Transforming Wasted Space in Walk in Closet

For three years we have struggled with our master bedroom walk in closet. I knew there were things I could fix, like how we used the space but there were bigger things I could not change, like the fact it is small. It amazes me that a builder would make our bedroom the ridiculous size it is, but put a small walk in closet. Wouldn't the average person prefer to have 2 or 3 less feet in an enormous bedroom and have a larger closet? Maybe it is just me.

 I did not have the budget to rip all the builder grade shelves out and start from scratch, so I had to figure out solutions to the things I hated without spending much money. I had tried patch fixes to deal with the builder grade closet, like adding hooks on the back of the door and putting those horrible 'hanging organizers' from Ikea to arrange our sweaters and t-shirts. You know the ones. They hang from the rod with no support on the bottom of each row, so nothing says nicely folded and if you put too much in them or bump it the wrong way everything falls out of the back.

Source Ikea

So I felt like I was back to square one. Here is my list of problems I felt I needed to tackle to make this a workable space:

• we stacked our sweaters and pants on the top shelf  all the way up to the ceiling, making the piles over three feet high
• we had our t-shirts housed within hanging closet organizers
• my purses were in a big pile on the floor
• we had no room for a laundry basket
• there was always so much stuff hanging on the back of the door that we could barely open it.

So with a small budget and but big dreams, I dragged my husband and two kids from hardware store to hardware store in search of a miracle solution.  Obviously, there was not one. So here is what I did.

The first thing we did was get rid of all of those hanging closet organizers and replaced them with the Expedit shelf. I love these shelves because they are deep, not too wide and sturdy.

Source Ikea

It is pricier at $80 but it works so much nicer and it fit perfectly into the space. I was able to fold all our t-shirts, fitness clothes and still have two spots for purses at the bottom.

We then thought we would tackle was the wasted space above the top shelf.  I thought if we could move our off season clothes us higher without having the 3 foot high stacks, then we would have more usable space. So that is what we did.

We went to Lowes and found decorative black brackets for $10 for a package of 2 (we needed 3 packages in total) and we bought the cheapest white shelves we could find. We could have used the really cheap industrial brackets at under $1 each but we thought we would splurge a bit :)

See how lazy I am...I didn't even take down all the clothes when he was putting up the shelves. I moved them from side to side so they wouldn't get dust on them. Shhhh my little secret.

My husband cut the shelves to the correct length and he installed the new shelf half way between the ceiling and the previous top shelf.

I would like to say we had the forethought to line this new shelf up with my husband's dress shirt shelf but we didn't and got really lucky that it all lined up. That would have been an oops on my part because it would have annoyed me horribly if they didn't line up. Now it looks like the new shelf was suppose to be there.

I really should have done the fancy folding and color coordinating but as you already know I do not stage photos. Organizing all our clothes and refolding them would take way too long and I believe there are better things to do then convince you all that I can keep my closet color coordinated. I am a mom to two busy kids, I can't even get my laundry put away.

So here are my official after photos:

No more 3 foot high piles. Don't you love my new light? See the previous post for how I made it.

We use the ultra slim hangers from Costco and LOVE them.

I can now fit a laundry basket under my hanging shirts.

 So how did I do with my list?

• we stacked our sweaters and pants on the top shelf  all the way up to the ceiling, making the piles over three feet high - FIXED
• we had our t-shirts housed within hanging closet organizers -FIXED
• my purses were in a big pile on the floor - FIXED
• we had no room for a laundry basket- FIXED
• there was always so much stuff hanging on the back of the door that we could barely open it - Sort of fixed. We still have the hooks but they aren't overflowing anymore!

I am very happy with how it turned out. I can't say it is my dream walk-in closet but reality is, it is a space that holds our clothes and does it really need to serve any other purpose than being practical? I don't think so.

If you missed my first two posts I did for my walk in closet, the budget closet light transformation and hanging my sleeveless/short sleeve dress shirts on pant hangers, be sure to check them out. I love both of them too.

So have any of you tried to deal with a builder closet and succeeded? Or have you failed a few times like me before you found a solution that works well?

We will be adding the top shelf to our other three bedroom closets to store off season clothes too. It really is a cheap solution with a big impact on space.

Have a great day,
Stephanie

Multiple Pant Hangers - Save space by hanging sleeveless shirts and t-shirts on them!

Have you ever bought something just because it was on sale? How about buying a tool to try to get your closet organized but knew deep down that you probably wouldn't use it? Well I did just that.

I was at my local Home Sense (much like the US equivalent Marshall's) and they had padded pant hangers on clearance for $2! Granted they only had bright pink and purple but I thought for $2, how could I beat that! So I snatched up 4. To be honest with you I had 8 in the cart but thought there would be no way I would use them in my son's or husband closets, so I put half back.

Once I got home, I had buyers remorse. You know the feeling! Yes, I only spent $10 but I really had no need for them. Especially since, we have a basic closet organizer in our walk in closet, so our pants are already housed on a long, low hanging rack. I really had no need to conserve pant space (another reason why I really should not have bought them).

After walking around the house with these hangers, I ended up finding an amazing way to use all four of my clearance pant hangers! They are saving me loads of space and I now wish I had purchased all 8!

Here is what I have used them for..are you ready for this? It is one of those, why didn't I think of this sooner ideas. Hang your sleeveless shirts and short sleeve shirts on them!!!!

I tend to wear a lot of sleeveless shirts under my dressy work outfits. I hate that each shirt takes a hanger but I don't want to fold them because I hate ironing more than I hate laundry :). The same goes for short sleeve shirts.

Seriously, this works amazingly well!

I simply turned the hanger sideways, so it was parallel to the ground, and slipped one sleeveless shirt on each row.

For the t-shirts, I slide the padded pant holder through the cap sleeves.

Now that they are hung like this, they take almost no space at all.

See them tucked in the corner? I already have the ultra thin hangers in all my closets and to think there are 10 tops hung in that small amount of space makes me smile.

I need a few more now to organize my daughter's closet, especially to hang all her dance tanks, sleeveless dresses, sundresses, etc.

I am now going to have to keep my eyes open to see if I can find any more on clearance. In fact, I love this so much, I might buy some at full price! If you know me, you know how much I must love this, because I buy almost nothing at full price.

 Don't you just love it! It really is funny how such a small thing can make me so excited :)

Have a great night and happy organizing.
Stephanie
Linking to some great parties including: Story of A2Z, Thrifty Home

Paper Roll Cross (two actually) on my $0 budget

I realize this idea is somewhat of a repeat of a $0 budget project from last, but I thought it was worth the post since it really is different and I absolutely love how they turned out.

So here they are, paper roll (aka paper towel/toilet paper roll) crosses.

If you did not see the toilet paper 'art' I created (below) last year on my $0 budget, you can see it here.

So I used the same technique as my previous project. I flattened the paper roll (I used mostly paper towel rolls this time) and cut the two ends off each of the rolls. I then cut (with a rotary cutter) the flattened rolls into a approximately 1 inch pieces.

 If the seam starts to come undone on the inside, just hot glue it as you go.

I start by making little flowers making sure to get the 4 corner points together nicely.

Once you make a few of these, lay them out and figure out the design you like. Then glue together the flowers and add any additional pieces to make your shape.

After you have glued all the pieces together, prime the entire piece with spray paint primer. This cannot be skipped, otherwise your paint will look blotchy.  Wait the recommended time and then spray paint to your desired color.

I did two coats of spray primer and then a few coats of oil rubbed bronze for my cross. It really does look like it is metal! There is a slight shine of gold when the light hits it.

  I love how it looks with the iron wall piece I have in my dining room.

 

Cross #2
My daughter designed this one all by herself. She wanted it to look like a cross of flowers and then leaves coming out of the ends. She asked me to spay paint the pieces different colors and at first I thought it wouldn't look nice, but thought it doesn't cost anything if we need to make it again. But I love how it looks.

Isn't it adorable? Perfect for her room!

What do you think?

How has your month been? I have been so busy working out this month, I don't miss shopping. I long for sleep more than anything else :)

There are some amazing guest posts this week so be sure to stop by.

Have a great week,
Stephanie

Love is Patient - Our Wedding Reading Framed on my $0 Budget

I am 4 days into my $0 Budget month and things are going well. I have not had time yet to start purging closets but I have made every meal from what we have in the house.  So I feel like the freezer is starting to show some gaps.

I don't think this next project is dramatically different than the framed quotes I did last year here, but I still love it.

Ever since my husband and I got married 10 years ago (wow time goes by quickly), I have wanted to frame a few things that reminded me of our wedding day to put in our bedroom. This is the one place in our house that is just for us; a place for things that I don't need to explain what they means or share why I framed what I did. A place that I can put special things that only have meaning to the two of us and can make us smile and remember every time we look at them.

I will only share my first project now (the other might come later this month if I can do it with $0).

I have always loved the readings from our wedding ceremony. We were able to work with our priest to create our own ceremony by selecting all the readings. I immediately fell in love with the passage from 1st Corinthians 13:4-7. For those of you who think you are not familiar with it, I can guarantee you have heard it. 

 It goes something like this (there are slight variances depending on the version)

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves."

Author: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

As mentioned previously with  my Celtic heart knot project, we love Celtic knots. We love them so much my husband's wedding ring has a continuous knot around the entire band. So when I started to design this quote, I knew I wanted it to have a Celtic influence.

I downloaded a few free Celtic fonts from one of those font websites. I used CelticEels for the LOVE letters and Shrewsbury for the text. 

Using Publisher (you could easily do this in Word too) I created two text boxes, one with LOVE and the other with the remaining text.

 I then rotated the 'LOVE' box by 90 degrees so that is was on the side of the passage.

 

I knew when I was designing it I was going to print this on nice scrapbook paper (since I can't pay to have it developed) but I didn't expect it to take me three tries to get one that I actually liked.

Here is attempt #1 (don't mind the different colors on the word LOVE; I was trying to make it better). I really didn't like the pattern or the blue paper. Fail.

Here is attempt #2. My husband recommended green since it was a Celtic font. Well it looked like a Shamrock shake..remember those at McDonald's. It was a fail too.

 Then attempt #3 required I cut the boarder off a 12x12 inch scrapbook page.

 I ran it though the printer but was still not happy. I wanted the word LOVE to stand out more. I felt that since it was sideways, it was difficult to figure out what it was.

So I lightly colored in LOVE with a maroon pencil color that I stole from my daughter's school pencil case. You can barely see it but it makes the word pop a bit more.

I had a deep inset black 8x10 frame with a mat to make it a 5x7 laying around to frame it with. I am positive I got this frame last year at the Dollar Store.

I am not sure exactly where I am going to put it yet. I like it on my night stand but it also matches our walls really well, so I might hang it. I hope to one day do a gallery wall beside our bed, so it might end up there when I collect enough frames.

What do you think? Do you have a favorite passage from your wedding?

Have any of you come up with $0 ideas of your own? Are we ready to have a $0 Budget link party? If anyone is interested I can do one every Friday or every other Friday...just say the word :)

I will have a great guest post tomorrow so be sure to stop by.

Stephanie