Real Life Talk: Closet Space

Peek into my real life after downsizing when we moved from the US to London.

We donated and sold boxes and boxes of things before we moved. Furniture, toys, linens, kitchen items, and clothes. Oh, the clothes. I passed along all of the baby and kids clothes that no longer fit my kids (cue the tears), and I did probably 20 passes through my own closet to get it down to a manageable level. Scouts honor, I think when we moved we each only had about 1 suitcase each plus a box or two that arrived later.

The closet I left behind. Please excuse the mess, I wasn't that organized then either.

Our current house has exactly two closets. One smells like a musty basement so I don't actually hang clothes in there, and the other is in Nicks' office/storage room/guest space. The latter is currently stuffed with boxes of holiday stuff plus some seasonal hanging clothes.

Seasonal closet: the one that smells normal

We didn't bring any dressers with us when we moved because we didn't know how much space we would have, and the last thing I wanted was to bring a piece of furniture that didn't fit anywhere and then have to figure out how to sell it.

When we finally moved into our current rental house, C got a small dresser, the boys got an Ikea wardrobe to share, and Nick and I got a dresser plus a wardrobe. We had to find pieces that fit into the exact measurements of the spaces, fit through doorways and up narrow stairwells.

Needless to say, we are still overflowing sometimes. Well, mostly just Nick and I because we went from two walk in closets to one dresser, one wardrobe, and no closets.

Real life current bedroom situation. Basket of laundry because I can't keep up. Basket of homeless sweaters. Dresser top that has become the storage zone to make up for the lack of bathroom storage plus random kid art projects plus my SAD lamp since the darkness is upon us. Oh, and the land of random sh*t on top of the dresser (sometimes it's toy jail, sometimes it's 'I'll put that up there for later' purgatory).

And the shoes and coats. Don't get me started on that. I didn't want to buy a shoe rack that I may not need in the new house, and I do realize I'm making it worse for myself by refusing to. I've tried to implement an organizational system about a million times since we moved in, but alas, it still looks like this:

And we wonder why we can never find anything. I do love that I can warm up my hat and gloves on the radiator in the winter though.

It doesn't help that we are between seasons, so everyone has a jacket and a winter coat, summer shoes, winter shoes, and wellies.

I just did a summer to winter switch of my wardrobe. Meaning, I took my shorts out of my dresser and shoved them into the wardrobe and vice versa. No matter what I do, I will always have a basket of sweaters sitting on the floor because I can't find a home for the poor things.

I thought it only fair to also share Nick's pile of sad, homeless clothes on the other side of the dresser.

To sum it up, lack of storage is the bane of my existence currently. I've mastered the game of shuffling piles from here to there and usually, I'm the only one who can locate lost items because no one else keeps up with the madness that is my attempt at organization. So, if you ever find yourself with a lost glove in my house, please first - check under the shoes by the front door, second - check in the cupboard under the stairs, third - check under my bed, and if all else fails - check under the drying rack in the dining room because it may have accidentally been thrown in with the laundry and ended up in the pile of lost socks.

As if on cue, my neverending basket of clothes to be folded has followed me to the living room as I write this article.

Thanks for not judging the not-so-Instagram-y parts of my life too harshly. As I always tell my kids, "I'm doing my best guys!"

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