Organizing the Organizer: Guest Room Closet Makeover Reveal

True confession time…I have a few areas in my own home that are in desperate need of an organizing makeover.

Ever heard the saying about the cobbler’s children who have no shoes?  Sometimes this adage holds true for professional organizers as well!

One of my resolutions for this year is to set aside time in my schedule to revamp these spaces.

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I shared in my last post that I recently took advantage of the Container Store’s annual Elfa shelving sale in January and completed the first project – the guest room closet makeover.

This closet serves as a storage area for gift wrapping supplies, photos, scrapbooks, fabric, sewing machine/supplies, and empty shopping bags. I rarely need access to these things, but when I do need to retrieve something, I usually end up uttering a few choice curse words as I sift through the closet contents.

This is particularly true when it came time to retrieve a gift bag:

During the makeover process, I followed the same steps that I do with every client I work with, beginning with assessing the space.  As you can see in the top photo, it’s quite clear that storing items on the floor is not working.  My new storage system needed to take full advantage of the vertical space in the closet.

I determined that the best solution for my specific storage needs would be a set of freestanding deep drawers for each side of the closet.  I also decided to change out the stationary shelving and replace it with a track shelving system.  In addition to giving me the benefit of adjustable shelf height, the track system would allow for the addition of a third shelf to be installed at the top of the closet to store smaller, lighter items.

The Container Store has an awesome online closet design tool that I used to complete my design. Once you complete your design, the site will create an itemized list of all of the components that you need. Then all you have to do is place these items in your online cart and order. You can choose to have the closet system shipped to you, or pick it up at a local retail store.

{A quick aside…I must rave about the Container Store’s customer service!  I called the store to place the order for my closet system the day before my road trip to the Columbus store.  When I arrived, they had all the components of my system wrapped up and ready to load in my car.  I also love the cute bags that they use to store the small components and hardware:}

Once I returned from the store, the transformation began.  After removing everything from the closet, the next step in the process was to sort items into categories and purge unwanted items.  It was then time to remove the existing shelving system (no small feat), patch the holes, paint, and begin to install the track system: