Closet organization is not something that comes easy to most teens, but Emily is a teenager who tries her best. When a home renovation project means more stuff than space to store it, she and her mom get to work expanding the storage space in her closet.
Homeowner: Emily Doody & Her Mom Jodi
Project: Closet Reorganization
Budget: $100.00
Fourteen year old Emily lives with her mom and two sisters in a small town in New Hampshire. The 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath colonial is the only home Emily has ever lived in.
Emily has her own room that is filled with books, clothes, technology and the notions that teens collect. Like many teens, Emily was faced with the challenge of learning to organize it all. Her mom was also about to undertake a bathroom renovation that would reconfigure some of the space upstairs and eliminate a closet. That meant even MORE stuff would be stored in Emily’s room. She knew she needed to take action. Her first step was to engage in some closet organization.
Teen Closet Organization Step 1: The Purge
The Closet Organization Project started with a purge. Emily first evaluated everything that was in her closet and the new things that would have to be stored there in the near future. She threw away things she didn’t need, handed down outgrown clothes and shoes to her sisters, and gave some items to charity. Then it was on to the next step on the path of closet organization.
Teen Closet Organization Step 2: The Kit
Even after a thorough purge, Emily found she still had more stuff than she could easily store. So she and her mom visited the home center and investigated all the closet organization options. The goal was to maximize the available storage space in her existing closet. They found a closet organization kit with hard shelving, and added rails for hanging clothes. This kit would add shelf space to the closet for the first time, and more than double the amount of hanging space previously available.
Teen Closet Organization Step 3: The Installation
The next challenge Emily and her mom faced was determining if the closet was tall enough for the shelves. Then they had to configure the layout. Shelves on the end? Shelves in the middle with rails on either side? They decided to put the shelves in the middle. Next they had to cut the rails to length and attach them to the wall. They opted to screw a piece of wood to the wall and then attach the end of the rail to the wood.
Success in Closet Organization
The goal was to expand the amount of storage available in Emily’s closet. The mission was definitely accomplished, but there were additional benefits, including improved closet organization. “Doing this project helped me organize my room to make it neat and clean; now that the project is over I know where everything is.”
Emily’s mom Jodi was also interested in having her daughter learn skills that would serve her later in life. When I approached Jodi about contributing this story to Savvy Homeowners, she immediately said that Emily did most of the work. Emily added, “I had a lot of fun doing this project, it helped me out a lot with figuring out how things go together.”
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