closet make-over

Let me start by saying, or rather clarifying, that I am in fact not a hoarder (despite what the pictures below may show). I actually prefer to keep a clean, clutter-free house. Maybe that's why I have this awful habit of shoving every loose item into a closet? It doesn't help that we have six spare closets in our house, which makes them the best out-of-sight storage spots.

My craft closet has been overflowing for over three years now, and I was about to lose my marbles over it last weekend when I finally decided to clean the mess up. Just to let you know how bad it was: I could not locate scotch tape in this closet since mid-2014. I tore it apart that Christmas, refusing to make a trip to Walmart for tape. An hour later and Zach was on his way to Wally World, and I was googling local housekeepers.

When you see the pictures below, you'll notice there are about 6 scotch tapes in a jar. I knew I wasn't crazy! Unorganized yes, but not crazy. Here's a look at the before and after...

Please excuse the poor lighting; but yes, that before picture is real. Wanna see a few more?

Seven giant trashbags, two trips to Goodwill, and four plastic tubs later...a little organization was born.

We found the shelf at Home Depot for a steal ($25 and already assembled!), but were a little disappointed when we got home and it was too big to fit against the back wall of the closet. We made it work, though, and I even have some empty baskets to fill! Any excuse for a trip to Hobby Lobby.

The ribbon-holder came from Zach's Mom; I'm not sure what the original purpose was but Zach sawed off every other wooden rod so that ribbon spools could easily slide on. We spray painted it gold, attached some string, and it works great. We were originally going to build shelves in the closet (and by we I mean Z), but decided not to put any holes in the walls if we could help it. This might not be a craft closet forever, so we didn't want to make any permanent changes.

 One closet down, five more to go! This was the worst though, so I'm hoping the others can be knocked out in a weekend. Wish us luck!
xo, Britt