Conquering Clothing Clutter: Kid's Closet

This week I am digging in and organizing all of our closets and drawers.  And blogging about it real time for you!  Did anyone begin yesterday after I provided some lovely photos of inspiration?

I decided to start with the boys shared closet since I thought that would be one of the easier tasks.  The closet was not necessarily unorganized, it just needed a little paring down and some minor upgrades from their previous setup.

I thought I would apply a few of the concepts I shared yesterday, based on the inspiration photos. 

• I took everything out of the closet and evaluated the size.  If something was questionable {as some things run big and small}, I had the kids try on their clothing to see how well it still fit.
• We checked over items for tears, rips, stains, etc...
• Items that no longer fit were tossed into a donate bin. 

• Everything was hung back up on hugable hangers to maximize the itty bitty closet space and the reduce the number of falling shirts {"Really mom!  They fell!  I did hang up my clothes, I promise!"}
• We created clothing tag labels, not to divide clothing types {our system is simple, shirts on top rod, pants on lower}, but to give the kids a place to plan our their clothes for the entire week.  We currently plan the night before, but planning on Sunday for the entire week will give us one less thing to do each night.  And although summer is just around the corner, the kids will still need to be able to pop out of bed and get dressed for summer activities and programs.  Not to mention, it will help them get into a good routine for our next school year.

Making the clothing tags took a little longer than I anticipated, and at moments, I questioned if it would have been easier to spend the ten smackaroos on these ones from The Container Store.  But, on the positive I was able to catch up on a few DVR'd shows while I crafted away and I am totally in love with the final outcome!

To make the tags, I just used some leftover cardboard from cereal boxes, which I cut using my Silhouette to ensure all were the same size:

Because I wanted both the fronts and backs to be pretty I also cut decorative paper to glue to the back:

And printed out the fronts onto some old CD labels we had.  Here you can see the front and back:

Though the laminator they went to ensure a nice and happy long life!  Once out of the laminator, another cut around all the edges with the scissors.  The entire process was easy enough, just time consuming with all the cutting and creating printable labels.

Onto the rod they went!  I was instantly smitten!

I was also excited to pick out outfits for the week!

Since we just keep their shorts folded in a bin on the shelf, I used some clothespins to clip them to the shirt hanger to create their outfits.

Now their closet looks like this:

And what didn't make the cut {mainly because it was too small}, made it's way into a donate bin.

Saying goodbye to the super cute clothes and pj's that are worn by my youngest is always the hardest part of the entire process... if only they could stay itty bitty forever {tear}.

I have to say!  It feels amazing to have one of the three rooms knocked off the list {my oldest son's dresser and my armoire are still waiting to be tackled}.  Off to work on the next!

Who else manages outfits for the kidlets a week at a time, and how has it been working for you?  Any other tips for maintaining a tidy tiny kid's closet?

Pssst!  You may have noticed that we have since upgraded the bins to the Target ITSO bins, since they are much sturdier and gave much more room for the kid's clothing.  The previous bins ended up working out well for a gal pal's child, so it was a win win!