A little at a time - part 2

I was feeling pretty good about my toy organization and thought that would be the end of it but then I started noticing all the books and art supplies. Then I got my copy of Simplicity Parenting from ILL and I knew I had a bit more work to do.

But if I wanted to put more things up, I had to create more "up" to put them. I had been keeping most of the art supplies and extra "school" supplies in our living room closet on a bookshelf and that worked but it wasted quite a bit of space Plus things often fell behind or to the sides of the bookcase and it was really hard to keep the dusty bunnies at bay because a broom didn't reach the crannies. But I assumed that installing real shelves would be expensive or a lot of work. But then I saw this post over at YHL and thought, I could do that. So I did. I braved Home Depot with both kids and despite a little issue with the scary halloween decorations, picked up everything we needed. Craig did cut my shelves down for me but I did the tracking installation all by myself. (That is less bragging and more "If I can do it, so can you.")

Since I am the world's worst blogger, my before picture was taken when I was already half way done emptying the closet but imagine it full of bins and art supplies towering in piles.

And here is the after. We did get rid of a few board games since we always play the same few. I didn't get rid of any art supplies but I did move some into this space from the armoire. And the books were an addition. I only got donated a few but moved them from the bookshelf on the left to inside the closet. I left about a dozen or so of Lucy's out and half a dozen for Jonah, divided between the living room, gutter shelves in Lucy's room and Jonah's potty spot.

Top row is my camera bag on left, then a container with future activities, mostly things Lucy did that I'm holding onto for Jonah. And a basket with sensory bin items and bright green hanging file folder container with folders labeled yearly for kids art storage. Next row is paper and painting supplies. Below that are more art supplies and nature bin containing posters and handouts, binoculars and magnifying glasses. Bookshelf is next. I want to add a few magazine boxes to put seasonal books into so I can keep them special and be able to find them easily but that hasn't happened yet. Board game are below and look, you can see the floor! Which means I can sweep - at least until I fill that space :-)

I really like how the shelves are adjustable so I could maximize my space and I also like how easy they will be to remove if I need to. I've used this closet for kid storage almost since we moved in so I didn't mind committing to shelves but I also realize that we have very limited closet space in this house and neither children's clothes are occupying any of that so if they need to in the future, we may need to take this back. But if that happens, I'll adjust and Craig, well, he'll just need to buy more pizza.