Once upon a time there was a 13 year old boy whose closet was a disorganized mess. The closet had no boundaries and was starting to spread far and wide. Along came this boy’s fairy organized mother who waved her magic wand and made it all better. The end.
Ha! Don’t you wish it happened just as easy as that? Unfortunately we don’t live in never never land where all is organized from morning to night with never a trace of clutter and chaos. BUT that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about it, it just might take a little more than the tap of a magic wand is all.
Today I want to show you how a few little changes in my son’s closet really added some boundaries and organization to the space. For this makeover I had a little help from Walmart. On May 2nd, I was invited by Walmart Canada, along with many other bloggers from across Canada, to take part in a $100 Walmart Frugal Heroes Challenge. It was so much fun to follow along that day with the other bloggers on the #walmartfrugalheroes Twitter feed to see what kind of challenge everyone else was doing.
So off I went to Walmart in search of organization tools I could use in the closet to make it great for under $100.00. We have just a regular Walmart here in my small town, no fancy schmancy Supercenter or anything like that but I still managed to find some products that took my son’s closet from looking like this:
To looking like this:
How fun is that! And look my Walmart bill came to $99.50, right under budget!
As you can see I bought six brown bins, a hanging closet organizer as well as a 2-tier mesh shoe rack.
My son doesn’t hang a lot of clothes up in his closet (he has a dresser in his room) so really there was a lot of wasted space going on. The addition of the closet organizer and shoe rack helped fix that by adding storage he could use. I also added clear plastic shoe boxes to the hanging organizer to keep his bits and pieces contained. He’s still working on filling a couple of them 🙂
The shoe rack lifts the laundry basket up off the floor giving him additional space for his shoes. The tote with the green lid on the right is his memory tote.
The brown bins by Neatfreak! are a really nice size and hide all sorts of things. He’s got one for stuffies, blankets, costumes, Pokemon, etc. Now they don’t fall out of the closet every time you open the door.
So I loved how it turned out. Now…if someone knows how to get a teenage boy to actually put the dirty clothes INTO the laundry basket rather than on the floor, that would be super helpful. Until then I’ll just keep trying to wave my imaginary magic organizing wand hoping for a miracle.
Linking up at The 36th Avenue and Somewhat Simple and Thrifty Decor Chick
{Disclosure: A special thank you to Walmart Canada for making this makeover possible by providing me with a $100 gift card.}
Morgan - MorganizewithMe! says
I love the brown bins. I have some similar ones in my son’s closet for toys. It looks great!
Katrina says
I have several friends who have attached plastic style basket ball rings to the wall above where the dirty clothes basket sits, has made a huge difference with getting dirty clothes in there, has become a challenge to get different clothes through it
Leanne says
The closet looks great. I love the brown totes. My boys don’t have many clothes to hang up either, which is good because they have tons of other stuff.
Ahorsesoul says
Only wash the clothes in the basket. But why isn’t he washing them himself? He’s old enough, he needs to learn how to wash clothes so his wife will love you for teaching him. Nice job on the organization of the closet.
Laura says
Hi there, I totally agree with you! You must be new to my blog because I talk all the time about teaching kids responsibility. I haven’t done my older kids laundry in years. You might like this post:
https://orgjunkie.com/2010/04/the-laundry-system-that-changed-my-life.html
Amber says
How would you organize a small room with no closet?
Kim Jemmott says
I’m inspired by your efforts. My adolescent Son’s closet could sure use some help.Here in Barbados it’ll cost much more than $100.00. Thanks for the great ideas!!
Beth says
I have started charging my sons for every item of their clothing that I have to pick up. I just keep a tally sheet on the side of the fridge and on Fridays when they get their allowance I present them with a bill. This system has worked the best of all I have tried.
Melissa says
Great job! His closet looks great! =)
Lani says
Well, organizing fairy…you have given me some ideas for organizing my son’s room…he doesn’t like dressers…or putting his laundry in a laundry basket. I’m pretty sure his idea of organization is keeping everything out where he can see it!! I used those neatfreak baskets in my closet, along with a great stand I found at Walmart to corral bras, hats and bigger scarves…it works great and looks pretty!
Mridu Parikh says
Laura,
Are our sons related?? 🙂 My sons closet looks very similar to your before shot. 🙂 What I especially love about what you did is that you used simple totes and containers to manage all his stuff — and didn’t invest in expensive California-Closet like solutions. I’ve had so many clients tell me they can’t get organized because they don’t have built-ins etc. but really with some creativity and resourcefulness you can create a masterpiece. Awesome job! xo, mridu
Angie S. says
Truthfully, I would be thrilled if my son’s closet even looked like the before shot!
Leslie says
Absolutely love this idea…thanks for sharing! This would be perfect to link-up to my new series – “Create It Thursday.” It’s live now! http://www.lambertslately.com/2013/05/create-it-thursday-1.html
L.L. says
where did u get the shelves that the bins are on? can u get them at walmart?
Laura says
Those came with the house and are pretty basic wire shelving. You can purchase it at most home hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes I believe.
Kathi says
I have looked at a lot of different before and after photos regarding getting others organized. It always looks as though the area just needed a good cleaning and a place to put their stuff. So once organized (looks good by the way) what is to stop the unorganized person to just have a big mess again in a few weeks?