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My Closet’s Amazing Transformation for the New Year

Before kids, I was one of those Type-A hyper-organized people who never forget a thing and went around reminding others of their own schedule. Everything in my apartment was in a certain place and super clean. After kids? I spend about 10 minutes looking for my car keys before I need to go somewhere — sometimes they’re under the ice cream in the freezer. I’m lucky if just one room in my home has some sense of organization, and to be honest, it really affects how organized or chaotic my mommy brain is at any given time. So to start the year with some sort of sanity, I’ve worked hard — OK, my husband did most of the work — to create a space just for me that can stay relatively organized and clean. Well, except for when my 11-month-old tears it apart while I attempt to shower for the day. But all-in-all this closet transformation is a win.

reading in closet

My Amazing Closet Transformation: Before

Our house is just a month shy of being a year old. Pretty exciting, right? As far as California closets go, mine is fairly spacious so I was pretty excited when I saw it for the first time. But after I moved all of my things into the closet from our old place I realized that the current design didn’t really utilize the space well. It allowed for a lot of clothes to be hung up but didn’t leave room for books, purses or shoes in a way that actually looks nice. Most of my bags were stuffed inside other bags to save space, a lot of my exercise and work equipment were scattered throughout rooms in the house with no real place to put them, and everything else was just kind of thrown in my closet until I could figure out what to do with it. (We moved into the house the day our youngest was born so as we slowly brought stuff in after I was discharged, a lot of it just landed in my closet until I could get to it.)

Right side of closet before redo

I knew that I wanted to come up with a better solution but I wasn’t sure what to do until I received an email about a closet organization company. Modular Closets sent me a few of their closet pieces to try then my husband and I figured out a layout that would best fit what we had been sent and the needs of my closet.

I went through everything I had in the closet and donated about 60% of it. If I hadn’t worn something in the last 6 months to a year and it didn’t have sentimental value besides that I’ve had it for a  while, then I made myself put it in the donation bag and not look back. I had brand new flip flops, hats, scarves, etc. that I knew I’d never wear, and some containers, too. It was freeing to unload something like 8 garbage bags of things. I also wanted to be sure that I had the right amount of clothes to fit my new space, which I anticipated would have more shelving and less hanging space.

closet redo before and after

My Amazing Closet Transformation: After

Taking out the old closet system was a lot easier than I thought, but I was glad to have my husband take over because it wasn’t the ideal job to do with a baby in tow. After removing the old hardware, we sanded down the walls, applied putty for the holes in the walls, and then painted over the areas of the closet that needed it. It’s best to use any leftover home interior paint that you have in the garage, but if you don’t have any on hand, try to opt for matching the color with zero VOC paint. (I always go zero VOC, but the paint samples we were given from the builder were obviously regular paint so it took about a month or three for my closet to stop smelling awful after painting.)

We bought a table saw, another large tower with shelves and some extra metal rods with hardware to finish putting the closet together. I finally have a space for my clothes, camera equipment, books, workout stuff, bags, and nursing pillows! We’ve added a few more shelves since these pictures were taken and I’d like to add a few drawers for accessories, maybe some wall decals or wallpaper, and some wall hooks, but overall, I think it looks awesome! I have a large shelving area on both sides of the closet, as well as two long hanging clothing areas and two short hanging clothing areas. All of the shelving is easily adjustable, so I can add more shelves and make the space between each smaller, or remove a few shelves for a larger spacing.

My Amazing Closet Redo

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