Room to Breathe - More Closet Talk

I have put a lot of work into these guest room closets lately, and let me say I'm so glad I did.  These closets could have easily been overlooked and remained overstuffed but now they are one of my favorite parts of the house - and bonus - they are totally functional now.  Let's look back and see how far these sweet sisters have come-

Here's the first before picture - before chalkboard paint and all - very blah.

 A little progress on the doors with the chalkboard & magnetic paint but still very messy, unorganized and crazy on the inside.

So I cleaned these girls all out and started from scratch on the inside - 

I decided I wanted to add a color to the inside of the closets so I pulled out the leftover paint I had laying around from our bathroom update.  I had more than half a gallon leftover so I have been wanting to use it somehow.  I loooove the way it turned out.  For some reason having a cute color greet me on the inside of a closet makes me happy and forces me to keep it organized and clean.  After you squeeze yourself into the nooks and crannies of a little closet to make sure you have painted every inch you will want to keep it looking good - trust me.

After purging and putting things in their proper place I was ready to start filling these closets back up.  I have really wanted to make one of these closets a craft closet - so that's just what I did.  I moved everything craft oriented into one closet along with some games we had towering in our laundry room -

Haha, this picture always makes me laugh.  It's just so crazy looking.  Anyway, a lot of the items that we had here I moved to the closet.

It's amazing how much room you have when things are tucked neatly away.  I promise that I don't have a bunch of stuff laying around the house or stuffed in other closets after this closet clean out.  Everything either found a place or was thrown out.  

I slid all of our artwork that has yet to find a home under the guest bed so it is now out of sight, and was able to move in my little craft cabinet out of the room and into the closet - and made a little printing station too. 

The other closet just remained a nice storage space for coats, a few baby items, our vacuum and carpet cleaner and an old boot warmer - something everyone has right?  

All of those crazy sheets and such were folded and tucked away into this awesome box I have.  I found this at the flea market years ago and fell in love with it.  Justin just about dropped his jaw when I told him I paid $50 for it.  I know, I know it's an old beat up box - but to me it's so much more than that so he let me keep it.  He's such a sweetheart, isn't he?

After it was said and done, I paid $35 for all of the paint and spent several hours cleaning and re-organizing and now I feel like I can breathe again when opening these closet doors.  I even like leaving them open sometimes so I can see the pretty color inside.  That's crazy talk to me - leaving a closet open. Usually that's the opposite for me.  The closets are simple, functional and much prettier.  Simplifying is where it's at.  

One day I would like to take the craft closet up a notch and add some more organization type elements but for now, I'm basking in the simple organization we got going on.  So anyone else with me today?  Have any organizing and simplifying projects you are working on or need to work on?  Share it with us!!

Have a great week!