Peanutty's Closet

Ok, it's no surprise that kids grow, but I'm in denial that mine do.  Peanutty is getting bigger...that means bigger clothes...that means his clothes take up more space...that means what we currently are doing to organize/store clothes isn't working...as he grows the storage just gets smaller and smaller.  Sad.  One morning I walked into his room to find that he'd dressed himself but in the process of finding the perfect shirt, he had trouble returning the clothes the way they were (which was folded and neatly stacked - FYI):

The wood bench is actually a drawer unit that fits under his bed.  With the help of Hubs and my Aunt, we turned it into a bench.  He likes to play trucks on there (obviously), and I will sit in there when it's Lego building time.  I trade out his clothes in these drawers according to season.  So, right now there are pants and long sleeved/sweat shirts in them.  I store his summer garb in his closet in a Sterilite black drawer unit.  Well, on this particular day, he just HAD to wear a specific t-shirt.  As you can see, once he found it, he completely "forgot" to put the other tee's away.  I haven't utilized his closet because we had the drawers in his room...but the time has come to convert to the closet.  Here's what it looked like before:

Hardly anything was hung...I forgot to take a pic before I started hanging so there are a few shirts in there.  So, after some hangers, Sweet Pickles "help" (she ran off with quite a few of my hangers), and about 30 minutes of work, here's what I came up with:

Bam!  It was that quick and painless.  I had been thinking of doing this for a while now, but it wasn't until the "tornado" breaking point that made me follow through.  I wanted to use actual shelves, but that would have required them to be built or bought, and I didn't want to do that.  I had a Sterilite drawer unit that we weren't using that used to hold Legos:

I put it in his closet and started filling it up.  It works great.  Between hanging the clothes and the drawer unit, all of his clothes for ALL seasons fit in his closet.  The drawer unit is busting at the seams (it works for now), but I have another identical Sterilite drawer unit that will become available in the next couple months so I can spread all his clothes out within two (I'm now wondering if both will fit side by side in there - if not, I will come up with something else!).  I had two plastic baskets that I had purchased from The Container Store (again, any container would work, I just had these) and they were $2.99 each.  Those sit on top of the drawer unit and hold his unmentionables and socks.  I haven't labeled the drawers but I think I'm going to have to since Hubs is none too happy about me re-organizing...again.  This happens a lot!  So, I will have to bust out me Washi tape and me label maker!!!  I hung all the tops and it is so much nicer to see everything at a glance - especially since Peanutty likes to dress himself.  I placed an old diaper box in the closet as well.  This is useful for throwing clothes in it that no longer fit and will be either garage saled, handed down or donated.  Hooks inside the door hold a couple jackets and zip up sweatshirts.  This also freed up all the drawers in the bench...not sure what we're going to put in those (not toys...I'm fixin' to overhaul those soon...I'm procrastinating because I find this to be a painful process), but they're open and ready to go!!!