Finally, a space that makes sense
Thirty-four inches is not reasonable for a walk-in closet.
But that’s the width of the ridiculous closet in our basement. It came with two skinny wire shelves, and we added a third at some point. For years I loaded them down with craft supplies because the room was my home office.
I loathed that closet and how I had to turn sideways to squeeze in to retrieve anything. Most of the time, I couldn’t get in. It was crammed, but there didn’t seem to be a way to make better use of the space.
Once I moved my home office into what used to be our family room/playroom — the largest space in our finished basement — this room became a guest room. Instead of housing craft supplies, the closet was where we stashed the kids’ “sometimes toys.”
(What are sometimes toys? Well, they’re an assortment of toys they love too much to donate and still enjoy occasionally. Two baskets of beloved baby/toddler toys we’ll keep forever — a wooden airport set, two wooden puzzles, Playmobil 123 and some vehicles. There’s the dress-up bin, the Lite Brite and our board games and puzzles. There’s also the plastic dollhouse and the Calico Critters — used pretty regularly, but not enough to earn spots in their bedrooms.)
Our daughter loved the idea
of a closet full of toys she rarely saw, so she started squeezing into it after school to play, often bringing her friends in, too. It was way too small for that, and I was worried the overloaded wire shelves would send board games crashing down onto their little heads.
I got fed up one day and tore
everything out, including the wire shelves that ran across the length of the closet. I patched and primed the holes and painted the closet with leftover paint from our daughter’s room (PPG’S Pinot Noir, a super soft grey/mauve).
While I sorted through the mess of toys and board games, and carted away an entire truckload of donations, my handy husband used 1x3s and
1x2s to frame out two sturdy shelves running across the width of the closet. He plunked some inexpensive plywood on top of each, added a strip of 1x3 across the front of each to “make it pretty” (I insisted), and we were good to go.
I only wanted two shelves, but I made sure they were nice and deep (32 inches) so we could store large plastic totes. Instead of a messy stack of board games, most of them fit into a tote labelled GAMES that would be easy for the kids to pull out.
The heavy stuff tucks under the lowest shelf, including a box of my files. I put the toys they play with most often — the dollhouse and the Calico Critters — on the main level, right at their height.
The top shelf holds puzzles, toddler toys and dress-up clothes, and I can easily lift those down when they want them.
The kids love their new toy closet and I love that it’s finally a space that makes sense. They can go in and help themselves, and we can even swap out toys they have in their rooms — something we could never do easily before. Thanks to the huge labels — and the fact that they can both finally read — there’s no excuse not to put everything where it belongs when they’re finished with it.
This skinny little closet is almost done. It’s just missing some deep hooks for guests to hang their clothes, since we removed the hanging bar, but I have a neat idea in mind for that.
Stay tuned.