Our guest room closet doors are dyn.a.mite on the outside, the first set of bi-folds I made into French doors. They are so gorgeous and add a shot of much needed architectural oomph to the room. But, behind those doors lurks a space (that I am sure everyone has) that is less than organized. As a professional closet  designer, this closet needed to get its butt kicked into gear! Closet: meet foot.

Shameful, I know. Since we don’t have kids, each bedroom can be dedicated to some other neurosis of organizing and decorating that I have. Currently, we have done our master closets, my Paint and Home Improvement closet, and our front entry closet. This closet, I decided to make into a space that could be 1/3 guest closet (hanging up a few items, some extra bedding, a few guest room funsies) and 2/3 a Décor and More Store. Essentially, I would like a spot for all my random bins, boxes, baskets, picture frames, fake plants, and general décor things that I like to switch out around the house. I needed some shelving and a small area of hanging space. Now, just whom can I call  to get that??

First step: at work, we always recommend painting the closet. It’s the perfect time to do it, it covers up  all those screw holes from the previous shelving, and helps the closet feel like part of the room instead of “just a closet.” I told Hubster I would try to actually use some of the paint in my stash instead of having quarts and quarts (and gallons, ahem) of paint just sitting around, so I went with a light gray. If I had something livelier, I might have done that, but the gray was free, so here we are.

An hour and half later, I had glorious empty shelving:)

Now, to fill it, I assessed and looked at the piles of stuff I had pulled out of the old closet. Not much made it back in, and now I cant actually pull out and put back what I am using.

I found several bins without lids, top sheets with no fitted sheets, specific containers for things I no longer own, and décor I didn’t even like. I tell people all the time that once they clear out their closet and put a fabulous new system in, they will see the mountain of stuff piled on the bed and think “I don’t even like half this crap.” Which is the perfect time to purge, baby, purge! Now I have a fully organized guest room closet with room to spare:)