Big closets are often on homebuyers wish lists. Our first house had decent ones but our current house has even better ones. On the first floor at least, the girl’s are another story. Upon finding the house I began planning out our master bedroom closet. It isn’t the largest walk-in closet, but good planning made it work nicely for us. Recently, over a weekend, IronFish and I decided it was time to tackle O-Man’s closet. Ten-year-old boys are terrible at putting their clothes away, at least in our experience. Laziness is partially to blame for this, but lack of good use of space and function play a role as well.
Closet Before
O-Man’s room was previously occupied by a teenage girl. The double door closet was already outfitted with a closet system. I knew from the beginning the setup wasn’t going to be right for him, but much of the system was adjustable. Moving shelves and hanging bars around, we decided his closet would do until he was older. After all, it’s twice the size of the girl’s closets!
The basket tower was moved over from our old house. Because he often pulled down on the drawers when opening them, many of the baskets were hard to pull in and out. I took the above picture after removing his laundry basket from the lower right hand corner. And most of the clothes he always leaves littering the floor.
Currently, he can’t reach the top of the closet. If I have hand-me-downs to store for him, I stash them above. Sometimes out of season clothes I think might fit him next year end up there also.
Otherwise, it just ends up wasted space. Kid’s closet makeovers can be tricky. Clothes may be smaller now, but for some reason, these kids don’t stop growing! Which means, the closet needs to be able to grow with them.
Oh, and isn’t it awesome how every few years DIY closet systems are redesigned? Sure, they came up with a new, more functional, practical, whatever system… But now the new stuff doesn’t work with the old stuff!!!!!
I contemplated taking the entire closet out and starting over. Or dismantling it and reusing it in one of the girl’s closets. Ultimately, IronFish and I decided we were willing to spend a little bit of money to help control the chaos, but foresee possibly redoing this again when he’s in high school. That whole always redesigning thing…
The Plan
Most of O-Man’s toys are stored in his bedroom too. He’s a stuffed animal hoarder. His collection includes stuffed animals his sisters were getting rid of. Try as I might, he apparently needs all of them.
Previously we tackled much of his toys with shelving and storage cubes along one wall.
This still works pretty well for most of his toys, even though we have to tell him on a regular basis to actually put the toys away!
We knew he needed drawers. Well, drawers better than the baskets. And preferably so I can’t see that he hasn’t folded the clothes! He doesn’t hang much on hangers. Previously, I had added command strip hooks to his door for his bathrobe, taekwondo gee, and a few other things. This actually helped a lot.
And, we wanted to use as much of the existing closet as possible. Much like our master bedroom closet, I turned to my local big box store for closet drawers.
We also decided he needed a dresser. Since I’m constantly trying to get my craft room in order, I decided the dresser I have in there could be moved to O-Man’s room.
DIY Kid’s Closet Makeover
We had to get a little creative with the drawer placement and the “tower” pieces of the closet system. By removing the center shelves in the old closet, the right and left sections became adjustable. We shifted them so the new tower system fit in between.
Creativity was also required for placement of the drawers. As designed, we should have an open space at the bottom and 3 drawers in the lower half. After a few different configurations, I managed to get 5 drawers in. There is a bit of excess space between a few of the drawers, but I’d rather have that than a dead space below and only 3 drawers.
I convinced O-Man to put some of his lesser favorite stuffed animals up on the higher shelves. Some space is still available for more shelves on the upper right-hand side. Or, a big bag of hand-me-down clothes, the next time we get them.
The new drawers are wider but shallower than the previous basket drawers. I was concerned that he was actually going to have less drawer space. But, it worked out perfectly and everything from the old drawers fits in the new drawers.
Plus, he has the dresser next to his closet.
I’m hopeful he will actually be able to grow with the space we’ve provided for him. The dresser is mostly empty. When my parents visited a few weeks ago, they liked being able to put their clothes in the empty drawers. The top of the dresser was a great place to store the suitcase and still make it accessible.
Now with this closet done, I need to get to work on the hall closets… all 3 of them! And the craft room… And the basement…
It never ends!
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