That’s right. I pulled a Benita Larsson. For anyone who doesn’t know her, she’s the mastermind organizer over at Chez Larsson and I adore how simple, functional, and beautiful her Swedish home/lifestyle is. So this quick little closet update totally reminds me of her clean/organized/wish-I-was-that-on-top-of-things house that I adore. Benita, among nine other super secret guest bloggers, actually pulls a little cameo appearance in our book, but that’s a whole different story (speaking of which, a million and one thanks to everyone who was insanely sweet and made me happy-cry repeatedly after our little book announcement yesterday). But let’s cut to the chase. This is just a simple tale about some simple white bins. See, thanks to rearranging things in the bedroom, it meant that I now looked directly into our unorganized closet while lying in bed.
Oddly enough, the baskets and various piles of half-folded clothes never bothered me before our furniture shifting spree, but staring at them every night before closing my eyes… well, it got old.
So I decided something lighter, cleaner, and more consistent (aka: the same thing on every shelf) would do the trick. Originally I was thinking white baskets, but when I glanced at these babies on a shelf in the organizing section at Ikea (they’re actually meant to be “waste sorting bins”) the light bulb went on. Literally, I think everyone around me saw something floating above my head go “ding!” and I ran up and grabbed six of them in about ten seconds. Although you’ll notice that I turned them around so the indent for the handle isn’t visible. It just looked cleaner and less busy that way (and they’re still easy enough to grab and slide out like any other drawer full of socks, underwear, pjs, shirts, and shorts – all of which they now contain).
So after a little bit of closet organization (ex: donating that old shredder and putting our old booster seat up in the attic where we store other kid-stuff that Clara has outgrown), things went from looking like this…
… to this…
Here’s the bottom of the closet before…
… and after…
Much better, right? We also thought it could be fun to write on the containers with dry erase markers if we wanted to mark what was in each one – mehaps in a fun scripty font? – but for now John’s been doing just fine locating his stuff without labels (the bulk of the items in these bins are his since my stuff is in the dresser in our room). And we’re definitely loving the clean look. Luh-uv-ing it. Especially me from the bed. Our bedtime chats now go like this:
John: Goodnight Burger, goodnight lady-wife. I love you.
Sherry: Goodnight Burger, goodnight hubs. I love you.
(silence)
Sherry: Goodnight new bins. I love you.
John: (audible eye roll)
At $6.99 per bin, this quick little closet update clocks in at around $40, which isn’t pennies, but could easily have been the cost of about four similarly-sized baskets at most stores (and I love that these can be wiped down/soaked since they’re not woven!). So two twenties is worth the pre-zzzzzzzz serenity. And the audible eye rolls from John. Woot. Have you guys been up to any organizational upgrades? Has your view of a room changed after you rearranged it that snowballed into another upgrade because of that? Or have you found bins or boxes meant for one thing and used them for something else entirely?
Psst- In the whole trying-to-clean-slash-organize vein, here are over 50 other posts on that subject.
I think it looks great and some major organizing tasks are on my agenda for this weekend! I might have to make a trip of my own to Ikea now… I’m thinking those bins would be great for our oh-so-narrow linnen closet! Bravo!
I am OBSESSED with organizing, but admittedly don’t always have the time to stay on top of the drawers and closets. One of life’s simplest pleasures comes from admiring work done to organize.
Recently I completed a couple dollar and few minute organization of my scarves, and all I can say is, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” http://oldtownhome.com/2012/6/4/Getting-Hung-up-on-Scarf-Organization/index.aspx
I’m also still smitten with the results of our basement stairwell turned coat closet. I added miniatiure chalk board labels to wire bins, and I just love the result. http://oldtownhome.com/2012/2/9/Basement-Stairwell-Turned-Coat-Closet—Transforming-a-Tiny-Space-into-an-Effective-Storage-Solution/index.aspx
Thanks for letting me geek out over your new storage this morning. :-)
I love that scarf project! So smart! And the stairwell turned coat closet? Genius. Yay organization!
xo,
s
WOW – right now my scarves are all draped over an over the door towel rack. I have a scarf addiction and have about 50 scarves. This towel rack is hanging over the inside of my closet door. I am so going to put the rings over the bars. I’ve been looking for a way to deal with the scarves getting all messed over the bars and this is perfect!
THANKS!
No scarves here but I’m thinking that may work for my husband’s ties… (I know they make tie racks but $1.25 and 6o seconds is my idea of a perfect project investment)
I love bins like that! There are tons in my closet (and a bookshelf, and under the coffee table, and in my linen closet). They make organizing easy, and keep things looking nice.
It didn’t occur to me until now, but didn’t you used to have a curtain for your closet? Did you replace the yellow one with a white one when you repainted the bedroom?
We actually opted to take down the old one and not put anything back up. We go in and out all the time so it just kind of felt like an obstacle sometimes, ya know?
xo,
s
Yeah, I understand that! My apartment’s closet doesn’t have a door (it’s just open), and the curtain I hung is just swagged to one side. Makes a nice little divider from the rest of the room, but it’s annoying to have to push it back all the time!
Very nice! I cannot wait to take my annual IKEA trip! That place is the best! And while it’s not pennies you’re so right….would cost a small fortune around town.
There may be an audible eye-roll in your house, but here in Oregon there’s an “ooh-ahh . . . ” that travels all the way to Virginia. ;-)
Katy
My friend and I laugh that you can gauge our emotional well-being based solely on the state of our closets. External order sometimes just brings on the inner peace (and ability to tackle other projects instead of being paralyzed by chaos and clutter!)
Haha, I think there’s a ton of truth to that! So funny!
xo,
s
Nice look! I didn’t know that other husbands had audible eye rolls besides mine!! ;-)
Nice! I love Benita’s blog, and she can pretty much do no wrong (in my opinion), so I knew I would probably like what you came up with. Looks lovely and sleek!
WAIT A SECOND… another “Taya” who is a YHL fan????? What are the odds????
Lovely job, Sherry, as always :)
Haha, I love it!
xo,
s
Have y’all thought about a curtain in that doorway? I would hate looking into my closet all the time no matter how organized it was… but of course being able to hide it would just give me a reason to let it get messy so maybe not having a curtain helps with that.
We used to have one in the other fabric of our first set of curtains (which we think we’ll reuse in the playroom) but we didn’t replace it with a simple white curtain from Ikea since it seamed to get in the way. We just wanted it to be a walk-in without a curtain or door for function (Burger’s crate is in there too and sometimes he got peeved at the curtain- haha).
xo,
s
I.LOVE.BENITA.LARSSON. Wish she would come re-do my apartment. Seriously.
The bins look great! In true Benita fashion though, are you thinking of getting a white hamper for the bottom? :-)
Haha, I actually thought about spray painting it but then I embraced it for a nice dark woven anchor color (it’ll tie into the floor once we refinish that). Haha.
xo,
s
I got the best chuckle out of your “audible eye roll”. Love you guys and love the new organization – very sleek!
Looks awesome! Our bed is directly in front of our closets and I need some shoe organization ASAP. I just found some boring grid-box organizers at the container store online…womp womp. I know I can do better than that…
Any cute suggestions for a bedroom closet?
Ooh, I would search closet or shoe organization on Pinterest and google images and just see what comes up!
xo,
s
Oh, I’ve gotten many an audible eye roll from my husband about how excited I get when it comes to organizing. Who can blame me for doing a happy dance whenever I get to bust out my label maker? It’s the little things in life….
Love it! Chez Larsson is one of my favorite blogs too! Everything is so clean and fresh. I wish there was an IKEA closer to us in Kansas. Really looking forward to your book!
Ok, I’m too observant. I noticed your white pouf in the bathroom and not in the little room off your kitchen. Also I noticed in a Clara video on the LIFE page your new rug (from the same room) in the kitchen. Perhaps a new project in that room???
Haha- things just move around a lot around here! I now have the round gray ottoman in the kitchen which used to just sit in an unused corner of our bedroom and the rug moved since we’re thinking about getting a second one for the cooking area but wanted to make sure we liked it there. Will keep you posted when we figure out if we will!
xo,
s
You have perfect timing! HB and I have started searching for apartments which means combinging all our our stuff and my pets into one small space. It’s going to be a challenge – and a fantastic adventure. Thanks for the easy link to all the organizational stuff at the end of the post. I’m going to be needing it!
Aw thanks Kasey! Happy to help. And good luck with everything!
xo,
s
Does John really call you lady-wife? I think that’s adorable!
Haha, yeah. He’s a quirky one.
xo,
s
Perhaps it’s an influence from all of the Game of Thrones watching that’s been mentioned!
Hahahah- he’s been saying that forever. But G Of T has been inspiring me to say as many titles in a row as I can randomly (ex: while filling Burger’s food bowl I’ll say “my lord, my lady, my king, my liege”). Sounds weird, but it’s kind of hilarious to us.
xo,
s
I wish we had an Ikea that wasn’t more then an 8 hour drive away!
Looks lovely! Much more sleek, and it doesn’t detract with the pretty white frames and pouf. Someday our closets will be more organized…. *wistful sigh* ;)
Um… love the new bins by the way. Figured I should comment on that too. :)
We’ve been thinking about removing the door to our linen closet and upping the organized/cute factor in there and these bins would be so perfect! Love that they can be wiped down, too.
Love this upgrade! Sometimes the little things that we do in our house make me happier than the big things!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way about a pretty closet space. I smile a happy smile every time I open my hall closet and see my pretty bins all labeled and lined up.
LOVE the bins. FYI I have the same Target PJ bottoms. ;)
My closet door is always shut, and I’m pretty sure it will never be organized. My husband rolls his eyes in annoyance when I organize drawers in the kitchen, so I can only imagine what’d he do if I organized the closet haha.
I feel the same way about bins! Currently, I’m working on my summer challenge to minimize so I keep everything out so it’s in my face all day.i would love to be able to put it in bins so I could not be haunted by it! Hmmmm, perhaps if I just put it Ina bin on my counter that would be halfway there, right? http://thefirstapartment.blogspot.com/2012/06/summer-challenge-2012-minimize.html
~Katy
I love that summer challenge!
xo,
s
Ooooo now I wanna know who the secret other bloggers in your book are! You’re great at dealing out the tid bits to us!
NICE!
I’m not sure what my problem is, but I always get overwhelmed when I look at storage containers, so things usually look more like your “before” pictures, which isn’t bad, but I’d prefer the “after.”
Light bulb moment for me too. That’s exactly what I need…those little white bins for my closet. I have the exact same thing! Thanks, SP (and BL)!!
It is great when something so simple looks so great!! What a difference.
I LOVE Benita’s blog so much. No daily blog tour without chezlarsson :D And let me tell you this, Sherry, you’re not the only one that wishes she was as amazing as Benita when it comes to organizing. After I read the blog post about her kitchen cupboard, I immediately located a Muji shop in Munich and went there to marvel at those white containers…
Also, I pre-ordered your book today. So excited :)
Oh man, so much cleaner!! I wonder if those will fit on my bathroom shelves— love the unified white look. And totally agree with the easy to clean aspect, especially when it comes to possibly using them in my bathroom. I spent 20 bucks on ONE basket, which works, but is a LITTLE too tall… we shall see. Maybe an Ikea trip is in order. Bravo Sherry, Bravo.
Yes…I am the Organizing Queen…just had a successful garage sale almost pulling in 1,000 selling my junk. Then organized 37 years of pictures to keep but more to distribute back to friends and above all grown children. Then last but not least ….a day of shredding old bank statements, bills.
Sure feels good.
Sherry….you know I love a good book as I have sent you my reading list…Have you read GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn? OMG! It is a thriller like no other. Please read it. You will not be able to put it down. You will love it.
B.
Ooh I hear it’s so good! Will have to check it out!
xo,
s
Wow! Loving all that white! My friends don’t understand my obsession with crisp white things and I tell them go read YHL and you will get it. You do it best!
I’m a huge Chez Larsson fan and just did this very same thing 2 weeks ago! I found 12 square white bins at The Dollar Store of all places…well at $1 each, it was the best investment ever. I always find myself wishing we had the same ice cream tubs that Benita uses over in Sweden…oh well, I don’t really need to eat all that ice cream when the Dollar Store bins will work! Haha. Btw love your BL closet! :)
Yes, those ice cream tubs are the best!! Although dollar store bins sound awesome too!
xo,
s
Love organizing! One of my favorite projects was redoing our linen closet – it got all white shelves, and we have white towels so it looks nice and fresh. Then I took all of the random bottles and stuff and put them into category bins (and made awesome little chalkboard labels for them) – it’s made a huge difference when we open the closet, and now Brandon and Erika can find things on their own – yay! We also don’t end up owning six different tubes of toothpaste since we can check the teeth basket to see how much we have.
Now if only I can get our study (aka – the giant upstairs closet/bathroom staging area) back under control…
Nice! I also love that vase on your vanity counter. Where is that from? I think that is my all time favorite color. :)
Thanks! HomeGoods!
xo,
s
Does Clara only use the yellow highchair now?
Such a big girl!
Yes, sniffle sniffle. So big!
xo,
s
I recently organized our pantry and hall linen closet, I need to work on the bathroom cabinets and master closet too! Your sweet post just might inspire me to start. I just dont want to sort all those old clothes!
i didn’t think the before was too shabby, but WOW the after is fabulous!
Great pics and some great thoughts. Sometimes simplicity can do more wonders, than we can imagine.
I just wish we had an Ikea around here. :(
Will they scratch your shelves as you pull them in and out? Maybe little felt pads on the bottom would avoid that?
Thankfully they’re really lightweight so they’re sort of slippery. It sounds crazy but they don’t drag they sort of glide. Maybe once I repaint the closet (it’s in rough shape) I’ll add those pads just in case though! I love that!
xo,
s
I just saw a woman at Ikea looking for those same bins for her pantry. She couldn’t find them in the Kitchen section, but since I had picked up some in red for our kitchen I knew to direct her to the Home Organization section of our local store to find them.
As for scope creep on projects – the first thing I thought upon seeing the ‘after’ was that you should spray out the laundry basket in white… then thought it might get too white in there, so decided it was time for you to stain the floors darker. Which ever works for you though… (shaking with laughter at the suggestion as I typed that)
Hahaha, yes! I thought the same thing! I should spray the basket turned into I need to refinish the floors! Haha.
xo,
s
I need to do that pronto!! We are still working on getting our closets in after renovting the upstairs so we now have piles of clothes on the couch, near the bed, on chairs. It is DRIVING ME NUTSO!
I absolutely love the white bins. Not only do they keep things organized but have that ‘clean’ feel to them. :-)
P.S. – LOVE Ikea…how can you beat that price?!
Don’t you just love practical solutions like bins? It just streamlined that closet shelving like whoa…we are currently trying to finish laying flooring in the office today and hopefully by tonight we can start moving the furniture in. Haaaayyy!! Hoooooeee!!
My best, Lynn
Love your new updated closet bins. I’ve been eyeing some bins at Home Depot that I’d like to get because they are so pretty. Unfortunately, they aren’t $6.99 like yours were…so they haven’t come home with me yet.
I love everything about this post! I’m so glad everybody made you happy cry, I’d never heard of Benita Larsson, but I followed your link and already love her, and I love happy marriages!
My husband can’t roll his eyes, so he sort of wiggles his whole head at me.
I am away from my husband for the week and started missing him the moment he dropped me off at the airport, so perhaps I am just overflowing a little bit with love. But yay for you!
Haha. I love that he calls you lady-wife. It’s like Goodnight Moon for decor obsessed adults.
Haha!
xo,
s
I noticed your hamper and I think I have the same exact one. Did you get it from Target and just remove the top to it? Mine has a top with hinges on the back. Never thought about removing it but loving that idea!!
Yes! I just unscrewed the hinges since it wouldn’t tuck into that nook and still open with the lid. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Why am I just discovering that blog?! I guess I know how I’m spending the rest of my hours today… :)