Closet makeover

Coming to you from Pullman

I read Real Simple this morning while I was waiting for my snow tires to get taken off (also had regular tires put back on in case you were wondering).  There was a space makeover article and it was just the push I needed to finally get going on my closet.  3 main problems that I have with the closet: 1) it was sagging in the middle...a lot.  I was worried that the whole thing was going to collapse.  My closet in Portland collapsed once when I was younger - it was loud, scary, and very messy.  I didn't want that to happen again.  2) I only had one shelf - I can only stack boxes so high. 3) where could I put all my shoes!!??  So, first things first - the most important thing was to stabilize the middle of my closet so that it would not sag and I could put as many clothes on it as I wanted.  (yeah, this is what I did with my first day of vacation since 4th year started).

Look how it was "stabilized" in the middle.  What were they thinking in the 60's???

New hard core shelf support.

New hard core rod and rod holders.

equals stabilized.  The next thing was to add an extra shelf to get some more storage. 

Double Decker storage - see my "hat person" hats!  probably will need more than 2 hats to become a hat person.

Finally, time to upgrade the shoe storage situation.

Before and after shots shots of the left side of the closet.  Please note the efficient shoe storage, the shirts arranged by color, the boxes looking nice and organized up above, and you can even see the "I want to believe poster" in the corner there. (secrets: boots that are out of season are stashed behind the shoe cubby and will reappear when fall rolls around and baseball hats that I rarely wear and hanging behind the hanging shoe cubby). 

Before and after shots of the right side of the closet.  Please take note of the absence of cluttered pile of shoes, the dresses arranged by color, and my special plastic drawers that will hold only clothes that are appropriate for clinics so that I don't have to search through everything to get ready in the morning.

Things I had to buy: a variety of screws, one closet bracket, 4 shelf brackets, one stud finder, one 6 foot shelf, one 6 foot curtain rod, set of heavy duty closet rod hangers, 2 hanging shoe holders, 1 shoe cubby.  Home supplies from Pullman Building supply and ACE hardware - thank you ACE hardware workers for helping me every time I came in (I think 4 times).  Both the shoe holders are from Walmart (I have Walmart shame...it's similar to Kardashian shame). 
one thing you really need to do projects like this is a drill.  you don't need a saw!  most home supply stores will cut things to size for a small fee.

Things I got rid of: a couple of old posters from undergrad that were stuffed in the back, so not really anything.  I was just organizing, but that doesn't mean I'm not still a hoarder.

I'm just glad my closet isn't going to collapse any day soon.

Oregon Plaque

Coming to you from Portland

This is another idea I got from Pinterest. The idea came from this website where someone sells these for $65, but I thought I would try to do it myself.

I bought a little wooden plaque from Craft Warehouse for $2, some green paint for $1, a roll of crochet thread for $3 and some 1/2 inch nails for $2. First I painted the plaque. Then I found an outline of Oregon online and cut it out. I taped this on the surface of the plaque where I wanted it and then nailed around the outline. This was the hardest part, because the nails are really tiny and it starts to hurt your fingers after awhile from holding them in place. Then I nailed the heart, which is approximately where Portland is located. Finally, I wrapped the crochet thread around the nails on the outside to connect with the heart on the inside. This was kind of difficult, because the heart has so few nails and the thread starts to stack up pretty quickly after wrapping around the same nail so many times. I also didn't know how to tie it off so you can see a knot at the bottom of the picture. I'm sure there is a cleaner way to do that. It only took me about two and a half hours to make and $8 for the supplies. The final product was just okay - worth $8 but definitely not $65 even if it was better than mine. In the end it's just something to hang or lean against your wall.