Adventures in Laundry... aka the Family Closet

Have you missed me? Yes, it has been over a month since my last blog post. Life got a bit crazy and I fell behind a bit... but that's another story for later. :)

So I thought I would start back with a previously mentioned idea - the family closet. I admit, I had never heard of this until I saw it on a tv show about a family with a lot of kids, even more than me!! (now what WAS their name???) I was quite intrigued, and when we finally bought our own house, I told my husband that the sun room/enclosed porch was going to serve double duty as our family closet. Yes, this did get me some strange looks, but hey, I'm used to that by now!!

To start, I did some internet research and looked at pictures and descriptions of how other families had built their family closets and decided what we needed to fit our needs. We purchased 4 standing clothing racks and arranged them against the wall, hoping that would make them a bit more stable. Since our closet is in the sun room and is composed of so many windows, attaching shelves and rods to the wall wasn't really an option. Next, a trip to the dollar store for some various colored bins to hold small items, and of course buying some extra hangers! When we left our rental house, we gave away all of our dressers but one (which I kept to use as a changing table/cloth diaper storage)and haven't looked back!!

For now, my oldest two girls share a rack with shirts and dresses hanging on the top, pants and skirts on the bottom. This is because so much of their clothing is shared since they are similar in size. The other children have one rack each that holds tops, bottoms, dresses, etc. Each child has two bins. One holds underwear, the other socks. Pajamas are folded on a shelf next to the hanging clothing.

So, the real question is, did it work? I am going to call it a success. Yes, I still get behind putting laundry away, but then who doesn't? :) It is much easier to put everything away in one location rather than sorting/folding/hanging in several different rooms, and thankfully the sun room is located just off the utility/laundry room so the laundry doesn't have to go far to be put away!

I asked the girls the other day while we were hanging up laundry if they liked the new family closet and it got the thumbs up!! They told me it makes it so much easier to see their clothes and pick out what they want to wear. :) Easier for me, easier for them. Mission Accomplished!!!