closet makeovers!

A little over a month ago, my parents came to visit and helped us out with a project we've been wanting to tackle for awhile.  Maybe you can relate.  Do you have a closet with one measly shelf and bar running across the top?  So basically you have a lot of wasted space in the middle?  Yep, this was our problem, only times two.  The closets in my son's room and our spare room/office were in dire need of a facelift.

Let's start with my son's room. 

Look at all that unused space in the middle, and all the junk crowding up the floor.  We keep most of his clothes in his dresser, but I still wanted more room to put toys, books, and other items.  Ready for the after?  Of course you are!

LOVE IT.  We got everything back in with lots of room to spare.  Those yellow diaper boxes on the left are all his outgrown clothes (I'm too scared to put them in the attic!), and there are additional diaper boxes on the shelves to use as storage.  Those purple ones from Walmart are the perfect size for larger books; my son loves books but he's still a bit too rough on them, so for now any books with paper pages are tucked safely away until he can be more careful!  I like to switch out his toys in the living room from time to time, so that bottom shelf houses the ones that aren't currently taking up residence in our living room.  I invested in a couple more fabric storage cubes for the top shelf to hold other small items, and let me stress that the "fresh seafood box" on the upper left actually has my old Cabbage Patch dolls and clothes in it in case we ever have a girl.  :o)

Now on to our spare room/office closet.  This room will become my son's room whenever we have another baby, so it was important for me to have good shelving in this closet as well.  Here's the before:

And here's the after!

Hello.  This is magical extra space calling.  :o)  Truthfully, I did move those two garment bags to my bedroom closet (one of them has my wedding dress in it, which is by now most likely smashed beyond recognition).  But for the most part, this is all the same stuff, just organized better.  The floor and bottom shelf have all my picture frames and craft projects that are in progress, along with a couple items that I'm trying to sell on Craigslist.  I used the wire storage grids leftover from this project to house all the picture frames; this way it's easier to see what I have and they don't get scratched up as easily.  That big diaper box has all my music books and flute in it, our board games are on the next shelf up, and the top shelf has random "I don't know what to do with this stuff so I'll just stick it right here for now" stuff on it.  Oh, and a big box of cables, cords, and other spare parts.

Extra shelving makes me happy.  That is all.  :o)