I pride myself in being organized and keeping a clean house, so I’m actually quite embarrassed to share this “before” photo of the closet in our spare bedroom.  If you can believe it, this photo was taken after we cleared out some of the junk. I’m pretty sure we could have been featured on the “Hoarders” television show.

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The main problem was that we didn’t have any closed storage.  That all changed when I spotted a beautiful dresser at Goodwill.  I knew it was the organization solution we had been looking for.  Also, it was only $35, so I couldn’t pass it up.

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The dresser made a huge difference, but we still had a lot of small  knick knacks (batteries, cords, et cetera) that didn’t have a home. A simple solution was to use  four small green storage boxes from ikea.   They go a long way in cutting down the visual clutter.  Additionally, we did some rearranging based on functional needs.  For instance, the sewing machine was moved to my crafting area, and  Zuzu’s dog food was moved to the pantry next to her food bowl. It was all about figuring out what made sense for our storage needs.

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As a finishing touch, I hung my wine cork chandelier from the upper shelf.   It is a good fit and it adds character to the space.

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I feel so much better now that everything is organized.  It’s amazing what a difference some storage can make.

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Now I’m feeling inspired to tackle our bedroom closet.  It isn’t quite as bad as this closet was, but it could use some help.