A Kid’s Closet Makeover

Ah a child’s closet…a dumping ground for all sorts of things: clothes, shoes, toys, more clothes in sizes way too small and way too large… It’s amazing we can get out of the house half the time trying to find something to wear. So, although this wasn’t included in my initial home resolutions list (again, do you really think Tessa and I can stick to those limited lists?!?), it’s definitely a project I wanted to conquer in order to make our morning routine a little easier.

My oldest son doesn’t have a dresser in his bedroom so his closet has to be able to hold all of his clothes. I prefer it this way because I think storing kids’ clothes inside a dresser becomes a black hole and kids never wear anything that is on the bottom. I’m not opposed to storing some kids’ clothes inside a dresser but I prefer things like pajamas, socks and underwear. Or, a dresser is always a great place (the bottom drawer) to store toys so don’t just go throwing out your dresser yet.

Here’s a photo of my son’s closet pre-makeover:

Not bad, right? In fact, I’m sure (because Tessa already said this) most of you are saying “what exactly is wrong with that before?!”  But, there are definitely a few things that bother me and my son. Okay, probably only me. First, there’s not enough hanging room and he’s too young to reach the top rod which at six years old is an obstacle to him being able to get himself dressed every day.  Second, the built-ins on the left side are too narrow and shallow to effectively store folded items so everything ends up mixed up and messy. And lastly, this closet will definitely not grow with my child.

In designing his new closet, I identified three approaches that would help maximize the small space to create a closet that worked well for my son:

1. The biggest priority was making sure to increase the space to hang clothes. I find that hanging clothes is the best way to organize for kids (for anyone in fact) because it allows you to see everything and makes it easy for kids to take the clothes on/off the hangers by themselves. So, I knew I had to have a bar that went across the entire width of his closet to maximize space for hanging items.

2. As much as I love seeing clothes neatly folded on shelves, I realized this was not going to happen with a six year old. A pull-out drawer system would keep things contained and I didn’t have to look at the unfolded mess.

3. My final need was storage for out of season clothes. It made most sense for this to be high up in the closet–thereby taking advantage of the entire height of the closet.

Given all of this, here’s the after:

 

You are probably saying, but wait Amy you said you didn’t like dresser drawers to store clothes.  I still don’t and what makes these drawers different is they are much, much smaller so they can’t be crammed with a ton of clothes–the majority of clothes are hung up.  Plus, you can see through them to know what’s inside.  One of the biggest advantages this closet system has over the previous built-in’s is the ability to grow with my child.  Every shelf and drawer is adjustable so it can be moved to different heights or I can add more drawers if they are needed in the future.

Of course, I purchased this closet organizer at Container Store (I’m in my comfort zone there…)  There are, however, similar systems on the market. For example, Ikea and Home Depot both have good customizable options.  BUT, you just can’t beat the customer service at Container Store and the ever so easy instructions that come with the Elfa system. I also don’t think you have as many options with other systems in comparison to the Elfa.  Geez, I should really become a spokesperson for Container Store selling their Elfa system.