agree with me, but I really like storing only the clothes I actually wear in the closet at one time. I was shocked to find that extra space existed after we combined our clothes, belts, bags, and shoes. That deserves a woot woot! We do have two dressers plus a stand of wicker baskets that hold stuff like t-shirts, socks, and our unmentionables, but I was even able to give up two of my wicker baskets so that Matt could store his socks in them.
Ahhh…freedom from clutter.
So a few tips for organizing/combining closets:
1. Have garbage bags on hand, that way you can create a stash of items for the thrift or consignment store. My rule of thumb is that if I haven’t worn it within the last year, I’m not likely to wear it again. Out it goes. Last year I experimented with hanging my clothes on backwards hangars; any hangars that were still facing backwards were clearly clothes I hadn’t worn in the past year, so they were thrown out (I made a few exceptions, but not many).
2. If combining closets with your significant other, be flexible and willing to share. This can be challenging, ladies, as you likely have a lot more stuff than your man. Thankfully, we were able to work together so it wasn’t too difficult. It also helped that we pared down to the items we are wearing this season and this season only. For Matt, that doesn’t change all that much throughout the year (guys have it so easy), but I definitely have different items for warm and cold months. At the moment, our closet pretty much contains only my prego clothes. Also keep in mind that you change over time, and therefore things that you used to wear may not be as important to you. For example, in college I wore a ton of bulky sweatshirts because I was always trying to keep warm on campus and in our old school apartment (love that tiny place). Now that we live in Colorado, I find that I wear more fitted fleece items which take up less space, keep me warmer because they’re designed better, and have basically replaced my sweatshirts. When I went through my stash, I ended up tossing several because I realized that my lifestyle has changed enough that I won’t likely be going back to sweatshirts anytime soon. I kept a few and ditched the rest.
3. Use the space underneath the hanging clothes. Several years ago we installed wire shelves on the lower half of the master closet, which provides space for stacking jeans and sweaters, along with stashing a few bins filled with hats, scarves, belts, etc. There’s even enough space underneath the shelves for storing a few pairs of shoes.
4. Don’t forget about closet walls. There are several inches of space around the edge of our closet, and we plan to either hammer in a few nails or a rack for belts and ties. It’s the perfect amount of space for hanging those long and skinny items.
5. Leave some extra space in your closet for adding items in the case of unexpected weather changes, the occasional new purchase, and simply because it’s far easier to find what you’re looking for when you’re not shoving aside a bazillion items every morning. A little breathing room also keeps clothes from getting wrinkled, which is certainly a plus in my book.
I was a bit ruthless when it came to my own clothing, but keep in mind that we’re still storing plenty of seasonal items in our basement, so I didn’t get rid of as much as you might think. Still, Matt did take an entire SUV full of stuff to the local thrift store (we pared down a few more items in the basement in addition to clothes and shoes). Part of me wanted to keep everything for a summer yard sale, but who am I kidding? I have a feeling a yard sale won’t be at the forefront of my mind when this child arrives… So we got rid of it.
And that’s the end—or perhaps the beginning—of our closet organizing adventure.
