Jacob's Book Closet.
A few days ago, I walked into Jacob’s room and realized that his room had officially become a disaster zone. Things were spilling out of his closet, books and clothes were all over the floor, and I could barely see the floor.
So I set a timer for 20 minutes to see what I could get through. When a project seems SO unmanageable, this is my little trick. Almost anything can be accomplished in 20 minutes… maybe not the whole room, but a section of it. So I picked up all of the clothes from the floor, tossed them into the wash, and got started on his closet.
For reference this is what his closet looked like. The door wouldn’t even close!
We’re lucky in that Jacob has two closets in his room. One larger closet with double doors is where we keep most of his clothes, spare bedding, and everything else you can imagine (this closet will get its own makeover next week if I can find the strength to do so!).
And by his doorway, there’s a second closet with shelves that I turned into a little library for him when we first moved in. Initially, his books took up 1-2 shelves. But as he grew older, the books accumulated (because who says no to more books??) and suddenly, they were all over the place. You open the door and books fall onto your feet. It was hazardous!
The very first step to decluttering any space is to remove EVERYTHING. I emptied the closet onto the floor and started sorting into piles. One pile to donate to our local library, one pile to donate to the school, and a third pile to move into Ava’s room. Next, garbage and recycling bags for torn pages, loose items, and old art projects that had seen better days. I also corralled a bunch of unused, untouched stuffed animals to donate to a local organization.
Once everything was in piles, I started sorting his books into categories and placing them back inside the closet. All of the encyclopedias of dinosaurs, socks, animals, etc. went on one shelf. Various series on the next shelf. I also organized a third shelf for seasonal books (Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween, Valentine’s Day). We like themes over here!
On the lowest bottom shelf, I placed two baskets that we already owned so Jacob has a spot for his Pokemon collection: one basket holds his card binders, another holds the boxes that he’s saving. Below are some of my favorite decorative baskets & bins, perfect for an closet or kid’s room:
On the floor of the closet, I places a storage ottoman that he had in the main part of his room. It actually holds a ton, so I filled it with a bunch of miscellaneous toys and then put on the lid. Out of slight, out of mind (for me!) but he knows where everything is so it’s easy to access. The ottoman also doubles as a step stool so he can reach the upper shelves of books! This ottoman is about 15 years old and made of faux leather — something that my husband had in his law school apartment! It somehow moved with us over the years and when Jacob was born, I reupholstered it with some cute pinstripe fabric that I found. I didn’t remove the leather at all, I just stapled the fabric around it! I wish I took photos of the process but that was years before my Instagram. Oh, well. Below are a few other storage ottoman options that are available to shop:
Believe it or not, this all took 20 minutes! I was able to get through it in no time and even had time to drop off the donation bags on the way to school pickup. The rest of his room is still a mess, but this one little corner feels so much better. Hopefully this will convince you to tackle your own 20 min project!!