Organizing the craft closet: Reclaiming Our Spaces series

It's Thursday.  But not just any old Thursday.  I am having oral surgery today.  I thought about calling in sick to the blogworld but in spite of an abscessed tooth and prep for a dental implant I have a goodie to share with you today! Pardon the poor photo editing & any text that doesn't make complete sense. I am graced with a codeine induced fog!  

I tackled my "everything" closet.  This closet rests at the end of our small hallway.  I use to store glass vases, candles and candle holders in here along with this other stuff. But this closet also serves as our safe closet and the thought of all that glass resting above our heads just left me edgy.  So I moved them, but I shoved more stuff in here knowing I'd be tackling this space soon.  

Before we delve into the details let me remind you that I'm the first to wave my hand shouting, "I am not a crafty person."  Oh. the. irony.

In an attempt to find a place to store our bike helmets during tornado season I put this Gear Pocket from Clever Container on the door.  Only my closet door is really skinny so it wasn't a good fit.  Once again all is solved by a good de-cluttering of the space.  I started by removing the Gear Pocket.  and I moved the Fall decorations that are pictured here on the top shelf to the top shelf in my daughter's closet (the largest closet in the house).  One day I'd like to add one more layer shelving on the top in my laundry room and store holiday decor there.  One day.

  

Currently the top shelf in this closet holds old photos and negatives, jewelry-making supplies and card making supplies.  I haven't made jewelry in a long, long time.  But I have some quality tools I might need one day.  They don't take up much space so I'm keeping them in this orange document box from Clever Container. I donated all the other jewelry-making supplies. I love to make cards but I haven't made any in a long, long time.  I know that this is the one creative thing I always enjoy so I'm keeping all of these card supplies for a happy card-making day.  

I put the white matching baskets all on the second shelf.  I have had them for over ten years.  One stores rubber stamps and ink.  One stores Christmas card making supplies.  One stores stickers and such.  When I say "and such" I also mean materials to make a scrapbook for my high school years.  I don't do scrapbooks much.  But my Senior book, I graduated in 1990, completely fell apart last week in 1998 and I plan to put it all in a scrapbook.  For real, it will happen.  Every year I save the best Christmas card fronts and I remake them into cards.  Except, I haven't done that the last four years, I've just done photo cards because our family photo sessions have been too good to choose just one photo to tuck into a card.  So, I sorted and threw away the ones I don't love any more.  

The third shelf is within easy reach for me.  So on the left I have some recent trips in their completed scrapbooks.  I enjoyed looking at our Boston and most recent cruise pictures.  I was thrilled to be able to place two of Clever Container's Double Duty cubes one behind the other.  I have always kept small ready-to-give presents in these boxes, but I spent some time to see what's in there and sort them better. Now one box has kids gifts and the other has grow-up gifts.  One day maybe I'll paint or cover them. But honestly, this is good enough and it's been good enough for ten years! There's also room on this shelf to store our bike helmets.

On the bottom shelf of this closet I'm storing a small amount of home decor - Fall mantel dressings mostly.  My seven year old has her own box of craft supplies in here that we used a few years ago for Advent. She occasionally needs supplies for a craft project and she knows this box is all hers. I created a projects-in-progress basket like I do with many of our clients.  I also used an old basket to store the Newspaper funnies we use as a table protector when we paint and the actual painting paper is also stored here.  This closet is right next to the playroom where the paints are stored up high.  There was just no good shelf to store this paper in the playroom.  

This closet is also where I store my Clever Container inventory.  Follow me on my CleverHolly facebook page so you don't miss my upcoming inventory sale.  

When we have a tornado warning in our county my seven year old asks me to prepare the closet.  So I simply pull out the black cargo tote and the bags and it's ready.

For years I have had these Cargo Pockets from Clever Container mounted in this closet to store emergency supplies without taking up our floor space.  While this is intended for the back of a Van or SUV, it works great here.  All four of us can fit into this closet together.  And honestly, my girls love it when we have a warning because an empty closet floor is nothing but fun!

(This product should roll back out for purchase in January 2014.)

So, that's the closet.  While I "am not crafty" I have to fully admit that this closet is full of craft supplies that I like using!

And I love this closet now. Do you have an "everything" closet?  What's in it?  Does it need to be reclaimed?

Are you keeping up with Jacqueline? Because she reclaimed her large hall closet as part of this series:

*I didn't purchase anything for my closet make-over.
**Clever Container products used: 3 black and white double duty cubes, 1 document box, and cargo pockets
***Yay for chalkboard labels again.