Spring Cleaning: Master Closet and Storage Baskets

Even with a house that comes in at 1,000 sq feet, I find that I'm never short of projects.  Especially when I'm in spring cleaning mode.  Yesterday I shared how I organized my paint collection, and how I've cut back dog hair in my  house (with out getting rid of the dog). 

Twice a year, I take an hour or so and walk around the house with a paint brush in hand and touch up marks, fingerprints, dirt and scratches on the walls and trim.  It's amazing how dirty the walls get. 

This year I spent a little extra time touching up with paint.  Something I would not have had to do if I protected the fresh paint job in the first place.  You can all learn from my mistakes.  Here's the lesson:  in life, place felt pads on everything. 

Some of you fancy people have walk-in closets.  Not me.  Walking into a closet surrounded by storage shelves and hanging rods would be such an inconvenience.  Can you hear the sarcasm? My little house has little closets.  It does help me to maintain control and keep myself accountable for every piece of clothing I own.  If I don't wear it, I don't have room to hang it and it gets donated (I do this four times a year). 

Early last year I designed built-ins for my little master bedroom closet to increase the storage capacity.  I considered purchasing the pre-built closet organizers, but I decided that custom fit organizers would provide the most efficient storage (and...it was cheaper to build it).  I designed my closet and built them using affordable MDF sheets (all said and done, two custom closet organizers handmade cost me less than one purchased closet organizer).  Prior to creating organizers, the closet had one clothes-hanging bar and a long shelf over it.  Sorry, I don't have 'before' pictures. 

Here is the current setup for the master closet (oops, I have 5 storage baskets, not 6):

Redesigning the master bedroom closet provided me so much additional storage that I no longer had a need for a dresser.  I still have the dresser in the bedroom, now it's sole purpose is to hold my modest jewelry box. 

I used MDF to create the shelving and painted it a white semi-gloss finish.  The design worked perfect for me.  But after a year of daily use, the brown baskets had left horrible marks from being pulled in and out twice a day.  Not like I expect anyone to notice this other than me.  It drove me crazy every time I opened up the closet.

So sad...

I took out the baskets and repainted everything.  Because, you know, I get bored after dinner.

I used paint I already had on hand (Ultra White Semi Gloss - the same paint that I use for all the trim) and let it dry overnight.

After allowing the paint to dry, my closet was looking pretty once again:

In order to keep it looking good, I added felt pads to the bottom of the baskets.  Such an easy fix...why didn't I think of this a year ago? Sticking the pads to the bottom of each basket took a total of 3 minutes.  Really wish I would've thought of  this a year ago.

It's actually been 6 weeks since I placed felt pads on the bottom of the baskets.  Each basket is used twice a day and the paint job has held up very well. 

The felt pads, on the other hand, have popped off a few times.  And my little doxie loves to chew on those rogue felt pads.  Trying to lure him out from under the center of the bed while he had a forbidden item was like trying to get Justin to turn off the Cardinals game.  It's not going to happen. 

To prevent another trip to the doggie ER because Joe swallowed yet another item he shouldn't have, I added a little bit of hot glue to provide a stronger hold between the felt pad and the basket.  They're doing very well.  Now Joe just steals socks.

Taken 6 weeks after repainting and adding felt pads.  Still holding up.

Have you started your spring cleaning? What spring cleaning projects have you tackled?

Mary

 

 

Linking up this week with the Inspire Me Please Linky Party #6.  Thank you for visiting!  If you haven't seen the other projects yet take a minute to browse the link party.