Live More With Less: Week 1 (Master Bedroom)
Posted on February 20, 2013
by Heather Laura Clarke
2 Comments
Who’s ready to see lots of closet-chaos photos and then some really lovely after photos? Of course you are! That’s why we read blogs, isn’t it?
I knew immediately I was going to begin with our master bedroom — not because the room itself was in bad shape, but because the closet was OUT. OF. CONTROL. That was the main focus of the week.
You may recall that I
organized and overhauled our closet back in August. The basis system was good, BUT things got a bit screwy when I gave a bunch of baby boy clothes to my friend, B. My closet never recovered from that purge, which doesn’t make a lot of sense, since it should have been EMPTIER. Anyway.
Let’s begin!
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| Here’s what our closet looked like “before” (a.k.a. in August) with tons of bins of old baby clothes |
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| See? More baby clothes below. It was cray-cray. |
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| Here’s what it looked like last week. Outgrown clothing explosion and general mess. |
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| I had a lot of extra space without the baby clothes, so I decided to move things from our ultra-jammed basement (that has practically zero storage) up to the master closet … |
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| Believe it or not, these are “sorted” piles |
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| The piles … ugh, the piles … |
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| Our room looked like this for nearly the entire Week 1, while I dealt with the mess in 20- minute chunks here and there |
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| Two massive bags of clothes, plus smaller bags of shoes, coats, hats, mittens, etc. |
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| Oh! Progress! I’m starting to see empty bins! |
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| Part of my Week 1 goals was to get D’s dresser BACK into his own room. It had been in our room since he pulled it over on himself, and I was determined to make Darling Husband mount it to the wall — and get it OUT OF OUR ROOM, PLEASE! |
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| Another lovely corner of mess … |
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| I decided to store our holiday decor bins in our master closet to free up room in our crowded basement (you’ll see that in an upcoming week), so here they are … I dumped and ran, apparently. |
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| So many clothes … SO MANY CLOTHES |
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| I dragged up our old wrapping paper caddy (stolen from my mom years ago) and decided I was SICK of the way the tall rolls prevented the top from closing. SICK, I TELL YOU! |
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| So I stored the paper in a tall hamper instead, and moved my collection of ribbon, bows, tags, tape, and gift bags into the old caddy. Perfect! |
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| I’m big on hoarding cardboard boxes to use for wrapping presents, so I used this under-the-bed bin to keep them all stashed out of sight. I added my bag of tissue paper, too.
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Are you ready to see the “after”? …
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| The first bin stores balloons, streamers, tablecloths, banners, loot bags, and other birthday supplies. The next two are for specific holidays (Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day), and the fourth is just for tissue paper poms — which I use at various occasions throughout the year! |
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| Each of us now has a plastic tote dedicated to our memories — cards, letters, special childhood mementos, etc. The kids’ boxes contain their baptism candles, birth announcements, birthday party invites, copies of our Christmas card each year, first soother, first bib, etc. |
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| This side of the closet is pretty self-explanatory! I added the hanging organizer to keep our “extra” shoes, so that we only keep the everyday ones in our mudroom/front hall closet. In the summer, we’ll drag the boots up here and bring down the sandals and sneakers. |
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| I didn’t change the contents of these bins from my previous closet makeover, but I *did* use my label-maker to add labels. In case you’re curious, we have: “Accessories,” “Receipts,” (for clothes and gifts) “Workout clothes,” “Painting clothes,” (DIY necessity) “To be worn again,” (a spot for my PJs) and “Tights/Nylons” (I haven’t worn tights since having kids, I think, but I might again someday … maybe?) |
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| Two bins for handbags (as well as those little receipt folders and clutches), my jewellery box, my necklace stand, a few beloved NYC mementos, and my sweet Billy Bunny! |
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| Here’s the whole back wall … |
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| To the right of the door, I have a set of hooks for belts/ties, etc. And this is my spot for hanging jeans, sweaters, etc. that I only wore for a couple of hours, and can wear again before I have to wash them — we all do it! It sounds silly, but having a designated spot like this prevents you from draping them on the back of chairs, dressers, etc. |
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| This isn’t a very pretty section, but it’s necessary. Laundry, gift boxes/tissue, and Christmas decor.
I decided to keep the entire family’s out-of-season coats together in this section of the closet. Leaving the kids’ coats buried in storage bins just meant I would forget about some of them until halfway through a season. This way, I can do a clean “replacing” of everything in the front hall closet as soon as the weather warms up. |
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| Darling Husband has a teeny section of clothing, and the wrapping supplies stays nice and accessible — no digging around in a CROWDED basement under-the-stairs closet trying to wrap a damn present! |
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| The little white bin stores to-be-wrapped gifts, and the whole shelf will hold gifts year-round — it’ll be very full at Christmas! |
So that’s the closet! It’s well-used and holds a LOT of stuff, but it’s well-organized and I know I’ve only kept what I really need.
Here are a couple of shots of the rest of our bedroom — which got a nice furniture-polishing, dusting, etc. in honour of the Week 1 challenge.
I should point out that although we painted the walls (I love this green!) and hung this black-and-white photography, we haven’t “done” anything else to the bedroom. The curtains came with the house (I hate them) and the bedding is just neutral stuff we’ve had for years (not a fan). I’m waiting for the perfect fabric/bedding to go with my green walls — it’s been a hard wait!
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| Can you spot our “Livin’ on a Prayer” lyrics on the wall? |
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| Can you see our “C” on the wall? It’s modpodged with our marriage certificate (thanks, Pinterest) |
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| Our room is the ONE spot in the house that doesn’t have a zillion photos of the kids — it’s just about us! |
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| I smile every time I see these old photos of me and Darling Husband. See the one of us in the Corvette? That’s our wedding in Las Vegas at the Little White Wedding Chapel Drive-Thru! |
In the end, here’s what got the boot (and is its way to a new home) from our master bedroom/closet:
- Two garbage bags of clothes from me and Darling Husband
- Two garbage bags of baby-boy clothes
- Two garbage bags of baby-girl clothes
- A big bag of baby-boy outwear
- A big bag of baby-boy shoes
- A bag of baby boy linens/blankets
- PLUS: Eight bins of baby-boy clothes (given to friends just before the challenge began)
Thanks for stopping by to check out my organizing progress during Imperfect’s Live More With Less challenge. Come back next week to see what I do with our toddler’s bedroom!
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xoxo
Heather's Handmade Life 
Your hooks for clothes you'll wear again? Brilliant! I'm totally copying you on that – I wonder if it will keep Mr. B (and me from time to time) from tossing things on the floor of our room.
Your closet and bedroom look awesome! Great work.
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Thanks, Emily! And thanks for hosting the challenge — it's exactly the kick in the butt I needed!
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