Hallway Closets Part 1

I've decided to undertake organization of the hallway closets next!  The two closets are semi-organized.  They definitely need some attention.  I can usually find what I'm looking for but my husband gets frustrated.  I can't blame him.

Here are some before pics for the 1st closet...

Not very pretty, I know!  This closet is nearest to the bathroom.  We don't have a closet in the bathroom so all the bathroom linens and supplies go in this closet.  I also keep our extra pillows, bed linens, and blankets in this closet.  I keep manuals and warranty information for our electronics, tools, and such in white banker's boxes.  Currently, I have 4 of these boxes full! 

I had been storing our medicine in our medicine cabinet in our bathroom until I saw Jen's post at IHeart Organizing on storing medication.  I had no idea that the bathroom is probably the worst place to store medication.  So since reading her great post, I have moved our medication to this hallway closet.  I put the medicine in clear plastic shoe boxes until I can pretty it up a bit.

At the bottom, I keep extra diapers, baby wipes, toilet paper, and facial tissue.  I also have reused some empty diaper boxes to hold our extra shampoo, lotion and other personal care products.

I made labels for all the containers I wanted to use on excel and printed them out on white letter paper.  Then I cut out each label and laminated them.

Then I cut the labels out one last time.

I attached labels for the towels and linens by hole punching the label and tying the label onto the shelf with green ribbon.  Now we can easily tell the difference between the double and queen size linen.

I moved our more readily used medicine into a clear plastic shoe box.  I placed pretty paper in the inside of the box so it would hide the contents and clutter.  

Behind the shoe box, I put all of our extra medicine and vitamins in a basket.  I used these storage baskets I purchased from Real Canadian Superstore (RCSS) a few weeks ago to store most items.  I attached most of the labels to the containers and baskets with velcro.  I made sure to always stick the same side of the velcro to the container and the same one to the label.  This way I can easily make changes to the contents of the containers later by switching the label.

I put all the first aid supplies in a green IKEA box.  It was high enough to hold things like the bottle of rubbing alcohol.  I stuck the label on the box with a couple of glue dots to the metal label holder on the box.

Here is the after picture of the 1st closet.  I was able to get rid of one of the manual boxes so far, hoping to get rid of another in the near future.  The diapers and pullups are now in light brown Rubbermaid containers at the bottom of the closet.  Baby wipes and toilet paper are now in RCSS baskets at the bottom.  

The closet definitely looks better than it did, but I know I can still do better.  I haven't given up, I'm just taking a little break to brainstorm some new solutions.

Here are the before and after pics again...

Before

After

My next post will feature our 2nd hallway closet.  Click here to view Hallway Closets Part 2!

Do you have any closet transformations or storage ideas?

As Always,
Sandra