The Girls' Closet: Tragedy Overcome

Several big sighs of relief could be heard around here this past week. The girls' big closet project is complete, finally!

What's been happening at our house? First, we removed everything from the closet our three daughters share. With the closet bare, I gave the walls a coat of paint. Closets love paint, too, you know. Next, my wonderful husband pieced the closet back together following a plan suited just for the girls' needs. Then, after carefully going through each item of clothing and deciding what should stay and what should go, I got to put the chosen winners in their new home. And finally, lots and lots of stress was lifted from this momma, knowing that we had a good system in place for three girls' worth of clothing. Yay!

Before I can show you the final product, I think we must go back to the beginning. Remember this?

It was a disaster. See that tower going up the middle of the closet? It served no real purpose and wasted a lot of room. Knowing that space is limited with three girls sharing a room, we wanted to make every inch of the closet work.

Greta, Frankie, and Lou Lou share a dresser containing socks, tights, undies, and PJs. Leaving it out in the room would take away from play and study areas, so we decided to incorporate it into our closet design. We made the dresser the centerpiece with four rods for shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, and dance outfits around it. New shelving for shoes under the bottom clothing rods and at the top of the closet for storage completed the plan.

How did it turn out? The magic lies behind the curtains!


A few years ago, we removed the old clunky closet doors and replaced them
with curtains for easier access to the closet's contents.

Ta Da!



Frankie's clothes hang on top of Greta's, with storage for shoes underneath.

Dance outfits and extra hangers rest above Lou's clothes with more shoe storage below.



The chest of drawers sits in the middle of the closet, serving as both a functional piece
and a place to display prized possessions {plus diapers, wipes, and diaper rash cream!}.

Shoes!



And more shoes!



 

Now the closet falls under the old "A place for everything, and everything in its place" saying. Plus, with that beautiful paint as a backdrop and a place for pretty things, it boasts function and fashion.

Out With the Old

So I left you with the oh so scary sight of the closet my three girls will be sharing.

Eek, right? The closet system that was put in place by the previous owners of the house was simply not going to work for three girls. But before I could even begin to tackle that problem, I had to address the issue of the clothing that the girls have versus the clothing that the girls need. As I said before, I'm a shopper. I love to shop. I love to find bargains. I love to find tights that match the dress that match the shoes that match the headband. But as I looked out into the sea of dresses and sweaters and shoes, I knew we had too much.

I've already been following a system of switching out the closets to the seasonally appropriate items. Long sleeved tees and sweaters and boots get stored away in large plastic totes when spring comes around, leaving space in the closets for tanks and tees, flip flops and summer dresses. Each girl has a tote labeled with her name, and in it goes clothing for next season in addition to clothing that her older sister has outgrown. Greta's tote has the least inside; the oldest, she's six and is in the 97th percentile for height. That leaves little at the end of the season that looks like it will fit her down the road. Frankie's and Lou Lou's totes are brimming with style, however. They have no excuse to be running around naked!

So even without the extra clothing for other seasons in the closet, I needed to weed through the girls' wardrobes and make some choices. Some choices were easy. We just celebrated Halloween, so Frankie's long sleeved pumpkin tee and cozy pumpkin sweater could go into totes. Sure, they'd still keep Frankie warm for the rest of the winter, but who wants to wear a pumpkin shirt in December? "Not I," said the fly. The tee went right into Lou Lou's tote since there was no way I'd be able to squeeze Frankie into it next October. I was pretty sure the sweater would still fit her after another year, however, so it went into Frankie's tote. Adios, Halloween!


I love you, Pumpkin Sweater, but you still have to live in the tote until next October.

After all of the out of season items were placed in their appropriate totes, I was left with the issue of just plain too much. I already told you how great it felt to clean out my own closet; now I was ready to do the same with the girls'. I had to face the facts. No one, not even adorable little girls, needs 25 dresses. I dove into the closet and pulled out the items that in no way, under no cicumstances whatsoever, even if it was the last thing on earth, the girls would wear. For example, there's a red shirt I bought for Greta with beautiful white stitching; she's never worn it - not ever! That went straight into the pile for Frankie's tote. (One of my girls is going to wear that red shirt if it's the last thing I do.) Then there were several pieces that were just....okay. These are the ones that I loved at the store but not so much at home or the ones that I couldn't pass up because of a great sale. Well, now I was passing them up left and right. And it felt good! Just like my own closet, my girls were going to have a closet with only our favorites - the pieces they wanted to wear time after time and the ones that really made us ooh and ah. Greta and Frankie gave me their input on their must-haves, and it was a fun time of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go." Several of the pieces had to go now, and we made a small mountain of clothes to bring to Goodwill.

Left with only the seasonally appropriate items we love, I could turn my attention to one of my favorite hobbies - organizing! First, though, we needed a better closet system, one that made finding the perfect outfit a breeze. That called for some demo and reconstruction. Stay tuned to see the results!

Three Girls' Closet: Overcoming a Tragedy and Finding Inspiration in the Ruins

The title of this post is a little dramatic, but so is a room with three girls. I've told you all about how my hubby and I recently decided that all three of our daughters could share a room. Yes, we may be crazy. The oldest two {six and three} have been sharing for awhile now, and they get along very well. They also adore their baby sister {for the time being} and dote on her like little mommas. So right now life is good, and everyone gets along and loves each other and we might as well be singing Kum Ba Yah.

The room the girls share is the old master bedroom; it's a large room with plenty of space, and the girls even have their own bathroom. Even though there's quite a bit of livable space, it's going to get filled up mighty quick with three girls and all of their girl stuff. We need to think carefully about how we're using each inch.  Um, yay!! That means I get another room to organize! With four kids six and under, this momma is all about organization, from laundry to lunch. When your home has order and everyone knows the system, life is a little easier.

I've already told you about how we're planning to maximize the space with two sets of bunk beds. Doing so will free up an enormous amount of room. I also have plans for a great study area in addition to pretty cool places to play.

While it's been fun to think about painting and decorating and adding accessories, this project hasn't escaped some tricky predicaments. Probably the biggest obstacle I've faced so far is how to organize clothes for three girls in one closet. I'm a momma who loves to shop {as in, I categorize it as a sport}, so these dolls have dresses, skirts, jeans, pants, tanks, tees, and sweaters galore. Oh - and don't get me started on their shoe collection. They use one dresser - a chest of drawers - and one large closet. While that may be ample space, it needs to be used very carefully in order to make choosing three outfits everyday, not to mention putting away mountains of laundry, a snap.

I've been thinking and planning and drawing different designs for the girls' closet. My handy husband took my ideas and added his own, and together we came up with a plan to make the closet as user-friendly as possible. He's been spending quite a bit of his free time sawing and drilling and putting together the perfect space for his little ladies. It's not finished yet. I can't wait to reveal it to you when it's done, but for now, I'm going to leave you with this. This is the hurricane that came to be when Louisa first moved into Greta and Frankie's room. If you can't stand clutter and lack of organization, avert your eyes!

I know - scary! I promise to return shortly with a closet space that's much easier on the eyes. It will be pretty and organized - brains and beauty - the perfect combination. 

The Master Closet

As promised, the master closet.

I always wanted a walk-in closet, one with space for bags and shoes and pretty things - oh yeah - and clothes, too. The closet we designed for our remodeled master suite was a decent size, much bigger than any closet I'd ever had before, but the space that I'd always wanted was left neglected as we simply threw our shirts on hangers, and well, that's about it. I did paint the walls before we placed everything inside, but the color I selected was one I ended up hating.

If you hate the color of the closet before, me too. If you love it, why thank you.
I picked it out myself, and it's called Beachwalk by Behr.



Because life is busy and there are always more important tasks on our lists, I left the closet alone, leaving it to "Someday." Well friends, that someday is now.

I decided that I deserved a space that made me smile when I walked inside, one that reflected me. I knew I wanted a nice color on the walls {something that didn't make me cringe}. I knew I wanted a pretty way to display my shoes and bags. I knew I wanted a special space for my jewelry, scarves, and other pretty things.

I cleared everything out of the closet, taking a good look at each piece along the way. Having four kids in five years didn't leave a lot of time to build a good wardrobe, and I had pieces dating back to college. By trying on almost every piece and taking inventory of what I had {Hello FIVE black long sleeved shirts!}, I made a sizeable pile of bags and clothing {and a pink cowgirl hat} to donate.

Next, I painted the walls what I have deemed the most beautiful color of paint on earth: Rhino by Behr. It's a wonderful light gray blue that just soothes. The closet is the third space in our home to be lucky enough to wear the shade, and it wears it well.

After a quick coat of Rhino, I called in my husband to help me with the next step. When we remodeled the downstairs, my husband and father-in-law put together a quick storage system to stow our shoes.

It's great, but I wanted to move it to accomodate an extra piece of furniture.



Wasted space!

I used to have a couple lonely hooks to the left of the shoe shelf to store my bags. We removed the hooks, shifted the shelving system a couple feet closer to the door, and voila! I was left with enough space to incorporate my own accessory area! I had a narrow desk that I had picked up at Home Goods {and painted probably four times}. It had been in my oldest daughter's room and the entryway and was currently sitting in the garage. It was narrow enough to fit the space, it had three drawers made for storing lovely things, and it was just plain perfect. I made my way to the paint department at the local Home Depot {where I think they recognize me} and selected a new shade for the desk. Since I only needed a tiny bit of paint, I asked for the color to be mixed in one of Behr's sample sizes. The 8-oz sizes are less than $3.00 - perfect for testing on walls or painting a small piece of furniture.

This cute mini size is more than enough paint for this project.

We mounted some wall hooks that we already owned above the desk for hanging bags and jewelry. A few finishing touches, and this project was complete - one of my favorites to date! Welcome to the closet.

Rolled up magazines or catalogs will help your boots keep their shape while sitting pretty.

Rocks from my honey spelling LOVE from a trip to Door County {way back on a high school band trip!}
are now in a place where I see them everyday.

Necklaces and bags are hung on hooks. Easy to grab, and I can see everything at one time -
no more digging for the perfect piece!



Hello my Lovelies!





Earring are hooked on this piece of iron decor I stole from the nursery.

Bracelets sit in the Woman of the Year bowl from my last trip to Goodwill.

Drawers in the desk hold scarves and belts.



I knotted my new favorite scarf on the doorknob near the desk - fun to see and wear!



I own a pair of long black leather gloves that belonged to my husband's grandmother.
They sit safely in one of the desk drawers during the warmer months,
but I see them when I pull out a scarf or a piece of jewelry and think of her.

Shirts, pants, dresses, and skirts hang on the other wall.
Extra floor space holds our "sleeping pillows" and step ladder.

My hubby's ties and belts are kept on the back of the door - easy to see and grab
{no excuses for being late to work!}.



The high shelves add extra storage space.



I love the new space, my "dressing room." And I don't even mind putting laundry away anymore.