So it’s been ages since we first introduced (and then seemingly forgot) a two-post feature where we invite you to tackle a house project right along with us. Last July it was cleaning out our garages, and this time we’re turning our attention to our closets.
Call it nesting. Call it the spring cleaning bug arriving a bit early. Call it whatever you want, but Sherry and I recently got the urge to purge. With the bean arriving in T-minus 10-ish weeks (and loot from baby showers headed our way even sooner) now’s the perfect time for us to donate/toss long forgotten items of clothing and unnecessary doodads that are taking up precious real estate in our closets- and better organize everything else that makes the cut. Plus, my closet has become quite a half-folded mess lately (we men only fold so much…):
So we’re giving in to that urge this weekend, and inviting you to join us. Well, not literally at our house, but to do the same thing in your own home. You get the idea.
And in case you think you’re off the hook because your clothes are perfectly pressed and sorted by color, we’d gonna tackle some other closets this weekend too. Like our hall closet that stores all sorts of memories along with a growing collection of “emergency” gift bags and boxes (nobody needs that many).
Plus, those bamboo blinds that conveniently cover the shelves over our laundry nook?
Um yeah… there’s a reason we conceal this mish-mash of tools, luggage, wrapping paper and what I can only imagine is a lot of dust too…
So now that our less organized nooks and crannies are out there for all to see, we’ve given ourselves a kick in the pants to make it better by Monday. (Do I get 500 bonus points for using nooks, crannies, and pants all in one sentence?). So who’s with us? What could use some purging / re-organizing at your house this weekend? Whether it’s a junk drawer or an entire floor, we’re here to virtually rally your troops and encourage you to take it on. Not only will you gain the satisfaction of a cleaner and more organized place to live, but you’ll actually earn extra square footage (for future storage, or just to allow your house to breathe again). And the self satisfaction of a job well done is pretty nice too (we’re fans of rewarding ourselves with ice cream). We promise to post our “results” next week along with the process that we used to clean house- and we can’t wait to hear how it goes for all of you too. Good luck! And good riddance to all that closet clutter.
Leigh-Ann says
Funny, I was just starting to psych myself up for this very project this weekend. I’ll take some before and after pics!!
Meg says
Glad to know that I’m not the only that doesn’t have perfectly organized closets! I have plenty I can tackle this weekend too!
jbhat says
I gasped audibly when I saw what’s behind your closed doors. Who knew you had it in you?! Thanks for sharing, and be comforted…my closets and storage areas are much worse than yours ever could be. So I’m with you on this project. I was going to start on the garage this weekend…but my parents are coming to town to see the kiddos…and crazily enough, they aren’t too psyced about helping with that project. So NEXT weekend, I promise. Might even tackle a closet or two on an upcoming weeknight, just to get warmed up.
jbhat
Claudia Bravo says
SOME TIPS THAT HELP ME
A/ when you find objects that belong somewhere else in the house have a box/basket close at hand to put these in so you don’t constantly have to walk into other rooms
B/ things I’m not so sure to keep or not I put in a plastic bin the garage that’s specifically for my “not sure I want to donate this” items- if I haven’t missed/needed the item then it’s donated
C / there is a plastic bin specifically for items I find from time to time that I know it’s time to donate. This keeps me from having to less often do one big clean out and donate day. When the bin is full I visit a local charity to drop off the items.
FullertonRegan says
Ooooh, I’m feeling this myself. COuple that with a rainy So Cal weekend and I think I’ll be a cleaning machine. That or a sewing machine. Wait…
Katie says
I love seeing that there are spots in your house that aren’t perfectly spotless!! This is an awesome challenge!
Yulia says
Thank you for those photos! You have no idea how relieved I am to know that your house isn’t spotless and organized! Whew! I’m with you about getting organized. I started a bit ago and already accumulated a sizable pile to take to goodwill.
Kelly says
Ohhh my! I spent a few days a couple of weeks ago cleaning every nook, cranny, closet, and drawer. I didn’t want to do it, but I was snowed in. Now, I’m so happy it’s done! Good luck!
Taylor says
I am soo doing this this weekend too! TIme to move out hte Queen and move in the King…size beds that is!!!!! :) So this means shuffling around the bedroom, finding what has been hiding under the bed, moving a dresser into the hall closet and such….and I just made a trip to goodwill, I see another one coming!
Letty says
JERRY MAGUIRE!
I cleaned out my closet this week, funny enough. And I even had my mom over for moral support; otherwise, I suddenly “get tired/sleepy” after about 5 minutes of simply staring at my closet! Thankfully, my mom helped get my butt into gear. Really helps :) Have fun!
Struggler says
Awww, we love seeing the human side of you guys! I sincerely mean it when I say thanks so much for sharing – especially in the laundry room.
You know, much as I’d love to spend the weekend digging through closets(!), I’m off skiing at Tahoe instead. :)
Emily says
This totally reminded me of the episode of Friends where Chandler finds out that Monica has a locked closet in which she hides her messiness. Rest of the house – perfect. The closet – disaster. I felt so relieved when I watched that episode, just like I feel now when I see your spaces.
Sue says
You guys are great!!!
Rebecca Fox says
I regret to inform you that no points are being given for the use of “nooks”, “crannies”, and “pants” all in one sentence. To qualify for points you must also use one color word (orange? chartreuse?) and a food word (banana? spaghetti?) along with nooks, crannies, and pants in order to qualify for points. Better luck next time!
YoungHouseLove says
Darn. There’s always next time…
Yellow eggplant nooks crannies pants,
John
Lisa A says
OK, i’m inspired. Kitchen cabinets here I come…
MB says
Ha! It may be wrong of me, but it makes my heart happy to know that you guys have messy closets, too!!! Sometimes I look in my laundry room and think, “YHL would NEVER let this happen!” I am 26 weeks pregnant and have the cleaning bug BAD…I’ve already packed up a full carload for Goodwill.
Mrs. Money says
I’m in! I need to declutter my closet like crazy.
Erica says
All of my closets are neat, lol, because most of my stuff is still packed in boxes and stacked in the closet. :-) I really need to buy some closet organizers- then I can’t wait to tackle everything and put it away! (And declutter while I’m at it!)
renee says
Such a lovely post and idea – you are really firing up the masses here!
As a professional organizer, I get a little thrill when I hear of people paring down, giving away, recycling and clearing their spaces for new, wonderful things. Or in your case…new humans!
I, too, was delighted to see your less-than-perfect, behind-closed-doors reality. Thanks for the share!
Lizzie says
Hey Youngsters,
You had me at clutter! I am 27 weeks along with our first child and we just started the *loathed* task of cleaning, making space for baby girl and getting rid of our hoarders-ish ways. We just got rid of 40% of my husband’s closet *which he will be sharing with the little one*, sold his man cave furniture on craigslist and I did my share by organizing my treasured magazine collection.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b12/sunkissis/magazines2.jpg
I have been to the Container Store more times this week than all year. We are working on our nursery and can’t wait to send you pics of our finished room. We follow your blog anticipating any new nursery progress for our inspiration. My husband just finished removing popcorn ceiling in the nursery (after getting a negative test of asbestos) and I was surprised when I didn’t find it on your How To list! We were going to pay someone $500 but he put in 2 days of hard labor and got it done for $30 testing fee and $50 for a sander and supplies. Good luck making your Monday deadline, we are still working on our laundry nook and have only managed to make more of a mess!
Aliya says
Great timing! We had our first baby in December and I go back to work this Tuesday — so it’s time for me to sort out all of my clothes and figure out what’s wearable now vs later.
HeatherG says
I agree that it is WONDERFUL to see that not every inch of your beautiful house is perfectly de-cluttered and organized!!!
We’ve had many HUGE snowstorms this season – so I’ve organized and reorganized every closet, cabinet, drawer, bin, and shelf. But it is amazing how quickly they return to their original state. So please do a follow up on STAYING organized!
pam says
Loving this chest. I lined my daughters drawers with the gift wrap from our wedding gifts, someone told me it was good luck. If you don’t have the gift wrap maybe you could use gift wrapping from your baby showers.
pam
Emily S says
Haha… I think I’m on this blog waaaaay too much! Just yesterday my hubby and I raided our bedroom closet, taking out clothes (that we hadn’t worn in 2 seasons or more) to donate, putting away my maternity clothes (only 18 months later), and generally “spiffing” up the joint. He’s a pack rat and I’m a purger, so I HAD to capitalize on his willingness to get rid of some stuff (hence the dozen items we have for sale on Craigslist). Good luck with your organizing… and btw, my name is Emily, and I’m a basket-oholic.
Chaela says
Speaking of closets…I started cleaning mine out yesterday and have most of my stuff back in there already…I just wanted to rearrange what i had in there because it’s been almost five years…I guess we all need a change now and then:)
jocelyn says
I have been in the same mood to get ride of clutter and clean out those closets.
I just subscribe to The Kitchen Cure on Apartment Therapy…The Kitchen. Weekly assignments to get your kitchen organized and clean. http://cure.apartmenttherapy.com/2010/kitchen-spring/
Plus, I donated 3 big bags of clothes from my closet yesterday. It’s a lot of work, overwelming, but feels so good after you have accomplished cleaning a closet out! Good luck!
Jacci says
Eerie. Really, really eerie. I popped over tonight to check out what you’ve been doing lately and… you’ve been doing the SAME EXACT STUFF I’ve been doing! Crazy. I just finished the second coat of paint on one of our closets tonight – Sam’s putting in new shelves tomorrow (an organizing girl’s idea of a hot date) and I just lined SweetP and Shug’s dresser drawers with fabric last Saturday. I took pictures, too, so it’ll be a post when we get back.
Love the fun prints in the dresser drawers and I **really** loved that you guys showed a little hidden mess. Keepin’ it real :)
~Jacci
Kate says
I can’t get over this post – Why?? Because I almost did the EXACT same thing! My hubby’s out of town for the weekend and I thought it would be a good idea to be productive and clean out our large-and-overflowing master closet. I knew it would be hard to get motivated, so I planned on putting a “before” picture on the blog on Friday night so that I HAD to get a better “after” pic up by the end of the weekend.
You guys are more brave than me though – I chickened out and decided not to show the world what a slob I can be!!
Have fun organizing :)
Jamie says
Ha ha ha I love that I’m not the only one that says “YHL would never let this happen to their closets!!” Thank you so much for showing us your clutter, guys – it does my heart good too, MB!! :)
Miranda says
Haha! This is why we love you so much… putting your clutter up for all to see! Thank you for making me feel like I am not the only one with drawers like that! Unfortunately, my disheveled drawers and cabinets will have to wait. With 2 boys under the age of 3, I only have a few minutes at a time to myself. I will route you on and will be green with envy when we see your perfectly organized closet! Go girl!
krstn says
I so don’t want to do this. I’m painting the baby’s room this weekend – It’s taken me 2 weeks to do – and I know the closet is lurking. I hate the closet. It’s stuffed with wedding dress, husband’s old art, dishware I refuse to give up and other odds and ends.
I am thinking about doing a closet organizer for the baby’s closet. Have any suggestions???
The other closet, in the office, is stacked from floor to ceiling with tubs of old stuff to keep (yearbooks, photos, letters, etc.).
We are out of closet space. Sigh. What I would give for a basement.
YoungHouseLove says
Stay tuned for a dedicated post all about our nursery closet makeover! And of course we’ll share more closet organization details in the upcoming write-up about our other closet overhauls from this weekend.
xo,
s
Brandi says
Timing is everything! It seems like lots of folks are in spring cleaning mode. I’m so excited that we’ll be doing this together, uh, in tadem. We’ve been planning a closet overhaul, I picked up the paint yesterday and tomorrow we are heading to home depot to get nice new pieces of wood cut to replace uneven shelves. I’m glad I’m a couple days behind you so that I can learn from you. I’m always so inspired by your projects.
Meghan says
Like some other commenters, I’m doing the Kitchn’s Spring Cure. I was out of town last weekend, so I am getting caught up on last week’s assignments, but thought I’d share my before and after photos from the pantry and the spice cabinet cleanup.
http://meghanbarbato.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/doing-the-kitchn-spring-cure/
Good luck with the closets! I was just thinking that ours need a weeding out soon, but I’m not mentally there yet. (Maybe after the Cure I can carry that motivation ahead.)
Sarah says
Very excited to read your post…I just embarked on a kitchen clean out this weekend, with the help of my brave mother! Two days later, I’m proud to say every cabinet, the pantry, and a storage closet are cleared, organized with helpful organizational tools and cleaned!
I’d be interested if you have any tips on how to handle recycling clutter.
Thanks for sharing your blog, it’s very inspiring!
Plumber Austin says
Thank you! I have so many closets that need just to be gone through – your article is just the inspiration I need to start.
Diane says
Hi you two – just wanted to say that my husband and I are SO WITH YOU on this! We just spent the last month (not kidding) redoing each of our 3 bedroom walk-in closets and it has made a HUGE difference in how we now view our home. Our closets were falling down hunks of PLASTER with a single bare bulb hanging in each one. We also felt alot of COLD AIR coming in via these poor excluses-for-closets so it was a no brainer to spend a frugal amount of money, lots of BS&T and thinking out of the box to relcaim our closet spaces! If you like, I can send you some before and afters – I am especially proud of our master bedroom closet, which went from bare plaster to a fully insulated, fully lined cedar planks in a week’s time. My husband did an amazing job! I’ll send you a couple of pics in a separate email.
GL with your closet redos – I’m sure it will loke fantastic when it is all done!
~dt~
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Diane,
We’d love before and after photos! In fact we’ll be putting a link to our Facebook page where everyone can upload their closet makeover pics in the follow-up post where we share our progress (coming later this week). Stay tuned!
xo,
s
Tee says
This is something I REALLY need to do. I live in an older place too, and the closets are tiny and there aren’t too many. I have been brainstorming about how I can make my closets more organized. Until this weekend I had a file cabinet taking up half of one of my closets (because it did not fit my decor in the room lol). So, I gave the cabinet to my neighbor, and got a new one from the container store that matches my decor. What a difference it made!
Wilma says
My bedroom and closet have needed a good cleaning and so I finally got around to it yesterday. Being that two girls (21 yrs & 16yrs) share this bedroom it’s usually a complete disaster because the two of us just can’t manage in the small space.
Anyways, I washed the mountain (yes, mountain, it was about 2 feet tall) of dirty clothes that had accumulated. Also, I got rid of about a dozen pairs of shoes that were totally worn out and hadn’t been worn for months but taking up plenty of space. I also removed the old papers, school binders etc, converting most of what I wanted to keep into pdf’s which only take up digital space. The rest went neatly into magazine organizers from IKEA. Old clothes were donated to Goodwill. Party dresses were pushed all the way to the back corner because we didn’t want to get rid of them. I hung all the backpacks and sports bags on hangers where they’re easily accessible, but up off the floor. Now you can actually walk into the walk-in closet that was previously a mountain of stuff.
Thanks for convincing me to get the lead out. =)
Mary B says
Its almost relieving to see that you guys have messy spots like the rest of us! I’ve been systematically purging as I go, through my closets, junk drawers… you name it!
This is another encouragement. I got mine from here (http://memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com/2010/02/40-bags-in-40-days-update.html)
Carrie Council says
It’s funny that you wrote this on Friday and here it is Monday and I am reading it and amazingly I cleaned out my bathroom this weekend. I recently moved back in with my parents and my brother (whom I share a bathroom with). We had so much junk under the sink it was unbearable. So i cleaned it out and while I was at it I cleaned the whole room top to bottom. Nothing like a clean bathroom to greet me in the morning!
Petra says
I was admiring your master bedroom closet, and was wondering what kind of fabric it is, and where to find it? Your blog is an inspiration!
YoungHouseLove says
Those are actually curtains from Ikea. We don’t remember the name of them, but they were $30 for two panels and kind of thick (not see through like Vivan panels). Hope it helps!
xo,
s