Coat Closet Clean-Out

You can always tell the season has changed when I start getting the (occasional) itch to clean again. Okay, okay. Of course I clean the rest of the year...but this is my "that's driving me nuts, I've gotta get it CLEAN already!!!" time of year.

This is what led me to pulling out 85% of the contents of our living room coat closet to finally, FINALLY reorganize, purge a bit, and create some additional living space for a certain someone's toys. #notDave

Here's what we started with...

Crappy pictures to the rescue! Dun dun-dun duuuun!!

Things had just been piled up and up and added to (super generous relatives + super adorable toddler = 4+ winter coats in the same size, and various hats 'n mittens), so it was time to pack away those items that we'll use in the future. We didn't actually end up getting rid of a ton, but they found new places to live. I did some major shuffling and grabbed some fabric totes and baskets from the basement to see if I could work something out. (Spoiler: I only needed one!)

Here's how it looks today:

Not earth-shattering, but kind of a game changer for me. Those four plastic bins of toys are out of eye-shot in the living room (I've still got more purging to do of toys...big time) but within reach of the little guy. If I had put them high up, every time I open the door he'd inevitably notice them and demand that they come down. Sometimes making things more easily accessible actually lessens the demand. #themoreyouknow

Up top is deceptively simple, as well. I stuffed anything diaper-related into the (duh, Meg) diaper box, moved the tennis rackets to the basement, and weeded out the bin leaving behind only the items we use, both winter AND spring/summer related. (It also has our cat essential - lint brush.) On the right side up top is where we store our board games, but there was also room to toss H's awesome Mickey Mouse sleeping bag. It's the little things, y'know.

Here's a close look at our toy storage:  

Legos, wooden train set, "Little People" & other figurines, and bigger Lego pieces and cars.

This is the part that I'm most excited about. We've got a bookcase chock full of books in the little guy's bedroom. We also had acquired a stack of random books, magazines ("High Five"! Love it!!), and kid-friendly comic books on our ottoman. It was time to figure something out.

So, with that one fabric bin from the basement, I created our own downstairs library. I'll switch out books here and there to create some interest, but it's awesome to be able to pull this out and have some quiet-ish reading time on the first level of our house during the day. We've honestly waited to read numerous books as a family every evening in our bedroom, but this makes it more of an "anytime" occurrence.

Whatchya think? It definitely has me glancing around at the other spring cleaning activities I've yet to undertake! I'm just encouraged that we were able to open our windows to let some of the good, clean air in yesterday (even if it was 40 degrees - a heat wave, I tell ya!).