My hall closet has always been a
bit of a junk “drawer.”
You could find:
-towels
-sheets
-washclothes
-blankets
-baby blankets
-burp clothes
-curtain rods
-misc blinds that don’t fit any windows in our house
-sleeping bags
-mattress pads
I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but you get the picture.
This was the mess, I set to contain! Defeat! Dominate!
Phew.
First I sorted and separated: Bath towels, hand towels, wash clothes, beach towels.
Turns out we had a lot of beach towels. Some were the kind that absorb NOTHING. They went into the giveaway pile.
I also pulled towels that were getting raggedy and made a pile for keeping near the utility sink in the basement. For when Rusty, my pesky dog, gets a bath; or other equally unpleasant and dirty tasks.
I sorted sheets. We have sheets for beds we don’t own. Buh-bye, full sized sheets.
We had sheets with tears. See ya!
I also folded the kids twin sized sheets up, and we are now keeping them in their bedroom closets (I have two sets of sheets for each child’s bed, though our au pair normally washes on and gets it back on that same day).
I went through our vast collection of crib sheets – and was hurtled back in time to when I had THREE cribs set up in my house to contain my beasts children.
We are done with full sized cribs, I am now the proud owner of two Costco folding cribs. They are the small ones a lot of hotels use and I love them. It hold children up to 35 lbs, has a much smaller footprint, does have two levels for the mattress and are cute to boot. Since our kids share rooms, they are the perfect size to slide into a corner and best of all, fit through the doorways when fully open so that its will be a breeze to separate Jane and Maisie at nap time.
So I pulled some of the nicer sheets to cut down to the mini crib size and am getting rid of the rest.
Mattress pads, well, trying a novel approach, I put them on mattresses. I think it was a good move 
Blankets, I sorted into size, folded and kept. I can’t get rid of a good blanket. Part of it goes back to living through a few winters with little/no heat on as a child, part of it is just common sense – a warm blanket can always be useful.
Burp clothes and other misc baby stuff, I’ll eventually put into the changing table that will be housing all things Maisie related.
The window stuff that fits nothing? Some of it is being giving away, some is being stored in the basement. I have trouble letting go.
Then it was time to refill the closet.
The tippy top shelf has blankets – well pushed back from that light bulb, and sleeping bags.
Next are sheets and the most frequently used blankets for the Ed & my room and the guest room, as well as a few random pillow cases.
Third shelf down features towels. Bath towels, beach towels, wash clothes, etc.
The bottom shelf has some baby stuff – which is waiting for me to relocate into Maisie’s changing table.
The bottom vast space? Well, I think I’ll put the massive cases of toilet paper we buy from the wholesale store. To the right are a few cotton blankets in one of those “Bed-in-a-Bag” bags that are great for summer days in the backyard.
All in all, I’m really pleased with how functional (and safe to open) this closet has become. I’ve been known to open the door to peek at the vast empty shelfage and smile very contentedly. Fortunately, Bilke and Ed think its pretty cool too, and haven’t made fun of me.
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