Kids Activity Closet Overhaul

    Wow!  This closet has definitely seen better days.  I organized this closet about 6 months ago and it looked okay for a while but I decided that the $1 open baskets  from Dollar Tree were just not working.  They do not stack nicely.  They will work for some areas in my house possibly my closet but not this place. 

      Now, the good thing is I have kept most of the stuff together.  For example, all the play dough is with all the play dough.  All the stickers are mostly all together.  The paper is all together.  But nothing stacks and everything is different sizes so it looks awful.  Some of the containers are too small for what I had in them so items are overflowing.  Every time I open this closet I get frustrated. 

    
    So I took everything out of the closet and got to work.  Because this door is in a hallway and can be opened by children, I need to put things that are okay (well not okay, but won't harm them or be annoying to pick up) if they get it out on the lower shelves. 

      I already store items such as colors, glue, drawing paper, and paint in a kitchen cabinet because those are items we use 1-3 times a day.  But other items, sensory activities, play dough, art materials, construction paper, puzzles, stickers and much more are stored in the hallway closet. 

  I plan on moving my books and folders into the office shelves.  I do not use them very often.  They are taking up valuable space storage space.
   I  plan on keeping a bin that stores our projects.  That way a year from now I can see what we made.  And re use the idea in a few years or with a new set of kids.  

Here are the before and after pictures

Top shelf before

 After

    
     Although, I still have items stacked on top of each other.  They stack nicely.  These are activities that we use occasionally maybe 1-2 times a week.  I am a taller person so I can easily reach this shelf without using a step ladder.

Second from top shelf before

After

I moved the paints into a cabinet in the kitchen because we use them daily right now. 

Third shelf before

After

Wow! So much better. 

Bottom shelf before

Because this is the bottom items got shoved easily into this place. I have put empty containers that we use for exploring and a clothing container for each of my Childcare kids.  

After

   I love the new organized closet.  After organizing the closet again I realized it looked much worse than it was.  The main problem was the containers were open and were all different sizes.  But I am so happy I did re-organize it because I smile when I open the closet instead of frown.