In the Clutter-Free support group that I run online, we have a focus area for each month of this year, and this month is a focus on closets. The pace of life has been interrupted during the coronavirus pandemic. I hope to read this article ten years from now and remember this time as just one small part of our collective history. But closets…we’ll always have those!

Just a quick–and super exciting!!!–announcement. We’ve launched a new online class, and it’s the one you’ve been asking for: Save Your Photos with SORT and Succeed. You’ll get hours of online instruction to help you find, organize, and share your printed and digital photos. We’re going to answer all of your questions…yes, all of them. At the end of this course, you’ll print a memory book from your favorite photos from last year. **BAM** Just like that! Please click here to get info about the Save Your Photos class, along with a free photo organizing resource list.

And now, onto this fab closet transformation! This particular project was completed two months ago before this virus shut down our lives. While my team and I are not traveling to people’s homes right now, we are honored to be helping many previous and new clients with virtual organizing. If you are interested in scheduling your free discovery session for virtual organizing, please click here.

This home office closet was kind of the catch-all closet, holding gift wrap, home office odds and ends, and even a nearly empty file cabinet. You probably have a closet like this at home. The dreaded high, full-depth single shelf isn’t helping. It’s a reach-in closet, but you can’t really even reach in before bonking your head on the shelf.

The first step was to donate the non-working file cabinet and install a second shelf up higher in the closet. The client’s dad helped out by cutting the original shelf in half, so there was no cost at all.

Once all the excess was removed, we focused on creating a gift-wrap station in the open space.

Pegboards are great functionally, but kind of a pain to work with. I was thrilled when Ikea introduced their Skadis wall storage systems. Yes, Ikea is still shipping during the pandemic. If you can’t get it there, you can also find some Ikea items on Amazon. I’ve included affiliate links in this post so you can easily find all the cool products mentioned.

Unlike regular pegboard, the Skadis line is smooth plastic, so it has a very finished look. I also hangs just like a picture frame, so it’s easy to mount with just a drill and screws. Anyone can do this.

Here is the finished gift wrap and greeting card closet.

I just love all the little Skadis accessories! The roll bars are perfect for displaying ribbon and making it fun to wrap gifts.

The client still needed a home printer, so we tweaked her setup by purchasing a low-profile Canon Pixma printer, which is my new favorite based on price, ease of use, features, and low ink cost. This printer fits neatly on her side shelf.

Aren’t you always looking for scissors when gift wrapping? Hang them, along with your tape, right on the pegboard.

Gift bags are always getting crunched in almost every other kind of storage. But hanging from the wall, we grouped small, medium and large bags on their own hooks. Even wine bags get their own spot.

Here’s another favorite IKEA hack. You’ve seen me profess my love for these Variera grocery bag holders, but they can do so much more. Here they hang from Skadis bungee cord hooks to contain wrapping paper rolls. Your pretty paper stays crisp and ready to roll. Tissue paper is loosely folded and tucked up onto the board itself.

This gal loves greeting cards and fine stationery, but she never had a safe way to store it. Another IKEA product, the Dronjons magazine files provide the perfect storage. They are somewhat see-through, but their metal white construction also gives a uniform look on the shelf. We added Avery hang tags. (I’m not sure why I currently can’t find the Avery white tags online. This is the same item, but they are manila. However, I was pretty excited to find that these Avery white tags also come in Tyvek, which would make them great for garage and outdoor labels! It looks like OfficeDepot still has the white paper tags in this size.)

The rest of her stationery and notebooks were cute and colorful enough to show off on the shelf.

One more time, here is the finished closet. You know I love that everything is up and off the floor! We’re currently on the hunt for a small rolling project table that can slide in and out of the closet, but that’s an item for another day.

I hope this closet project inspired you to clear out a forgotten closet and really make it work for you. This project only took an afternoon, and it’s so pretty to look at every time you open the closet doors! I may or may not have stood there and enjoyed it the way some people binge watch TV shows.

If you’d like to be inspired in real-time to organize your closets, be sure to join the Facebook Group. It’s free, and each Tuesday I’m on a live broadcast to answer your questions on our focus projects. Hopefully, I’ll see you there.

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