Conquer Clothing Clutter Part 2--Final pics

For those visiting from IHeartOrganizing.com's link party, here is the 1st post: http://thegeekids.blogspot.com/2012/06/conquer-clothing-clutter-part-1.html

Day 3: Finally finished! It sounds bad, but I used to dread going to the boys' room. The whole, "the kids have too many clothes, and yet we try to get them to clean it up anyway" syndrome. I think it's going to be much more manageable for them, since the quantity of clothes has been significantly been reduced and also with being able to reach what they use the most.

Collin had  two 13 gallon trash bags filled of too small & excess, plus  another bag full of pants with holes.

The final outcome:

*Note: I ended up finding pant/skirt hangers we already had to hang the pants & shorts as it was less bulky*

I also had to do a Target run this afternoon. While going thru Collin's pants it was discovered that he had only 2 pairs of pants that 1)were the correct size and 2)didn't have huge holes in the knees. I got a couple pairs of inexpensive jeans  for him. Our Target had really slim pickings for pants his size, so I may have to either try another Target or try Children's Orchard later next week.

So nice, visually to see. I literally took so many pictures & took in quite a few breaths to admire the change.


Before:

After:

Conquer Clothing Clutter part 1

Over at IHeartOrganizing.com this week, I was challenged to tackle clothing closet(s). I am taking on the boys' shared closet. This'll give me the head start I need before school starts this fall. Luckily, for a small fee, the PTA will take care of school supplies for us, so my main job this summer is to go thru clothes & keep the kids super busy. Here is our before shot of the boys' closet.



Definitely not working out so well for us. Plus Drew's got a bigger dresser than Collin, who could sure use the extra space.

First order of business: take out the hanging shelf I had in Drew's side. I also took out the toy box, as we have tons of space in the living room in a 1x5 Expedit that we got from the "as-is" at Ikea in April. Next, I re-installed the bottom closet bar. I took it out a couple years ago, when I caught the boys trying to swing on it. Hopefully, history won't repeat itself. I'm going to keep the bulk of Drew's clothes(pants, shorts & tee's since it's summer) on the bottom bar, so he can get them himself. I may swap dressers between the boys, I'm not sure yet.



Then, I had to figure out the daunting task of how many of each type of clothing is appropriate for Drew's lifestyle. He starts up kindergarten this fall, but is unfortunately still at a stage where he is having a lot of accidents. I decided to keep 7 pants, including dressier pants for church, 5 shorts, and 10 t-shirts. Still have to go through other things(including excessive amounts of pj's), but will likely keep 5 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve dressy(for church) shirts, 3 long sleeve church shirts, and 3-4 pairs of pj's.

Finished up day 1, and Drew's side of the closet is mostly together. Can you believe this little guy had this full of a bag that were either too small or just in excess?



This is the dresser that once upon a time both boys shared, but the past at least year--maybe longer--has been holding only Drew's things. I have moved all his clothes to one side(3 drawers-one for undies, one for socks, and 1 for pj's) so Collin can have more space too. I'm going to be making some picture and word labels, since both boys can only read a little. The pictures will show what goes in the drawers, and the word will either say Drew or Collin so they know which drawers are theirs.



Day 2: Started with Collin's side by emptying his hanging shelf, and putting back in the bottom bar in his closet.

The pile on the bottom bar of the closet is just Collin's t-shirts. I'd say there were well over 25.

I'm also making sure all the hangers match--it doesn't cost a lot, and our budget on this organizing project is little to none. I only spent about $4-5 on 4 packs of hangers.

This morning, before school, I managed to go thru all the t-shirts. Quite a feat. I had Collin try on a handful and do the arm test(hands over head to see if the bottom of the shirt exposed his tummy), and chose 1 that fit and 1 that didn't to measure the rest against. It is very difficult to get him to stay there and go thru all the shirts like that. I imagine most boys are like that, autistic or not. So the break was a good idea. I had a small pile left that I couldn't figure out and had him try those on and he got reinforced with a couple spots on his token board(he gets x many tokens for good behavior and earns something that highly motivates him). Then it was time for school.

In any case, this is about as far as I got with Collin's side.

This is what's still left to go through.

I'm not even halfway done with Collin's clothes, and he's already filled a 13 gallon size trash bag of too small clothes and ones that were in excess. As often as we do laundry, 10 t-shirts should be more than plenty. There is also a second bag now filled, just of pants with holes in the knees.

Here is our before shot:



And here is the current progress(obviously, not finished yet. The small dresser will likely be moving out of the closet by one of the walls):

No-sew diy charging station part 2

Fabric is now all attached with the adhesive spray. All that's left is to cut out 3 circles for cords. This is partly why I chose this particular fabric--circles are already there for me. ;) That and it's not to girly for Tom. The colors go well with the green on the walls in the kitchen too.

Total cost was ~$15, since I had to buy the adhesive spray($8) & buy a multi-outlet plug strip($7) for everything to go into.

A no-sew diy charging station

I've been inspired by today's IHeartOrganizing blog post on using what you have but re-purpose it, as well as another post she wrote on covering cardboard boxes in fabric so it looks nicer.

The idea hit me today when I found an empty shoe box.

Starting materials: Shoe box, 4 pieces of foam from a jewelry box,  2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbooking paper cut to size, 1 piece of fabric a little bigger than the bottom of the box(to cover foam), and outside fabric

Using double-sided tape, I taped down the 5 pieces of scrapbooking paper that I had measured

Added one layer of foam(2 pieces). The foam is to help it sit higher in the shoe box.

Added the other foam pieces, this time, upside down. I had contemplated putting the  phones & ipod just on the foam, but needed contrast, hence them upside down.

Ended up covering the foam with the fabric, just tucked the excess in & under the foam

Testing out width. This'll hold what it needs to: ipod & 2 cell phones

All that's left is cover the outside of the box(need to run & get spray adhesive from Home Depot) & cut 3 holes for the chargers to reach through.

Medicine cabinet done

More organizing--medicine cabinet

I amazed Tom today, with this idea I saw on Pinterest or maybe it was on some organizing blog I follow. I can't remember. Forgot to take a before, just know that it was so really bad & packed like a catch-all. Our medicine cabinet was projectile, avalanche-like, and hard to find anything. Look at the bottom shelf on the right, where I still have to get some more containers. It was like that across the whole shelf, every shelf. $3 each for the 6 containers at Target. The top shelf has a deeper container, for some prescriptions, which I think was $4. I may go back, and find 2 more of the narrower containers, to turn sideways  and put 1 on the side of the 3 stacked we have on the middle & bottom shelves.

I stuck labels on the sides & lids. Bottom shelf is: 1)Medicine spoons/thermometer, 2)Children & infant pain meds, 3) Children cough meds, and 4)a sideways square container for Teething tablets & teething gel. Middle shelf is: 1)Tom's cough drops, 2)My cough drops(I have menthol free), 3)Adult cough meds & pain meds. And top shelf, is my prescriptions

Almost finished product

Just have to finish up with maybe some bins for the twin size sheets, that we have a ton of.

From top to bottom: before, during, after

Online window shopping/idea hunting

I've been going through multiple websites to help out get things organized around the house. One of the banes of this house is the hall linen closet. It's not the size so much as the door is super narrow, 17", while the rest is 26"x26".

Currently looks like this, on a good day, with a big space at the top that's not being utilized.

Awhile ago, I called up some random closet organizing company for free advice, and they said typically shelves in a closet like this should be 12"-14" deep and spaced about 12" - 14" apart in height.

An online design website, gave me a design of something like this. I don't know that I'd do a mix of wood & the ventilated type shelves. I kind of like the idea of the ventilated/wire shelves and maybe shelf dividers(like these).

Shelf dividers

Closet design

Eta: Thanks to my brother, I was able to get this custom design below.