Front Closet Makeover

For over a year now, I have wanted to makeover our front closet.  It's this little closet in our living that was not functional at all for us.  There was a bar for hanging coats and a super high shelf. What we discovered is that we only stored coats in the closet, but never ones that we were currently using.  I hated getting the crate of mittens/hats/scarves down because it was so tough (for me) and every time you opened the door, you risked a broom or something falling on top of you!

While browsing online I discovered someone made over their front closet by taking out the bar that holds clothes.  It seems like a no-brainer, but it never occurred to me!  From that point, I wanted to do that with ours.  I pitched the idea to Uncas awhile ago and he was on board, but finally this fall we had time to make this a reality!

Here is the before picture:

Uncas really helped come up with the final design. We took out the shelf, repainted the closet, and then Uncas installed the new shelves.  Here is the after:

As you can see, there is a lot more shelving space, which I love!  The very top shelf has our iron, light bulbs and a little tote of misc items. Below that shelf are two hanging baskets.  One has our kitchen garbage bags (it's very important to keep them out of reach of little hands). The other one stores my gardening gloves and lighters/matches.  The next shelf is devoted to diaper changing stuff.  I look forward to the day that we can fill it with other stuff. The hanging baskets below that shelf hold Sammy stuff (leash/poop bags) and the other one has batteries and some tools.  The side shelves hold our hats and gloves.  The top one is a big basket for mine and Uncas' stuff.  The lower shelf has two baskets - one for Eddie and one for Edith.  They can reach the baskets and they know (well, Eddie does) where their hats now go which is great.  On the floor below the side shelves I have a clear tote with some umbrellas and Eddie has a little blue stool.  The vacuum cleaner has a nice home and hanging on the left wall is a step stool.  The broom, dustpan and mop I use for the floors hang on the door.

I know that it's not super "pretty" to look at, but I love how functional it is!  I have been able to clean off the top of my dresser as well as some of the clutter around the house.  And it's really nice to actually have space devoted for our diapers on the first floor!

Our home improvements haven't stopped there! Coming soon I hope to devote some posts about rearranging our basement, our living room and of course, once my new stove comes, I'll be sure to post pictures of that!!!