[QM]

I need this challenge badly!...so why not start one? All my family's closets are overflowing and/or messy. So this challenge is one to get me to attack them. Maybe by the end of 2013 we'll all have sparkling, organized closets.

Maybe some Frugal Villagers will want to share their before and after pictures. Since there usually isn't just one closet in the house, many pics could be shared if we wanted to.

We can also share what we accomplished that day to inspire us to persevere.

Let's go, people! Let's get our closets organized! :cheergrl:

 

[Frugal Nurse]

OH!! good one QM!
I love clean organized closets.
There is only one in my house that needs to be cleaned and picked through. It is in the spare room. I bet there's stuff in there I really didn't need. Or stuff I've been looking for.

Great idea.
I can't do this until I get back from my mini ski vacation next week - because of time - but I will schedule it on my calendar for the weekend of Jan 12, 2013

 

[Frugal Nurse]

OH!! good one QM!
I can't do this until I get back from my mini ski vacation next week - because of time - but I will schedule it on my calendar for the weekend of Jan 12, 2013

As promised.. I intend to do this closet this weekend. (sunday after I ski)

Cheers!

 

[QM]

My hubby bought some organizing drawers and he's working on tidying our foyer closet as I type. Yay. I never took a before picture, so I can't post a pic. It's looking much better.

 

[AmyBoz]

You know what...I am COMPLETELY in on this one.

My closet is actually looking pretty good, however, one of the items on my 20 Wishes in 2013 challenge is to give the clothes in my closet a good, hard look and see what I can get rid of, so that will be how I'll deal with that one.

DH's closet is in good shape, although he could stand to give away some things. He is just hesitant to do so because his weight fluctuates and we can't afford for him to continually buy new clothes for work based on his weight.

HOWEVER...DD's closet is a nightmare. The front hall closet is somewhere I think we may lose a small child. The closet in the laundry room isn't horrifying, but it could use some reorganization and the boys closet could use a bit of a tune-up.

So, I am IN like Flynn and I'm hoping to start this weekend with the front hall closet.

There WILL be pictures. :yikes:

 

[AmyBoz]

Okay, here's the front all closet, which is the catchall for shoes and coats and all sorts of other things as people come in the door:


This evening, I went through and:
Donated 13 pairs of shoes and flip flops
Tossed 10 pairs of shoes and flip flops
Moved the beach bag (full of beach stuff and towels) to the laundry room closet
Re-organized the hats and gloves bin
Re-organized the shoes in there (most of them are shoes we are in limbo with growing into)
Re-organized the coats/snowsuits/windbreakers (coats we are currently wearing to the right of the shoe bin, items we will wear in the spring/summer to the left)
Re-organized the Trick-or-Treat containers

And, voila!


One closet down, a few more to go!

 

[Frugal Nurse]

Amy! great job!!! I'm sure glad you picked that closet to start with.
I couldn't take a picture of the closet I was cleaning.. because my phone ran out of space. trust me when I say - that I cleaned, as promised, the spare room closet.
While doing so, I managed to find some things which I could sell at Craigslist or at a yard sale. So I put it aside.



ouldn't take a picture of the closet I wascleaning.. because my phone ran out of space.

 

[Frugal Nurse]

New weekend.. new closet

I spent a good part of the day cleaning out, organizing and inventory-ing my pantry. It was such as mess that we were buying duplicates and triplicates because we couldn't find anything.

Here is the before mess: Please be kind. Haha


And here is the after:



After I took the picture, I added labels to the shelves to keep things in order when groceries get put away. Labels such as 'baking', 'cooking' 'snacks', 'cereal', 'Lily', 'Dog'. you get the idea.

I'm sorry to say that I had to toss a lot of stale food that got stuck way behind and not rotated . But the inventory list should help to use up what we have before it goes stale.


BTW: this is not a stockpile, this is my pantry that we store our everyday food. (I don't have a stockpile yet - I lost it when I moved from the big house during the divorce)

I'm pooped.

Cheers!

 

[Frugal Nurse]

Okay.. I've been super busy organizing, decluttering, minimizing, and inventory-ing what I have in this house.

Today I did the spices cabinet which was a total mess. We kept buying more stuff because we couldn't find what we needed. It was such a pain.
Here is the before mess - just stuff crammed in with no rhyme or reason:



So I cleaned it out, got rid of the junk, the old, and the expired. Here is the new orderly cabinet where we can find what we're looking for. I also took an inventory of each shelf which is divided by Spices, Baking, Cooking. Each shelf is divided by a row and that row is inventoried in order as well. So when we're looking for something, we only need to go by the list to find it.



This is the best I could do with what I have on hand (which is nothing lol). I am on the lookout for a more efficient (and pretty way) way of doing this. Such as having all the spices in one type of jar, or having the raised ledging, or a lazy susan (not my fav things still get lost), or having all the spices on the inside of the pantry door alphabetical (regardless of baking or cooking spice). I've been perusing the internet for systems. It's just that I don't have the extra cash for it.

Any suggestions is most welcome.

Cheers!

 

[oheoh's momma]

I think spices are the hardest thing to organize..... paige's friend got me a spice rack which I have not set up yet...I have all mine in a big basket by the stove I pull out what I want and throw it back in..easier for me....but now have to set up that spice rack.. no advice u did a really good job...

 

[Libby]

FN - have you thought about using baskets from $1 stores? You can label each one by category and then pull out the basket accordingly. To help one step further - I see you have a label maker...you can label the tops so its easier to see whats in each basket. This will give a more uniform, uncluttered appearance when you open the cupboard.

Another frugal idea - use the clam shell containers you get from buying 1 lb strawberries, carefully cut the top off and file it down so you don't cut yourself OR a tissue box, and group spices by category. Again, label the tops so when you pull it out, you can see what's inside ASAP.

Are you able to adjust the shelf height in that cupboard? I'd raise the bottom shelf a bit higher to be one spice jar tall which leaves you room for baskets/trays sliding in and out. Also that leaves you with a taller bottom shelf in which you can store taller bottles w/ease on one side then use an expanding shelf thingy on the other side so you have two levels for storing items.

Something like this:

 

[Frugal Nurse]

FN - have you thought about using baskets from $1 stores? You can label each one by category and then pull out the basket accordingly. To help one step further - I see you have a label maker...you can label the tops so its easier to see whats in each basket. This will give a more uniform, uncluttered appearance when you open the cupboard.

Another frugal idea - use the clam shell containers you get from buying 1 lb strawberries, carefully cut the top off and file it down so you don't cut yourself OR a tissue box, and group spices by category. Again, label the tops so when you pull it out, you can see what's inside ASAP.

Are you able to adjust the shelf height in that cupboard? I'd raise the bottom shelf a bit higher to be one spice jar tall which leaves you room for baskets/trays sliding in and out. Also that leaves you with a taller bottom shelf in which you can store taller bottles w/ease on one side then use an expanding shelf thingy on the other side so you have two levels for storing items.

Something like this:

That's a spectacular idea! I like the $1 buckets the best and organize according to type. Baking, cooking, etc.

The shelves are adustable. And I will adjust them to basket height.

I will hit the dollar store tomorrow. . that will count as a spend day. oh darn. lol

Thanks for the frugal help. Much appreciated

 

[Frugal Nurse]

I spent the last two days cleaning out my master closet. I am participating in the 333 closet project. So, everything came out and only 33 items went back in for the next 3 months.
I am left with 111 empty wooden hangers.


A few empty drawers. and a clean, organized closet.

I took a picture of each garment and matched them up as outfits. I carefully selected each garment to be a mix and match so that I would have lots of different outfits. Of the 33 garments I created 105 outfits and there will be more as I switch out a pair of leggings (worth one outfit) with a pair of tan Dockers (worth 7 outfits). I will blog this experiment and document what I wear each day. Of the 90 days, I don't have to wear the same outfit twice. Pretty cool!

I haven't thought about what to do with my space in there. But right now, the hangers are there and I plan to take them down so I can have it cleared more. But taking them down seems so permanent.

I pared down the items not counted in the 333, such as undergaments =7+7, socks =10, lounge clothes =3, PJs =3, exercise outfits =3, purses =1, shoes =5, jewelry (got rid of 68 pieces of junk), winter coats =1, scarf =1, hat =1, gloves =1 (I know, coats, scarves, hats, gloves, purses, jewelry and shoes count, But I didn't count them. I just brought them to bare minimum. I'm in New England. I need the layers).

I have a few things I want to do with the closet. I really like to get the top shelves put together. Right now there are bins on the top shelf. They serve the purpose, but there are places on the shelves where they are no bins. I would like to get additional bins. Eventually.

 

[onencgirl]

The extra space would be good for stockpiling tp and such if need be.

 

[Hamada]

Well I have really enjoyed looking at everyones pictures. Sat here thinking, hey, I have that, and that, and yea that is what my closet looks like. I reorganized my closets last week. My bedroom closet is still pretty full but atleast organized. Someone was looking out for me since I found a hanging shoerack that looks brand new next to the dumpster. Something I was thinking would work well for me. So it is now in my bedroom closet on a wall holding my many pairs of shoes. Hopefully I can part with more clothing when I switch out my seasonal items. Did throw out clothes last week. To help keep me going I did one closet a day. The two closets I use for stockpiling are nice and neat now. So much nicer to open the closet door and see everything in its place and what I may need to add to the stockpile. Right now it just looks like rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, body lotion, and shampoo are needed.

Feel like I have been doing major spring cleaning here. Atleast it will make actual spring cleaning a lot easier. Even switched out the sheers I had in the bedroom to plain white ones. Bedroom has a more calming affect from what I had before.

I use two drawers to hold my spices in. One is deeper and can hold the larger bottles. I use a dark marker and a gold marker to write the spice on the lid. That way I can open the drawer and see the spice name very easily. It is alot easier for me to use since I am so short and reaching into higher cabinet for something can get cumbersome.

 

[Rebookie]

I'm doing this tomorrow! =D

 

[frugalfranny]

Are you able to adjust the shelf height in that cupboard?

Something like this: View attachment 24726

Yeah, spice shelves can be a demon...........I put the spices that I don't use that often to the back. My shelves don't adjust...........which makes it harder.......then I 'stack them'..........

I re-did my closets last summer......during our BRIEF heat spell..........and am loving them. I need to get down to the basement and re-do a stock pile cupboard that has gotten messed up.

Libby............I use that shelf in my cupboard with my dishes...........the big plates will fit under it......and I put the medium plates on top........I really like it and since so much 'space' is wasted over any flat but big items, (plates) it saves some great space. Coffee cups will also fit under it.

 

[Libby]

My dad thought I was nuts when I picked on up at WM for $5. It makes putting dishes away MUCH easier since the sizes are all separated. I also used one in my pantry cupboard...bags of beans etc on the bottom with boxed mixes line up on top. I took a sharpie to the top of them and wrote the flavours so you don't have to pull out each one to see what it is. I love being able to see what I have on hand and be able to pull items out without casing an avalanche.

 

[onencgirl]

I have one of those shelves for canned goods and one under my kitchen sink.

 

[Scattymum]

Great Idea, Id love to join in this challenge