My closets' long reign of terror is over

We gave the coat closet a much-needed makeover, after the resounding success of the bedroom closet.

Oh this thing was crammed full.

Not one single more coat could be crammed in there. I literally had no idea what all was on that shelf. I will say that The Container Store's over-the-door shoe holder has been a life saver. All the random crap that has no other home eventually makes it into that thing.

All cleaned out and ready for spackling and painting.

It looked like damn murder site in there.

Better! And since this was a much smaller space it didn't take me the entire day to paint.

Here it is installed, sans a couple of pieces of fascia which came in the wrong length. Long hang on the left, short hang on the right, with the option of removing those middle two shelves and installing another hanging rod should we ever need to do that.

Et voila! I bought all matching wood hangers, and we spent a ridiculous amount of time at The Container Store battling over which baskets and boxes would work best. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome ... believe it or not half of those things are empty.

So in conclusion, if you need to upgrade a closet, hold out for Elfa's annual sale and then DO IT.

Mmmm, Elfa, I Love You

I've been living in my condo for going on 18 years now, and from the second I moved in until now I have hated my bedroom closet with a fiery passion. I finally pulled the trigger and got that shit fixed up right.

Before. The thing I hated most about this closet was the stupid, heavy, always in the way sliding doors. This is my side.

Tom's side. Also note the huge pile of crap sitting just outside the closet. That is spillover, my friends. It is super fun living with a hoarder!

Hated doors: GONE.

This is everything that wasn't clothing that was lurking within and just outside the closet. That is a metric crap ton of stuff. Happily, I'm not the one who has to figure out where it goes now.

Here's what the closet looked like sans non-clothing-related items. Really not that much in the way of clothing. You can see the fruits of my labors over the years to impose some sense of order on the space. Didn't really work.

Empty! Hateful shelf, huge bracket, and pole gone. Just some spackling and then painting can commence.

Spackled.

In the meantime, the supplies were delivered, complete with god-halo. Waaaaaaah!

Painted! So much better. It's not my proudest moment, painting-wise, but I knew it didn't really need to be perfect.

The nice man from the Container Store arrived to install the hardware. Apparently everything hangs from this one bracket, which was attached with several very large screws. Don't judge my uneven taping job.

Where the magic will happen!

Installed! He accidentally cut one shelf too short so a new one is arriving shortly. I think it's just dandy.

And with my stuff tentatively put away. It won't look this nice when Tom imposes his chaos on it, so I am trying to bask in the temporary glow of ORDER. Baskets and sweater bags are a necessary next purchase. I feel like a grown-up with my new fancy closet!

I have to say I'm loving it so far. I'm not in a tremendous hurry to put a new door in. First I need to figure out what kind of door will work best. At the moment I'm thinking accordion door.

Next up, the final closet: the dreaded coat closet.