The Closet of Doom

             

   

I think most of us have this place in our home where junk resides. There's usually a junk drawer in the kitchen. And a Closet of Doom elsewhere in the house. Ours resides in an awkward corner of the living room. Awkward because it makes placing furniture extremely difficult. We still haven't figured out a couch layout that makes sense. Either the closet or front door is in the way. But today I cleaned this sucker OUT.

Want to know what was inside this closet?

1- 2.5 gallons of paint. Some leftover from the painters before we moved in. Some leftover from the stripes we painted on one wall of our bedroom. And a sample size of the orange wall in Oliver's room.

2- No less than 4 vacuums. One we actually use. Two are from Idontevenknow. And one is a Dust Buster we use for the cars sometimes.

3- About 10 winter coats. Many don't fit anymore. Also, we live in coastal CA, so... Winter coats?

4- Toys and clothes that have been given to Oliver, but he isn't old enough to play with/wear yet.

5- A rolled up area rug

6- About 20 reusable shopping bags-- where do these even come from? 

7- Gift bags to reuse for other people's gifts.

8- A clarinet, trombone, and music stand.

9- Fruit basket that doesn't work/fit in our kitchen.

10- Ironing board & extra vacuum bags.

11- The door to Oliver's room (uh, that's another story for another day)

12- Leftover plates, cups, and plasticware from our wedding 3 years ago.

13- Extra stroller

...and more, I'm sure.

I took it all out. Everything was sitting in piles around the living room.

I found nooks and crannies in the linen closet and garage. Things have a place now. My donation pile takes up the entire width of my CA King bed. Oh yeah-- I started going through my clothes closet, too. 

Now what do we have? A toy closet! A place for Oliver to play or grab his toys. And when he goes to bed at 8pm, we can close the closet door. And not a toy will be in sight! It's not finished yet. I need to secure the shelf on the wall, maybe put some hooks up or decorate a tiny bit. But it's pretty cool. And what kid doesn't want his own little nook?

                

                             Before                                     After

** sorry for the low-quality photos. I'm doing this all on an iPad and the quality is terrible, especially through the Blogger app.**