Closet Re-Do On The Cheap

Since I have so much free time on my hands, I've been taking on some projects at home that I wouldn't normally have time to finish in a timely manner. I've been wanting to re-organize my closet for some time now. Me, re-organize something? I know, shock of the century. This isn't a typical how-to post, since this project was designed around the particulars of my closet and possessions. However, I thought the best way to explain myself was through pictures, so I'll let them do the talking. Speaking of pictures, let me preface this post by apologizing for the awful photo quality. A windowless walk-in closet doesn't really provide the best lighting, so we've got pictures with the flash on, pictures with no flash, and crappy pictures all around. BEFORE: in diagram and photo format, naturally The before isn't terrible, I admit that. My biggest problem was that most of my shoes were being stored in their boxes. Since I'm a lazy ass, 98% of the time I wore the shoes that weren't in boxes while my other shoes sat well-preserved but unworn. I decided that if all my shoes were out in the open, in one place I might actually wear some of them. So I set about doing just that. The only problem was I didn't have enough shelf space to accommodate them all, but I figured out a way around that. All I had to do was add extra shelves, in between the existing ones. Buying new wire shelves to match what I have would be ideal, but that costs money. So I scavenged and came up with a solution that only cost me three dollars. Yes, three. I scavenged some cardboard box lids from my mom's office to serve as the shelves. A flat piece of cardboard is fairly sturdy on its own, but by leaving 3 sides in tact the lid would maintain most of its original rigidity and strength. Everything else I raided from my craft supply stash. DURING:

My cardboard lids, before they were reborn as shoe shelves

Making sure the lid would fit on the shelf. It did.

Measuring where to make my cuts.

Using an x-acto and cutting mat, I made my cuts that would position the support structure.

Eye-balling where I wanted the shelf to hang.

When I said support structure I meant leftover ribbon and duct tape.

See, duct tape.

How I wanted the shelf to hang.

How the shelf actually hung. wop wop

After some adjustments, the shelf is behaving.

The back of the shelf sits flush against the wall, adding extra stability.

Taking shelf #1 for a test drive, making sure that the shelf holds weight and leaves room for shoes underneath. Check and check.

As usual, Yo-Yo provided quality control.

After a successful test drive I had to move all my shoes to the bedroom to make way for the "construction" and allow for the super fun organization. That's not sarcasm, I enjoyed that part.

Cutting lengths of ribbon and marking where the ribbon should hit the shelf - this ensured each shelf had equal spacing.

I tied the ribbons into pairs to organize (and cat proof) them, but don't they look sort of pretty? No, just me? Moving on.

I hung the rest of the shelves exactly the same way, so just look at the above pictures 5 more times. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Hooray! The shelves are done!

I know what you're thinking. "She said this project cost her $3, but so far she's only used free stuff!" Hold on, I'm getting to that. My old system didn't have a good way to store my handbags, so I figured I'd work on that too.

I took some shower curtain rings (left by the previous owners of our house, so free) and bought some metal washers (the mysterious $3).

I threaded the washers onto the shower curtain rings to create hooks that would hang from the wire shelf over hubby's hanging rod. (If the knobs on the curtain rings were bigger I wouldn't have needed the washers, but they were small enough to slip between the wires. Doh!) Hello, handbag hooks!

AFTER:

Now all of my shoes are out in the open, just begging to be worn. I grouped my shoes by type/occasion so I could easily find the perfect shoe for every outfit. Except I'm a girl, so I never feel like I have the perfect shoe for any outfit. *sigh*

All but 3 pairs fit on the narrow shelves (and adjacent hanging cubby thing). For the sake of over-organization, I pulled out my business-y heels and put them on the shelf above hubby's hanging rod, so now I have a little room to expand in the main section. I laid down some extra cardboard sheets for the heels to rest on. This serves two purposes: 1) it keeps the shoes from dropping dirt onto the clothes below, and 2) it keeps the skinny heels from constantly falling between the wires.

As a final touch, I arranged my handbags in color order. Would you expect anything less?

So that's my latest trash to treasure slightly better than trash adventure. What have you been up to?