Give me some space!

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize that as a family of seven, we don't have a ton of space in our 3 bedroom, 1700 square foot home. We are "cramming" 5 children (a toddler, 2 youngsters, a tween and a teen) in two bedrooms. To be honest, I think Jared and I feel the walls closing in the most. Jake (our 13 year old) is the only one who has expressed wishing he had his own room, but not because of his desire for privacy. Nope...he just wants a clean room, free of clutter! We tell him it's good roommate and companion training, but it's rare that he complains...never mind the fact he and Cooper are sharing a full bed.

I've said this before and I'll say it again...I'm so grateful we moved into our home as a family of 6 (Calvin was born just a few months after we bought the house). Because ignorance is bliss! If we had started in this home with just one or two small children, I seriously think we might have moved by now, feeling like we truly outgrew it. But we've only added one child (give or take) since then and he hasn't really tipped the scales in the room department.

The frustrating part of our home is that we have 1 big bedroom and 1 small bedroom for the kids. But the larger bedroom only has one, yes ONE, usable wall for beds. TWO closets dominate the largest wall, the door cuts into another and the window is on the third. That's not such a big deal, except that the one and only vent in the room is right under the window, so that's a no go. We actually have 2 usable walls (for bunks as an example) in the smaller room. But the closet is teeny tiny. And although Karcyn might not complain, it's really hard for me to put 4 boys in the smallest room and our one girl in the largest by herself. Not that she doesn't deserve it!

We've moved kids around as different circumstances have come up (like, oh, Calvin beating up Karcyn...so we moved her in with the big boys, Calvin getting better so we moved her back in, Karcyn being the only one in the baby's room having to get up super early so we moved her in with the big boys again, etc.) Once Calvin starts Kindergarten in the fall, he'll be getting up bright and early too (bummer...no PM Kindergarten) so we'll move Karcyn back in with Calvin and JJ. Then Jake can have a bed to himself again.

And *sniff, sniff* he'll be gone in 5 years! I just can't wrap my brain around that. Craziness. I suspect we may move Calvin in with the big boys before those 5 years are up, but if not, once Jake is gone, our plan is to give Karcyn her own room at that point. She'll have to share with her baby brother until she's 12. But I think she'll be just fine.

SINCE we have such limited space, we started considering some closet systems to make smarter use of what we've got. We had some measurements and estimates drawn up for us by the Closet Factory and we decided to go for it. I wasn't sure I wanted to do both closets in the boys' room, so we thought we'd try one for now and see how we like it. I'm not concerned with our master bedroom closets or even the one in Karcyn's room right now (plus our crawl space is in there so that kind of complicates the floor issue).

We chose to do the left closet in the boys' room AND...the front entryway closet. You can see why below.

I get so tired of cleaning and organizing this closet every couple of weeks. Coats and bags and books get lost plus the little people can't hang up their coats and jackets so they get tossed on the floor too. I've debated about the 3M hooks and other coat racks inside the closet, but nothing felt right. So when this opportunity presented itself, I nabbed it!

I was anxious to see the boys' closet, but I was beside myself with giddiness to see the front closet. That was for me!

The only "catch" to this installation is that WE basically had to do the demolition of the old shelves. I vaguely remember that. Of course we forgot until after we set our installation date was set...with only a week to get the closets ready. Actually, for a very small, reasonable fee, they'll pull the shelves out. But they don't paint and there's no backing on the system, so really...that isn't helpful.

So we called in reinforcements! Our previous home teacher and handyman extraordinaire, Bob Thompson. He came over to assess what needed to be done and two days later, after a super long day at work and before eating dinner, came to do the demo for us. He not only got it all out for us, but he hauled the debris outside for us AND spackled the wall where the shelving used to be.

Here is a before picture of the boys' closet. It's not a TRUE before, because I was in such a hurry to get the stuff out of there, I forgot to get a picture. But you get the idea. It wasn't trashed like the hall closet, but with only one usable shelf at their level and a lower hanging bar, there was a lot of "dead" space going to waste.

Here's Bob working his handy magic out of the kindness of his heart. Jared had 2 Bishopric meetings that night and was sad he couldn't even be there to help.

 

But Jake stepped up and assisted.

 

 

Bob left a smoother, sanding thingy and told me that we needed to smooth the spackle (I don't even know if that's the right term) in the morning and then spray an aerosol can of texture over those spots and then paint it.

 

So that's what Jared did a few days later. Having the closet contents displaced for a week was starting to make me grumpy...I felt so "undone," especially when we don't have any extra space to put those things! I was glad it was only four days that we had to wait for the closets.

 

The after demo, before installation pics :)

 

And drum roll please....

Jenn's new entry closet!!!

A place for everything and everything in its place, plus MORE space left over than we started with! This is my answer for not having a mudroom. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that each child has their own large cubby for their backpacks, dance bags, folders, library books, etc. Even JJ has a place for his diaper bag. And I equally love that there is a lower bar for the kids to hang up their jackets and coats. They have felt so big and proud that they can do it all by themselves now. There's still space on the bottom underneath the jackets that isn't being used and a little bit of space between the ceiling and top of the unit that I will find a use for. Plus there's still room for us to store our shoes so we don't have to trip over them in our narrow entry way.

This closet makes me sooooo happy. Every time I pass it, I open it, and just lovingly gaze at it. I also like the smell of the installed units. :) Smells new.

Should we need to make some changes, we can adjust the shelves AND the rods to fit our needs better. But right now, they are perfect!

And the boys' closet...

 

 

We were able to empty out one whole dresser and move those things, plus more into the drawers in the unit. With the exception of the first drawer, those suckers are deep! There is definitely room for them to grow into this. I like it a lot!

 

And this is the view looking up inside the closet. There's enough room that I could store the winter hats and gloves in those plastic containers that we don't use all year round, as well as those cub scout books from past years. There's the same amount of available space on the other side of the unit.

 

 



These closets were definitely a smart move. Who knows...we still might do the other closet in the future when this room inevitably becomes the "Boys Dorm" :)