Fixing The Lack of Storage

I love our house, really I do. But there is one thing that I completely overlooked when we were seeing her for the first time: STORAGE. I didn't realize that there was a complete lack of it. There is no attic, the basement isn't what I would call a "storage-grade" basement, and there were three closets total, in the entire house. One in the dining room and two small ones in the upstairs bedroom. So, that is why most of our stuff has landed in the unfinished guest room and in the sunroom. 

When one doesn't have an attic or a basement, where does one store big boxes of seasonal decorations, miscellaneous items, and things for the future?

Yea...

Two weeks ago, the carpenter decided that it was about time to build out our master bedroom closet. I totally agreed and practically did flips when he mentioned it--if only my body could contort that way. We had this huge space just waiting to be filled with our clothes and other odds and ends that we wanted to store in our bedroom. You know a girl has to have a place for her purses, shoes, and well, anything else she decides is, um, bedroom worthy. 

Here is a picture of our space before...

and here is all of the stuff that we wanted to put into the closet. Most of Jonathan's "dresser" clothes where just sitting in various piles, in boxes, on the floor. We also had been storing sheets, beach towels, and all of our hoodies in a giant fake-fireplace box. We had a basic system, but it was getting really frustrating.

So, while I went strawberry picking with this adorable little man and his mom, the carpenter spent the afternoon putting together our closet.

When I came home, I ran upstairs and this is what I saw...well it wasn't 100% finished yet, but I will just fast forward a bit for you wonderful blog readers :)

Look at those huge shelving units and the great bar to hang clothes on! I was so excited and couldn't wait to get her all painted up and ready to hold a bunch of our stuff. Finally, our bedroom was going to have some storage and I wouldn't have to worry about tripping over clutter as I moved around our room!

After a first coat of primer, the whole unit was looking pretty good. The bottom three shelves just have primer on them and the top shelf has a coat of primer and of semi-gloss. I ended up doing two coats of semi-gloss, just to be on the safe side.

Let's do a bit more fast-forwarding and here is what the closet looks like all painted and filled to the brim pretty much filled. We still have plans of adding our rarely used TV, a few other clothing items that are currently being stored under our bed, and I may see what else I can fit on the shelves.

For now, things are really starting to look up when it comes to the storage situation in our house. Plus, our room is looking much better and with all that clutter gone, I really enjoy the space so much more. Just take a look at how things have changed. Let's go all the way back to the two-bedroom-layout that was present when we bought the house. 

Do you remember the little "bedroom" that was directly at the top of the stairs and then the "master bedroom" that was down the hall a bit? 

Then, we moved in with all of our clutter and started throwing things together.

And present day is offering up a much more polished room. There are still plenty of things that I want to do, but it's really starting to come together. 

I'm pretty sure it won't continue to always look like this--I will probably organize and continue to tweak things around the room until I'm satisfied. Yet, this closet has already made me feel SO much better. It is amazing how lack of storage can have an affect on you.

Plus, what makes this even better, is that we now can use our closet downstairs for storage!! Things are a-changing!

Time to start making over another closet!