The Girls’ Closet: Before
The girls tackled their closet with me yesterday.
The Girls’ Closet: Before
We examined everything and talked about whether it was something they loved and used. If not, we talked about whether we could pass it on to someone else who would love and use it.
The Girls’ Closet: After
They ended up really getting into the spirit and starting attacking their clutter with gusto–which I was thrilled about since I was expecting they’d not be too excited about getting rid of anything. {As I mentioned earlier this week, they tend to be a bit sentimental about hanging onto things. :)}
The final result? An entire laundry basket of stuff to get rid of!
Next, we’re going to go through their dresser drawers. I’m hoping their clutter-attacking enthusiasm holds out for that project, too.
Did you do any clutter clearing this week? If you posted about it, link directly to your blog post below. We’d especially love to see before and after pictures, if you’re brave.
I appreciate the before and after pictures. If I remember right somewhere is a posting about how you are going to feature a chapter a month of your new book. Last month was goals and this month is decluttering. I personally think you are very brave to open your life to your readers by posting pictures of your yourself, your children, and your home. I also think you are very kind hearted because I never have seen you post a response to a “negative” comment in a defensive manner. That tells me you are truly a gentle and kind spirit. I truly appreciate how you keep your blog upbeat and positive. The world can be a pretty negative place at times but the only control that a person has is over themselves and so you can either choose to be content and look for the positive or be un-content and look for the negative. Personally, I try to focus on content myself. To be honest, I would be much more content if you would come to my house and make my kids’ closets look like yours! HA! HA! HA! 🙂
Thank you for a great posting!
Thanks for your kind encouragement!
I loved reading this post and the comments. However, in my opinion, so many people are losing sight of the reason Crystal posted this. I do believe she posted it to encourage and inspire the rest of us to get rid of any clutter, if we have things WE consider clutter. This post definitely reminded me of the areas I need to work on, and gave me motivation to begin. I’m not sure why so many commenters are focusing on other things like judging Crystal for how little clothes her children have (when no one really knows how many clothes they have, since we have not yet seen their over-stuffed dressers she mentioned.) It seems like some people are just jealous that Crystal’s Before pictures might be even better than some of our After pictures. If anyone has been reading this site for a long period of time, you’ll find that Crystal IS a minimalist, so you can just expect that every Before picture will look different than ours might. I wish people would interpret these posts with a different perspective, and really stop comparing and just see what we can glean from her posts, not what negative comments we can come up with. Crystal doesn’t have to share these types of posts, and I’m afraid she might stop if she keeps getting picked on, LOL. 😛
I’ve been organizing several spaces in my house since the first of the year. It feels great!
Thanks for this decluttering theme this month. In the past week, a 100 gift card has been misplaced, snow pants missing, and a nice pair of jeans were MIA. Very frustrating and not frugal at all. I finally found the nice jeans, but had to go out and buy new snow pants for hubby to go on a youth group ski trip. This is just exactly what you said in your book, clutter is NOT frugal at all!!!!
Nicole
I define clutter as “anything taking up unnecessary space in my home or life.” If there was one sheet of paper on my counter and nothing else, but the paper was trash, I would consider it clutter. Was the counter “cluttered”? No. But there was something unnecessary taking up my precious space. No need for it in my home or life. I love this post! Good reminder that just because your home is neat and tidy doesn’t mean you’re exempt from needing to simplify as you grow– and a nice new perspective on what clutter truly is! Good job Crystal!!
Crystal- are y’all going to donate or sell the clutter that you come up with? We are moving at the end of this mo yh and I have come up with a mountain of stuff but I don’t have the time to sell it nor do I want to move it to the new house to potentially sell!! Kind of heartbreaking thinking about how much money I could make!
We’re donating it this time around. Our church is doing a giveaway and we’re donating it all to that.
Gotcha 🙂 I am looking into a good place to donate it. I don’t want to give it to Goodwill just to have them turn around and sell it. Thanks!!
In my area a lot of churches have relationships with various mission organization. Our church works with a men’s shelter and the church where I work collects clothes for a group that works with women and children so my outgrown kids’s stuff goes there. I’m a little sick of Freecycle right now.
While it’s true that Goodwill does turn around sell it, you also have to remember that those sales are giving people jobs that otherwise probably wouldn’t have them. Our town just recently started a drop-off location (before that, the nearest was an hour away!) and there is the nicest little man there who was so grateful to have this full-time job accepting the donations. I remind myself when I take stuff there that I am putting people like him in work.
That being said, if I know a specific place can use something more, I totally donate there first. Our church nursery, daycare or preschool get our toys first. My son’s Kindergarten class gets our junky little happymeal/dollar store/birthday party goody bag type stuff for their goody box. The local Catholoic church runs a Maternity Closet where women that are in need can come get maternity clothing, used baby items, etc. one Saturday per month. I do donate some stuff there as well.
When we moved to Panama, we gave away everything that we didn’t plan to take. It was the biggest blessing to be able to see those things go to homes that needed them. Yes, we “lost” big money, but we gained SO much more.
(I wanted to edit. Wish this had that feature!)
My above post is inaccurate. We sold one of the vehicles.
Didn’t want to mislead!
I don’t have anything to sell that is as big as a vehicle so that is understandable!!! 🙂
Completely random but we are talking about kids’ clothes.
Kohl’s is practically giving it away right now. This morning I found a pair of PJs for my 3 y/o for $5 and pants for my 5 y/o (size 5/6) for $2.88 a pair. They had long sleeve knit shirts, sweat pants, and lots of athletic type pants for similar prices as well.
Thanks! I have $20 in Kohl’s cash to spend!
Shucks, I didn’t even think to do a post for when we cleared the toy clutter a couple weeks ago. I myself was surprised when my kids got into it because I thought for sure they’d be very unhappy to get rid of anything. They actually had a lot of fun and it was great teaching them to give things away to others who need them while we didn’t.
Good for you!
I thought the “before” picture was an “after” picture until I scrolled down a little more.
The closet looks amazing. BTW, where did you buy the pink elephant bag? It’s adorable! Thanks. 🙂
i keep thinking that I need to go pick up some clothes for my kids today at the used store. after seeing this post, I think I am going to go clean my kids closets instead, they have way more clothes and books then that! thanks, I needed this post. I will go clean instead of going out, its snowing anyway!
Our closets actually look fuller after decluttering, because we tend to underutilize them–so decluttering is more a multistep process of (1) removing what we don’t need, (2) organizing the rest, and (3) using the freed-up space to relieve the crush of stuff in the kids’ dressers. (Which has the also-good result of less ironing, because stuff doesn’t get all wrinkled crammed into drawers.)
Yes, I agree with this. Lat week, one of my 9 y.o. twins decluttered the top of his his dresser all by himself without being told or asked. I was so proud of him. But all he did was move the stuff somewhere else instead of actually getting rid of it. He put it all in little boxes or into his closet Bless his little heart. The dresser looks awesome now though. LOL.
LOL. That’s how my husband declutters too. :o)
My daughter’s dresser reminds me of the closet.Most of her clothes are hung up.
Thanks for the link up!
Okay, I definitely have to say this post made me giggle!
I am soooo NOT a minimalist and I don’t think that my closets have EVER looked that empty – even when I was a baby! Even with that, I can see the improvement and I love that.
We’ve been working on cleaning out our waaay too overstuffed house and boy has it made a difference! I will never be a minimalist – my first inclination was with the commenter above that said buy those girls some clothes, plus I love variety too much – but I do love being able to find things, not have them wrinkled when I pull them out of the closet/drawers and have room for new purchases.
Have you thought about an adjustable closet system to make the closet more accessable for your girls? We have some in our kids’ rooms with rods at roughly waist height on an adult right now – perfect for the kids and plenty long, even for ankle-length dresses right now. Since they’re adjustable, we can just raise the rods at the kids grow. Makes getting dressed in the morning easy!
Thanks for the inspiration, Crystal! It’s very encouraging to see that everyone has clutter – even if it’s not the amount I have!
🙂
Lea
We’ve thought about it, but didn’t really see a need to spend the money on it right now since usually there’s plenty of room in their drawers for all their clothes. {Their drawers happen to be bursting at the seams right now because it’s been over six months since we’ve gone through them. Once we go through them and weed out the items that no longer fit or work for them, they should have plenty of space again!}
And don’t you just love how we’re all so different?! The world would be such a dull place if everyone were a minimalist like me. 😉
I’m sure you’re more than aware of this tip, but I’ll share it anyway. I keep a storage tub in the closet for outgrown clothes, and clean items go right into the tub instead of back into the drawer. I also pull things out of the drawer as they catch my eye, and into the tub they go. The next season or size is also in the drawer immediately below, so I just move items up as I remove old ones.
For me this system not only keeps things orderly at all times, but it also means my husband doesn’t dress my kids in pants that are too short because he thinks they’re still in rotation.
Great job convincing them to get rid of stuff! 🙂
We don’t hang any of our kids’ clothes other than coats not being worn and the very few dress clothes the older one has. We don’t even have real dressers. We use those Rubbermade three drawer containers on wheels. Not very high class but we don’t go in for spending a ton of time and energy decorating our kids’ rooms.
My big declutter this week was an enormous pile of drawings and school work. My older son love writing stories right now and spends a lot of time at school doing this. We simply can’t save all of them. Besides, his handwriting is so eligible he can’t even tell what they’re supposed to say half the time. I picked out a few to save and hid the rest in the bottom of the recylcing bin. Along with a coloring/activity book from the grandparents we don’t approve of. I felt terrible about the school work but we can’t save everything he brings home. When I’ve had him sort them he throws away 3-4 and keeps the rest! I’ll keep working on him as he gets older.
Isn’t it so refreshing and free-feeling to walk into a room that is decluttered and organized? It’s incredible how much it brightens my day to live in a space that I control as opposed to a space that’s controlled by clutter. 🙂
Way to go, Crystal!!
Wow…I wish our kid closet looks as good as your BEFORE pictures! (We have some work to do!);) I’ll be going through dressers for 4 kids in effort to reclaim the space the dirty clothes mountain takes up. Thanks for the inspiration!
A friend of mine and I read “Organized Simplicity” and loved it. We are challenging each other to tasks. We cleaned out our bathrooms on the same day and now we are keeping each others children one day a week so that we can tackle tasks alone. It really helps to spur each other on.
It is amazing how much cleaner things are and how much neater they stay when you do this. I have given most of my items away to a store that sells donated things and then gives to area needs. I can’t hang on to “stuff” long enough to handle a garage sale.
If you haven’t started doing this, it’s not to late. If you don’t have a buddy to challenge, do it with Crystal! Follow her lead, you can see her posts, you do the same. You will feel so much better in getting rid of the visual noise that clutter produces!!
Your before pics look AMAZING compared to what our closets look like! lol!! I would take that kind of closet any day, but don’t tell your girls that 😉
I have dont have many outfits for my kids either. They only wear their favorites anyway!
🙂
Lisa
Crystal (or anyone else that wants to answer) – What do you do with all your baby items in between babies? I have part of an entire bedroom filled with tubs of baby clothes, a swing, car seats, a jumparoo, ect. just waiting for the next baby to come along…..I don’t want to re-buy all the stuff, but it takes up SO much space!!!
I held on to mine for 6 years! Then guess what?! It was the wrong sex and the wrong season so I ended up buying ‘new’ clothes anyway. I was lucky enough to have a basement to store all of mine in.
With my youngest, I have ended up hitting garage sales to purchase for her upcoming or needed wardrobe. I have maybe 1 or 2 tubs instead of the whole lot.
If you do really want to keep your items, maybe look into the boxes that store under the bed? They make great plastic ones now that hold a lot and hide away.
I have clear tubs of clothing that my daughter has outgrown (she is my only living child but we hope to have more) and I have them organized by size and also a clear tub full of our cloth diapers. I sold the swing and a few other bigger baby items (like the crib) because I just don’t plan to use them for another child and have the car seat and a few other large things in a closet. So I guess my advice is to get rid of anything you don’t really need to hang onto and then organize the other clothes so when you have a newborn all of your newborn clothes are handy instead of being with the 6 mo clothes.
Just FYI, carseats expire. Check your seat for a date; it might not be worth keeping.
Yes I know, I bought it less than 3 yrs ago. Thank you.
Honestly, I sell most of mine at a consignment shop or a large consignment sale. I have twin boys, and a 2 year old daughter. If I had saved all their clothes, we would be buried in baby stuff. Then, to have a girl and not even need it! When I was to the point of being ready emotionally to part with some things, I went through and kept the basics-onesies, socks, five of my favorite sleepers/sleep gowns (yes, only 5 :)), and about five outfits in each size from newborn to 2T. The rest as sold or donated. Then, when I looked at what I had kept, I was satisfied with it and felt like I had enough to get me started with our daughter. I also have limited myself to one storage tote that holds their favorite outfits-coming home outfits, Christmas dresses, etc. Things I want to hold onto forever. Otherwise, since I shop at consignment or thrift stores now for my daughter, I don’t feel so bad about buying her clothes for each season.
I have an entire guest room closet full of outgrown (waiting for #2 to use) and too big (waiting for #1 to use and then saved for #2) items that are loosely sorted by season/size and stored in boxed and rubbermaid containers. When that size is needed I sort though what we have and keep only what we need and pass the rest to friends who are foster parents. We always say yes to hand me downs because if we can’t use them then our friends can- they have had kids show up in January clad only in a tshirt and diaper and like to be able to send the kids to their next place with a full week of clothing plus books and toys of their very own to keep.
I have an enormous pile of fully outgrown stuff that I have to figure out what do with. Our friends don’t need it so I am at a bit of a loss.
Do you have a store like “Once Upon A Child”? Take your clothes to them and they will buy most of them from you, if they are in good condition.
If they’re baby-sized your local crisis pregnancy center would probably love them. That’s what I do with any extra infant stuff we have.
Can you loan those items out to friends who need them now – and then they can return them when they are done?
We are starting the adoption process soon, and I know that if we are able to borrow baby items, it will be so helpful! We have a small home and don’t have the space for many baby items.
I know that some people recommend selling the items and rebuying later…but I personally couldn’t do that! Can’t blame you for that one. 🙂
Baby stuff and outgrown childrens’ clothing is taking over my world! I have 3 boys and 1 girl and stuff is accumulating like crazy! However, I will say that I do honestly reuse stuff and it saves us tons of money. So it’s a mixed bag!
I think it’s great to keep on top of clutter and even if it’s a just a few things, or a bunch, if there’s something that can be given away, it’s worth taking them time to de-clutter. I am on a pretty constant de-clutter mission and still find things here and there to give to our city mission or Goodwill.
Hubby worked on clearing and de-cluttering the garage yesterday! Yea!! Still a work in progress, but something is better than nothing 🙂
As a fairly minimal person, I can see the clutter in the first picture and improvement in the second! By the way, I love where you placed the hooks for the backpacks, it’s a non-traditional spot since clothes are ‘supposed to’ be hanging there but for those of us with a minimal amount of clothes, it’s a perfect spot!! I have ample space to do the same in my boys’ closet!
Your de-cluttering posts are inspiring to me! There’s always unused things lying around even in homes that most would consider uncluttered.
To those who think this is extreme, it may be to you but to others it’s not. For me, the less stuff in my home, the calmer and more peaceful it feels. That’s what works for me! Some people would be depressed living in an environment that seemed so sparse. And that’s fine, they can have more stuff! There’s no rule saying we all have to be minimal or we all need full closets! We all have individual preferences and choose what’s best for our homes and families.
YES! Not right or wrong, just different! Embrace others and accept variety! My “clutter” is usually somewhere greater than Crystal’s but never too far from her end of the spectrum.
I can see that a lot of people are going to be giving you a hard time about whether or not you needed to declutter your closets. I think it is because most of us wait until we just can’t stand it anymore! Things fall out when we open the doors, or we have to scoot things with our foot just to close the doors! I’m inspired by your organization and discipline! Tackle it before it gets out of control!
Amy, that is so true! I am the kind of person who CANNOT stand even the day’s mail on the counter. If this closet needs cleaned out, by Crystal’s standards, more power to her. You’re so right….we all have different levels of tolerance when it comes to clutter. I couldn’t imagine having a closet so full that I couldn’t close the door. You’re right, it takes a lot of discipline.
Looks great! I am on a mission to organize small spaces in our home. I did our pantry (which I just linked up), and have my post for the hall closet scheduled for next week. Next is the linen closet :). I LOOOVE organizing and decluttering! It’s so therapeutic for me. We did our toyroom, with the kids, and ended up with an 18 gallon storage tote of toys to donate.
This post makes me wonder, how many clothes do your girls have? I really struggle with how much is too much when it comes to my girls’ clothes and what they actually NEED. I am on a major “simplifying” kick :)…
I struggle with this too! Especially with the seasons in Wisconsin. The clothes my son wears in October aren’t what he wants in January. This fall I ended up with too many shirts because we got a ton of great hand me downs. Once the weather got colder I ended up taking 4-5 shirts out of his drawer and putting them away for my younger son.
The hand me downs I got were interesting. My friend gave me 10 long sleeve dress shirts in 2 different sizes. I kept wondering why on earth someone would buy that many dress clothes for a kid! Not to mention the dress pants and two different suits! We kept two in each size, shared with friends, and donated the rest.
Some kids love button up shirts! My son would wear them everyday if he had enough. We get them as hand-me-downs and they are usually in really good shape because most kids don’t like them.
I guess you’re right. 🙂
My 5 y/o is really into “cozy” clothes, i.e. knits or things like sweat pants. Outside of places like church or another more formal occasion I’ve learned to Let It Go. In fact, he’s almost outgrown his 5T pants and I’ve been trying to prepare him to wear pants with buttons or maybe even zippers. The horror. Other than Children’s Place I haven’t seen elastic waist pants larger than toddler sizes. Except those nylon track pants and I really hate those things. 🙂
BethB,
🙂 My 6.5 and 4.5 year old sons still wear elastic waist pants and they wear a size small up to a 7. We found elastic waist jeans and khakis (for church) online, and just recently got some black dress pants that are elastic waistband at walmart. Don’t be discouraged, it’s possible!
My son is the same age and facing the same situation. I found some cozy fleece pants at Gymboree on clearance for next fall. I also plan to make him some flannel-lined (pull on) pants from lightweight corduroy and twill. I very thankful that my mother taught me to sew when I was a kid!
I agree, Andrea. My son (he’s 3) would much prefer a long-sleeve dress shirt over a t-shirt any day. It’s because that’s how my husband and FIL dress and he wants to look like them. I buy mine at garage sales, so he does probably own at least 10 “dress” shirts.
We go to church a minimum of 3 times a week (2x on Sunday and 1x on Tuesday). If we are in a season of special services, we might go an additional 1-2x a week. So, my kids are wearing dress clothes 2-5 times a week! And, yes, it must be dress clothes. My 4 year old gets very upset if I don’t put his suit out to wear. With a tie!
We also go to week long church conferences twice a year, where laundry is not available, so they need outfits for each day plus extra.
My little guys each have about 7 shirts, 5 pants and 3 suits. These are all hand-me-downs that were given to us, both boys are wearing and we are then passing down.
Yeah, they could wear the same outfit every time, but I like the variety (most of them mix and match, too) and I like to have extras available in case of spill, etc in between wash days.
I totally get it! 🙂
There is a trick I used to play on my girls. As I washed their clothes I didn’t replace what they had worn. After 2 weeks, whatever was left in their dressers/ closet left the house or was stored for off-season. This was especially necessary because we used to get tons of hand-me-downs.
I LOVE this idea!! Thank you! We get tons of hand-me-downs also!
It’s different for every kid. Some kids are messy, some kids are tough on clothes, some kids have potty accidents, some kids need dress up/church clothes, etc. One of my girls loves to layer bottoms (leggings under a skirt), so she has about twice as many bottoms as the others. My son loves to layer tops and one daughter wears sweaters, while the others don’t.
Glad you pointed out that one thing doesn’t work for all! My son has always been easy on his clothes for the most part, but my daughter is rough on them. She also spills things all over herself too so we have usually end up changing twice a day. Poor thing gets so messy so fast! I think it’s important to realize that one thing doesn’t work for everyone. I envy that Crystal can get away with having a 6-10 outfits per child. I see that in 3-4 days with my messy angel! Yes I could wash clothes more frequently, but I’m realistic in knowing that it may not happen. No, I’m not being lazy! In addition to my own kiddos, I watch two other kids all day and go to school full time. My DH is currently stationed in another state, so it’s just me, for everything.
I understand, Nicole!
I only do laundry when the machine is completely full (and I sort into at least five categories) and I have an XXL washer, so having 6-10 outfits isn’t realistic for us. Doing more laundry would take up too much of time and waste energy running the machines.
I like the hooks on the wall for the bags. My girl’s closet is probably twice that big and one side has built in shelves. When we bought the house I was super excited but they really are not very functional – they are made to put clothes on and are kind of close and deep. I’m thinking about taking them out, to 0pen up some space.
Thanks for the encouragement to keep on top of clutter. It is so much easier to clean out a closet when it looks like your before than when we’ve let it get out of hand and can barely shut the door. Also, I know for our family sometimes “clutter” is really just stuff that hasn’t been put away properly and so looks cluttered. Kind of like the book baskets.
It is good that you have a laundry basket full of stuff to get rid of, but I don’t know that I would have gone through a closet with that little bit of stuff.
If your girls’ closet was cluttered in the before pictures…I would HATE for you to see my closets. 🙂 I wish mine looked that way. 🙂
Are you kidding me? That closet looks pretty sparse to me. And this is for more that one child? Where are all their clothes? Shoes? All I see is two back packs and a few jackets. Sorry, but this post blows me away. You should see my son’s closet. Please go buy those girls some clothes! Don’t worry about clutter in their closets until they run out of hangers or can’t get the doors closed! Come on. Really?
Most of their clothes are in their dresser (it’s stuffed to the seams right now–I’ll be posting pictures later this month!). We’ve found it’s much easier for them to get clothes out of the dresser to dress themselves than to try and pull things off the racks in the closet, so we don’t store a lot of clothes on hangers right now.
And their shoes are here: https://moneysavingmom.com/2012/02/our-current-shoe-organizational-system.html
To make it easy for our kids to get their school clothes, I bought two hanging shelf organizers (one has the days of the week on each shelf) to use for their school clothes each week. They hang on one side of the closet, side by side, and then each boy gets his outfit for the day out of it. I lay out their clothes for the whole week in these organizers, so it’s done and ready.
I’ve found the same thing about dressers being easier. My 2 yr old picks out her own clothes but if something is hanging up in the closet she can’t reach it so it doesn’t get worn until I remember to put it in the drawer (unless it’s a nice dress or something and then we just give her a choice of 2 to wear and then she wears that to church).
I’m the opposite: I PURPOSELY hang up all of my daughter’s clothes (she is about 2 months younger than your sweet Silas) in her closet so that she CAN’T get them down herself, or else she would try on everything, every day. 😛 It works for the most part, although some days she will drag a stool over to her closet or have her 5-year-old brother get stuff down for her, but for now, this works great for us. I use her top 2 dresser drawers for socks/tights/bloomers that go under her church dresses/etc… and then the bottom 2 drawers are for puzzles and games. I also keep my kid’s shoes in baskets at the bottom of our 16 stairs, right near the door to our garage. We have light carpet throughout our house, so we don’t wear shoes into the house. So this method helps remind the kids to take their shoes off and throw them into their basket and I love not finding shoes throughout the house since my daughter loves trying shoes on.
It just goes to show that different things work better for different people, and it also depends on the season of life your children are in. Love how sparse your girl’s closet looks…look forward to seeing more posts like this one!
My daughter does the same thing! (She’s 3) She grabs her stool or chair and takes it to the closet to get clothes down. She changes clothes 5 times a day!!!!
I hang as much as I can too. My daughter loves digging through drawers so I keep as little as possible in them.
I think it’s awesome! You’re an inspiration to me! I find that since my son has a small amount of clothes (which we keep in a shelf organizer with three bins) it’s MUCH easier for him to get dressed and for me to put away! And we got rid of hangers so we wouldn’t get more clothes 😉 We live like no one else so we can live like no one else, clean up is easy, and we spend our time doing fun things, not worrying about clothes! 🙂
We move the extra hangers to the laundry room and use them to dry our clothes instead of running the dryer 🙂
I am the opposite. When we have things hanging in the closet where my 3 year old has a visual, it helps her pick things out a lot easier. When they are in her drawer, she rips them all out, looking for something (usually something pink).
I am impressed that’s clutter. You should see my closets. Nevermind, you shouldn’t. lol
Different things not only work for different people but also for the space you have. Our bedrooms are 10X10. My nursery literally has a crib, changing table, dresser, and rocking chair and there is no room for anything else. The closet is tiny. Almost all clothes is in the dresser drawers. We hang matching sets in the closet to keep the pieces together. My other son’s bedroom has a bigger closet. He is almost 5 (was 3 when he moved over to that one from the nursery). I hung all of his shirts since the closet was bigger. We have a little 3 plastic drawer piece for pants, shorts, and pjs. 2 bins on the shelf for underwear and socks. No dresser-this frees up space in his room which is just twin bed, train table (pushed into corner, rolled out for play, bookshelf, and toy organizer). Twin bed has a trundle–this is our “guest bedroom” as well.
We added shelves in my girls closet in place of the hanging space and that works even better than drawers for us.
“Don’t worry about clutter in their closets until they run out of hangers or can’t get the doors closed!”
That’s like saying, “Don’t worry about your health until you’re 50 lbs overweight and have a heart attack!”
I think the whole idea here is managing what you own and taking little steps here and there to keep it under control. I’d MUCH rather tackle a closet that’s only a little bit cluttered and have it take me a few minutes than waiting until it’s overwhelming and takes up a whole day or more.
And I applaud Crystal for teaching her children that they don’t NEED to have a closet busting open with clothes and junk. NO ONE needs that much stuff. Cause that’s all it is. STUFF.
I agree. And I also agree with Crystal that it is much easier to keep most of the kids clothes in their dressers. My daughter’s closet pretty much only has her dresses hanging in it, as I think they are much better to hang than to keep in a drawer. But all her other clothes, and almost all of my son’s (except for his dress shirts) are in the dresser.
Good post!
I agree also. It is so much easier to clean up messes when they are small, and tackle clutter when it is minimal. If it builds up, small tasks become large tasks, and large tasks take a lot more time, energy, and motivation to deal with.
I’ll share a success story. My car used to get SO cluttered that cleaning it was quite the work effort. I never volunteered to drive anyone anywhere (except for my own family of course). When I couldn’t get out of having extra passengers, I would just panic, and then spend the only available time I had, like my lunch hour, cleaning frantically.
Nowadays I drive a carpool where I have two extra children in my car twice a week, and I also need to occasionally have co-workers or other business associates in my car, often with no advance notice. So I de-clutter the car every day. No more frantic cleaning for me! We take any trash out and dispose of it every single day. It takes just a minute when there are just a few things as opposed to a month’s worth of accumulation. And I vacuum and wipe down the hard surfaces at least once a week. Again, it’s much quicker when it’s a small job.
So, we have a car that is nearly always nice and clean, which is enjoyable. But another benefit — and a huge one at that — is the peace of mind that comes with not having to dread the possibility of being asked to drive when my co-workers and I go out to lunch.
I hardly think that Crystal’s daughters seem like they’re short on clothes like she says. From what we can all see, they’re always dressed in such a darling way. Now, like many others, I wish my kids’ closets looked as good as the “before” photos–you would definitely always know what you had. Everyone obviously has differences in clutter tolerance.
You bring up an excellent point Becky, when you say “Everyone obviously has differences in clutter tolerance”. That is SOOOOO true in my house. The clutter drives me crazy but doesn’t seem to bother the other 3 people that live in my house with me. Maybe Crystal can do a post on that some time…….how can people find ways to deal with the varying tolerance levels for clutter in their homes.
I’m a natual “declutter-er” my dh…not so much. My girls fall somewhere in between. With the girls, they have large closets and can keep them “junky” with the doors closed, they also each have a junk drawer. They can do what they want with those spaces…as long as I don’t have to see them. They still have to go through them 2-3 times a year to keep it managable chaos. The rest of their room has to be cleaned up. (I will say, mine are almost 12 and 16, so the age makes a difference, too.) Dh has become better about not saving crazy stuff because he sees I do so much better not surrounded by junk/clutter.
I don’t see the clutter anywhere….
Well, considering we found a whole laundry basket of stuff to get rid of, it was certainly hiding in there. 🙂
I love de-cluttering so much! It’s super addictive! I’m really excited to move this summer, because it means I can get rid of lots more stuff 🙂
How many outfits do you maintain for your kids? I do a load of laundry pretty much every day, and we live in Ohio so we have some crazy weather around here.
I’m doing the 2012 things in 2012 challenge, so I try to get rid of about 10 items a day on weekdays / and balance the 1 in and 1 out for new stuff besides the 10 items I get rid of.
However, my husband is one of those sentimentalists / might need it someday people. He keeps boxes from old stuff, collects piles of paper clutter, and has what I consider to be junk from his high school and college years in tubs collecting dust since we moved into our house 8 years ago. God forbid I try to “sneak” one of those items into the donation / recycling because his Missing Stuff Detector goes off. He has computer engineering books from 1999 in our basement in a tub, even though he hasn’t opened the books since passing the class and hasn’t opened the tub at all in the 8 years we’ve lived here. But he insists on keeping them because “I need something to show for it”. Um. You have a BS in Computer Engineering, DH! 🙁
They have around 6-10 for Spring/Summer and 6-10 for Fall/Winter. I try to stick with mix & match stuff for them so that it gives more options.
Crystal,
Does this number include church clothes? Are these simply outfits or do they include dresses?
Jessica, how would you feel if your husband started getting rid of your possessions? Sneaking his things into the trash/donation pile is very disrespectful. Let it go.
One time I tried to recycle a magazine that he’d torn the front cover off- which we do for magazines we recycle- not for magazines we keep. Then he got mad when he found it in the recycling because he wasn’t “ready” to recycle it. Another time I got rid of a broken spatula and he whined about it for months, even though he does not cook and never used that spatula.
That sounds very frustrating. 🙁
That does sound frustrating, but which is more important…the relationship with your spouse or having a clutter-free space? If he can’t trust you not to throw away his stuff, how good is that for your marriage?
Same for children. My mother and father cleaned out and sold or passed on our stuff usually without asking and I still have some anger over it ( especially very sentimental items such as my dolls). It wasn’t like we had a lot – this was back in the days of just a few toys. I only had two dolls I cared about but they were trashed. My brother’s big deal was his baseball card collection which my mother trashed when he went to college. I like that Crystal had her daughters help make the decisions.
I also have a lot of anger towards my Mom for putting tons of my things from college in her garage sale (about 10 years ago). These were from about 5-6 boxes I had asked her to save for me in her attic. I came back a year later and only 2 boxes were left. She said she was cleaning and decided to “help consolidate” my stuff. I was beyond furious and lost a lot of trust for her. Always ask your children/spouse before you get rid of their belongings. Just because it’s not important to you doesn’t mean it isn’t to them.
I could have written this comment! Also in Ohio, so I was wondering how on earth I would get by with less than 3 jackets/coats for each of my kids, considering the temp could fluctuate by 40 degrees in one week.
The one difference? My husband’s books are for civil engineering, and they’re from 1995. 😉
When we moved, a few weeks after, I decided to go check out the goodwill in my new town.
Was walking the aisles and saw some books. Very distinct teaching books. I thought “Oh I have some JUST LIKE tha…..oh no.”
Yep, they were MY books. Dh had taken a box of stuff to Goodwill without looking at it or telling me first.
I had to buy back my own books.
I called him and said “You owe me forty-five cents!”
LOL
Okay, that is the funniest story I’ve heard all day. Thanks for sharing!
OMGoodness! Are you married to my husband too? Well, I guess not since his stuff is not computer engineering. When we had our second child–we thought we’d be out of our itty bitty town home by this point, but the market crashed, he finally let me get rid of some of his college textbooks. He has notes on looseleaf paper in binders from when he took his Master’s degree that has been in our tiny attic space for 5 years now–since child number 1 was born! The boxes were too heavy for me to get up in that tiny space so I carried the empty box up, then carried 2 binders at a time up and stuck them in the boxes (2 boxes full). He refuses to get rid of them. I figure since he has not used them in the 8 years since he earned the degree, he will not need them!! So tempted to take them to the dump! He has probably forgotten they are up there but if I mentioned hauling them off, he’d probably freak!
Also, he works 2 jobs and wears uniforms to both. He has probably 30+ button down (casual) shirts in our closet–some short sleeve, some long-sleeve. How many shirts do you need for when you are not at one of your 2 jobs? I turned all the hangers around in our closet in June and recently purged my side if the hangers on the short sleeve stuff were still turned. He still has a bunch turned backwards. To be fair, I may just try to persaude him to get rid of the short sleeved shirts he hasn’t worn since it has been 70 degrees here almost all winter and he may actually wear some of his long sleeve shirts during a normal winter.
I love your site for the most part and have read it for years, but I would hardly describe that first picture as a closet that needed to be decluttered. Is that one girl’s closet or do both girls share it?
Both girls share it. And yes, it wasn’t too bad at all (Going through our home from top to bottom twice a year helps keep things fairly manageable so that we’re never overwhelmed with clutter!), but I’m always amazed at how much we can find that we no longer need, love, or use–even when things don’t seem too cluttered!
I know just what you mean! Even after 3 years of intense decluttering it amazes me how much I can still find to purge. I think once you get into the clutter free mindset you start looking at Things in a different way.
@ Crystal,
Can I ask how many outfits each of your children has? Between some items given to us, church clothes, play clothes, etc. I think this is an issue for us. No way would my children’s closet look like that because of all the clothing hanging up. We live somewhere also that you must keep clothing for warmer temps and colder temps around right now, so I cannot store, then swap out the opposite seasons clothing.
To be fair we have a small house and 3 children share one bedroom and closet (it is about twice the size you show), but still it would not look like that! I appreciate your insight on this.
Sorry, I did not see the reply below! : (
That’s clutter?? Wow.
It kind of stuns me that cleaning that closet even makes it to the to do list. Crystal, you may need retitle this series “The Girls Closet: neat and clean to neater and cleaner.”
I just wanted to apologize for my comment here. I realized after I started reading all of the other similar comments that it was rude. I forgot that typing comments on a blog is not the same as having a face to face discussion with a good friend where facial expressions, voice and all of that comes into play.
I apologize.
your girls’ closet makes me think my boys’ closet needs some work! Do they have a dresser also?
oops.. just re-read…they do have a dresser, that makes me feel better:) Great job.
I have to do the same thing this weekend. This week I worked on hanging up pictures that I had cluttering up my office.
You could have told me that the Before was your After and I would have been impressed =) But that’s great that you came up with a basket full of things to get rid of!
I had the same thought! Until I scrolled down and saw the after picture I figured they had been labeled wrong. But it just proves that even if your closet isn’t bursting there are probably still some things you don’t need to hold on to hiding in there.
I read it three times to make sure it was correct! I thought the before was her after picture! I could get rid of 90% of the things in my daughter’s (1 daughter) (or my son’s, 1 of him) and it would still be twice as cluttered as this! Crystal, I need you to come declutter our home!! Looks great!
I was thinking this is not cluttered at all, but it is always good to do a little reorganizing. Your coat closet wasn’t cluttered either. LOL!
My thought exactly:) I am trying to take your advice this weekend and clear out “ruthlessly”. Don’t know if I can get it to look like that though!
Wonderful! I am spartan in my tastes with my husband is a clutterbug/pack rat. I’m always decluttering as I clean throughout the week. I’ve found so many things we’ve gently used to pass onto others! My friends and I enjoy doing a swap, which means we don’t spend extra money.