Friday, June 8, 2012

20 Conquering Clothing Clutter: Kid's Dresser

Welcome back to "Conquer Your Clothing Clutter week!  Are you all having so much fun?  So far I have researched and shared some tips, worked on our boy's shared closet and shared some updates I made to make my own closet more functional.

Today I sharing the process of organizing my ten year old son's dresser drawers. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I went in there a little frightened.  Here at the Jones abode, the boys are responsible for putting away their own laundry {and picking out their own clothes}.  So it is rare that I see the contents of my son's dresser.  Preston has a heart of gold, would do anything for anyone and I couldn't be more proud of him for endless reasons, but the kid isn't the tidiest or most organized.  It's always a work in progress to get him simple systems that are easy for him to maintain.

Since I knew his drawers really had no system, I wasn't sure what I would find... here is the before:



I will say, I was impressed that he was putting all of his shirts in one drawer, and pants and shorts in another.  High five kiddo!

But, the dresser needed some love.  I have makeover plans for the exterior of it down the line, so this post is all about the interior.

The first thing I noticed about this project, is that there was no way to divide the clothes by type.  I wasn't going to be too picky, just thought it would be easier to have pants and shorts divided, and long sleeve and short sleeves divided.

Because the drawers are all solid wood, we decided to DIY the drawer dividers out of a simple cut of 1/2" thick wood scrap wood.

To install the wooden divider, the hubs cut it to the right length and then used liquid nails to glue it inside the drawer.


 
And secured it in with the air nailer:


Then I gave the entire inside two quick coats of paint {with the exception of the bottom since I knew it was going to get lined.


Once the paint was dry, I used a bit of spray adhesive, the leftover pieces of wrapping paper {from this project}, and had nice new drawers!



Much better already!


In the bottom drawer, I threw a couple of ITSO bins the boys had been using to lay out their clothes the night before.  Now that I hang them, we had spare bins which couldn't be more perfect for the bottom of the dresser to divide pj's, undies and socks:


My kid's have had a clothes folder for a few years now.  My oldest had been deciding to skip it.  For this project, I re-introduced him to it.

Shirts in the top drawer:

 

Pants and shorts in the next drawer:


And pj's, undies {left out of the photo, wouldn't want to embarrass the kid and show his underoos to the world}, swimsuit and socks in the bottom drawer:


He was impressed by the difference.  I was impressed that he was impressed!


And now for those oh so delightful before and after pictures that make my heart sing happy songs:






During the process we made sure to check his inventory, we ended up finding just a couple of shirts to donate and realized we were short on shorts {ha! sorry, couldn't resist}.

Will he always fold his clothes so nicely?  Although with the folder it was quite quick and easy, probably not.  But I am OK with that as long as he can easily find things by using the new dividers.

Whew.  Conquering clothing clutter has come to an end {until next season of course}.  I love that some of the projects were cheap and simple, others were a mix and match of splurged on storage systems and already owned baskets and bins and some {like this dresser update} were totally free since we just used materials we already had on hand!

Next post will be a link party so everyone can share their Conquered Clothing progress!  Can't wait to see what you all have been up to! 



20 comments:

  1. I LOVE this!!! I love organized clothes--I think it's so much more fun to get dressed when things are tidy. :) And I have 3 little people that I'm trying to teach that habit to. :) I LOVE the drawer liner paper!

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  2. I love what you did and it was free!!! I loved this weeks posts. Gave me some great ideas. Thanks for always sharing Jen. Have a great weekend!!! :)

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  3. Did you and your son work on the system together? That seems like a great way for them to "own" their organization system. While I have no kids of my own (yet...baby is due in the next few weeks)I have been having difficulty with my husband helping keep the shared walk in closet organized. Luckily, in the new house we are building right now, we have separate his and her closets, and I've already told him that he will be in charge of organizing his closet, as well as folding and putting away his clothing. Surprisingly, he seems excited by the idea.

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    1. Hi Andrea!

      Absolutely! He was with me through the entire process, helping fold and giving a thumbs up on decisions.

      His and hers closets are amazing. I am the same way, I don't touch my hub's closet, I let him own it and it's nice I don't have to be concerned about his "systems", lol.

      xoxo,
      Jen

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  4. I love that your son was excited about the extra organization factor. He will totally grow up to be a woman's dream man, who actually cares how things look and how things are sorted out!

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  5. That is so awesome! Can't wait for the next post to link up, though mine is no where near as cool as yours.

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  6. My favourite closet clutter conqueror is the 3 box method.

    Ditch Donate Decide. #1 is for irreparably damaged clothing, #2 give it away, #3 not quite sure (but when I went to put it on, I didn't like the fit, style, length, whatever, but not ready to ditch or donate yet).
    Ditch doesn't have to be a box, actually, as you can obviously just throw it out, or turn it into rags, or whatever. But having a "deciding" pile and a 'donating' pile is very useful. I try to encourage (read here HARANGUE) family members into revisiting their clothing status before any occasion where more clothing will be coming into the house. :D

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  7. My daughter was recently putting a nursery together for her new daughter and we were looking for dividers for her drawers because baby stuff is so small. After seeing the price at the store we were alittle discouraged. Until I saw a cardboard box used to display items in the store (its what they were shipped in. I measured them and they were perfect. Got them home slide one in the center of each drawer (which gave 3 separate areas in each drawer) and then put some old contact paper over them from an old project! Perfection! Baby drawers done!

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  8. Looks wonderful, kudos! I was wondering if you have any suggestions for clothes organization for little kids? Meaning, clothes that they've grown out of but with a brother or sister in the future, we can't get rid of hem yet. I started out by sorting into huge plastic bins separated by age (0-6 months, etc) but now that she is 2 and in 3T I am out of room in the guest closet. This might be an entire blog post request. :)

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  9. I'm obsessed with that wrapping paper you used to line the drawers. How cute is that woodgrain? I need to get some. I'll figure out what I'm going to do with it later. Haha

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  10. I love the dividers! It seems "unnecessary" and yet inevitably the clothes always topple over and end up in a mess! Thanks for the inspiration...going to conquer my dresser and closet this weekend!

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  11. Thanks for sharing "the folder". I've wanted one of those since I saw Sheldon use it on The Big Bang Theory. My son's clothes are pretty small so they don't take up too much space yet, but I'll be keeping these ideas in time.

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  12. I love what you did, I may have to do this to my own dressers. Like always very inspiring.

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  13. Can you tell us where you it that fabulous bark paper? Loved it!

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    1. It is from The Container Store: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/giftPackaging/giftWrap/graphics?productId=10024596&N=77612

      xoxo,
      Jen

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  14. What a fabulous idea!! I've put shoeboxes in my son's drawers for his socks (I like to divide them into long & short), but now you have me thinking the wooden divider would be perfect for his shirts & pants. :)

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  15. Hi Jen! Well I'm 13 and found your blog on Pinterest, but I'm IN LOVE with all your organizational ideas! Were moving in the next couple of months, and I can't wait to try these out!:) I'm a little OCD... As you can probably tell...

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  16. I love the idea of putting in a permanant divider. I already seperate the girls' drawers my long/short skirts/pants but a physical divider would make life so much easier.

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  17. I'm impressed that they agreed to do it. It looks great. In our house it's hard enough to get an 8 yo to put his clothes away at all. He needs to be constantly reminded and gets upset that he has to do it. Same for cleaning the room. Any tips on how to make the kids do it? he he.

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