organizing the ikea pax

As you may recall, our apartment came equipped with an IKEA Pax wardrobe unit in the bedroom.

You can see through the frosted glass that the two sides are different. My side is the left side, and Parker’s is the right. Parker has many more drawers and organizational elements on his side, and I envied him! So this morning I decided to do something about it.

Here are the unfortunate befores. While my clothes were folded and put away, they were by no means neat. Even Parker commented on the disorganized and chaotic appearance of the closet.

I saw two major problems with the current setup. One, I needed more drawers and/or shelves to contain my wealth of folded clothes, particularly sweaters and jeans. Two, there was a second clothes bar that was going unused and was in the way of my clothes hanging properly.

I am one of those people who loves to have a perfectly neat closet, but can rarely keep it that way for long! I even remember long folding parties when living with Emma at Interlochen. I like to fold things on a board ever since working at Banana Republic age 18, but I don’t ever remember to pull out the board when folding my laundry. So eventually, things become disorderly. Also, at the end of the day I have the bad habit of just throwing things in the closet or on the dresser. My goal with this closet reorganization was to try to construct a system that I could maintain despite my bad habits, or at least with short folding binges every once in a while.

First, I took down the second bar and gave it to Clyde.

Then, I headed to Target to find a soft hanging shelf unit. It cost somewhere around $9. I carefully board-folded my clothes and placed them in the shelf unit.

I also stole a set of Ikea hooks from Parker’s side, and decided I would be more likely to hang my pants at the end of the day than to fold them.

The hooks slide right back in!

I re-folded everything in my drawers, too.

And finally, voila!

Not perfect, but so much better. I feel like I can actually find my clothes now! And when winter comes along, I will have room for all my bulky sweaters when I move my summer-weight clothes into the storage closet in the living room. Huzzah!