Hall Closet Organization

Did you all see Erica’s closet yesterday? I love all the happy colors she used in it and I’m a wee bit jealous of all that space. Mike and I’s closet in our new home is a small “reach-in” closet {I just learned this term recently… in other words… since it’s not a walk-in closet, it’s a reach-in closet}. I’ve seen smaller closets, so I’m thankful that it’s still a double door reach-in, but we are going to have to get a little more creative with our clothing storage in this new home.

We’ve got some plans for that closet, but it won’t be done this week, or next for that matter. So even though it’s been on my mind I’ve been focusing on one of our hall closets for this week’s organizational challenge.

I know you are jealous of that wallpaper 😉

This skinny closet is actually the smaller of two closets in our upstairs hallway. Since we’d moved in we’ve just been sticking toiletries, medicine, cleaning supplies, etc in there as we unpacked. We couldn’t find the items that we needed and it was clearly time for some organization.

I started with a fresh coat of paint. It only took a couple of hours to complete two coats. In our last home, we saved painting closets for when we painted an entire room… but then we’d usually get so tired of painting that we’d just skip the closet altogether. In this house my goal is to paint closets as I organize them, so that it’s a separate, small project.

We had an over-the-door shoe organizer that we were no longer using; but it was too large for this skinny door. I needed it to be about half the actual width, so I cut it directly along the middle seam and then hung it.

Some of the items in this closet are used regularly {like bandaids and allergy medicine} and others are used less frequently {like cold and flu or stomach bug medicine… thank goodness}. We typically buy these drug store items when they are on sale, in combination with coupons. So, we usually have extra on hand. The items in the over-the-door organizer and in the open-top blue totes are items that we use often and/or we’ve already opened.

Everything else is stored in plastic “shoe boxes” with a label. After labeling them, I decided to stick some solid cardstock inside the container to ensure that it’s easy to read the labels.

Inside the door on each wall, I attached a hook for items that can be hung like my travel {left photo} and makeup bags {right photo}. The chalkboard tag with an “L” is for lips. It holds my lipsticks and lip gloss. My other makeup bags are labeled “E” for eyes and “F” for face. This isn’t makeup I’m wearing everyday — but instead of having 6 lipsticks in my everyday makeup bag, I keep these extra ones stored in the closet. I can grab them when I feel like switching up my lip color.

Some of our linens are stored in here too, like pillowcases, bath mats {we just use white towels as a mat} and a laundry basket for our dirty sheets and towels.

And in case you want more what-we-store-where details, here ya go:

Yes, we have a shampoo hoard. We’ve picked them up here and there and our little “collection” has become a joke between Mike and I — however, if you’re in need of any Pantene Pro-v… we can probably spare a bottle. 🙂

What closet or cabinet are you working on this week?