Organization: Small Space Closet

Today's entry is about how I got my small-space closet organized, and how I went

from this:

 

to this:

 

I moved here in a series of four installments:

1. Finding a place to live and nearly getting Craigslist scammed. I also ran into a dude I used to hookup with in Chicago who I haven't seen in years, but apparently he lives here now. Small world. 
2. Taking a one-night trip with a car full of stuff after we signed the lease. That night, Megan slept at her boyfriend's house considering we still didn't have furniture and the house was empty and creepy. I insisted on sleeping at the house, so I slept on the floor of my bedroom on a mexican blanket I bought at an Indiana gas station for $6. I heard weird noises all night and was certain that I was about to be axe-murdered at any moment. Also: sleeping on a hardwood floor was not conducive to actual sleep. It sucked.
3. Taking a second load of stuff down the day before Halloween. It was on that day I decided I wanted to be a tourist and I drove back to Chicago on Halloween dressed as one. 
4. Actually making the move on November 2nd with my car full of the last things, including my kids AKA my cats, Jay-Z and Pete, and my beta fish, Salvador (who is such a badass that he's been around five years and survived a cumulative nine hours in a car.)

So, with all the back-and-forth, ain't nobody got time to actually ORGANIZE. Instead, I threw all my stuff in my room and all my clothes in my closet. It was a mess, and looked like this:

There's aforementioned mexican blanket.

 

I existed with this trainwreck of a closet for FOUR days and then I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't find anything and ended up wearing the same t-shirt/leggings/socks pretty much exclusively.

Something had to change or I was going to lose it. So... this happened.

omfg this picture stresses me out so hard

Yep. All out.

Wait.

Note the window: it's light outside.

Okay, that's better. Now it's really all out.

So now I have a floor of clothes and an empty closet. This was, I'm certain, a subconscious attempt to force myself to actually ORGANIZE. Because I'm really good at being like: "eh, I'll do it tomorrow." And then tomorrow I end up deciding I'm going to build a firepit in the yard or something. Nope. AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN, ASHLEE. Gotta do this now. Ugh. It stresses me out to think about.

So. First thing's first. Look at your space, and decide what you're going to do with it.

Then, decide where you have NONSPACE and decide how you're going to utilize that, too. I had a whole inside wall next to that weird white non-dresser thing built into my wall, and I needed easy access to it, so I decided to hand my purses with the wall using tacks. I put the bigger ones up top so they didn't block my way to the weird shelving unit.

You don't need any fancy hardware to make wall hooks. I used tacks. If you have purses or something without straps, put a tack in at the top and the bottom to form a kind of ghetto wall holder. Duh.

Next, I looked at the space in the far corner and figured whatever I put there would have to be something I used infrequently because I ain't tryna be reaching up there every day. I looked at the mess of stuff on my floor for something that fit this description. Enter suitcase.

Then, I looked back at my space and realized I had more unused NONSPACE. I grabbed my tacks again and went to town building some more ghetto wall fixtures for my hats and scarves.

Next in— shoes and pants. I utilized the shelves for shoes, because I didn't want them taking up all that valuable floor space. In the drawers, I put my underthings (ya'll don't need pictures of that!)

I used two pant hangers for all my pants/leggings. These things are game changers. They give you so much more space and they're only like $8. I put the pants in first (right in front of the door) because, ya know, I wear them every day and figure I need easy access to them. 

 

Next in went skirts and dresses because they're basically pants and I wear them frequently, not to look nice but because sometimes I'm too lazy to piece two different items of clothing together. THEN, cardigans and sweaters because it's November and they're comfy and we got a long winter ahead, boys. (I said that in a very booming, theatrical voice in my head and I hope you read it that way.)

From here I went into total beast mode, so we're skipping ahead to the final outcome:

On top, I have my t-shirts stacked on the left. I used a file box as a divider. Then, I folded and stacked my shorts, pullovers and bulky hoodies, and my Chicago sports jerseys/apparel. I'm a huge Chicago Blackhawks fan but how many nights here am I REALLY going to need easy access to them? (December 10th vs. the Nashville Preds, I'm looking at you.) Finally, I used the space on top of the suitcase for two extra sheet sets I brought because that's valuable real estate up there! 

I used these black collapsable boxes from IKEA on top of the weird built-in dresser. I put my pajamas (rolled the pants) in one, my tank tops in the middle one, and put my socks in the small one. I used to have an entire drawer dedicated to socks, but like, how many pairs do you ACTUALLY need? Probably not more than ten. Also, you can just pull these boxes out when you need something instead of standing in the closet digging around for something.

I also left a path to the weird built-in-dresser/shoe rack, and if I really need to get in there to- I actually don't know why I'd need to get in there but JUST IN CASE- I can just take out the white hamper. 

I stacked some boxes on the metal thing (its origin or purpose, I'm not sure) and put in the white bins/printer below the clothes until I get or build my desk. Then I tucked in a little collapsable step stool ($7) in the front because let's be real here: I've got a lot of good things going for me, but height ain't one of 'em. 

 

Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Glad that's over.