Sometimes I Just Have to Get Irritated to Get it Done

We've lived in this house for six years. For all of those six years our house has been a "no shoes" house. This means (very simply) that we don't wear our shoes when we're inside. Yes...we ask our guests to remove their shoes as well (though some apparently think they are above the need to follow our request). We do this to try and keep the carpet nicer and keep from tracking dirt, mud and who knows what else all over the house.

We're happy with this. The boys never think anything different. It's comfortable and we're good with it. Except for one thing...

For the ENTIRE six years that we've lived here, our shoe situation has driven me crazy. We have a closet in the utility next to the washing machine. It's where Darian's laundry chute comes through. It's fairly good sized and we weren't using the bottom for anything else. To keep the shoes we wear most often close to the door we use most often, it seemed pretty logical just to use the closet for them. And that's what we've done. And it's been a mess. And I'm pretty sure I've complained about it nearly every day for six years. 

Over and over again I kept saying that I was going to fix it. We tried limiting everyone to one pair of shoes. If you wanted something different you could either rotate what you kept in the closet or just go to your room and get them. That didn't work. Even I didn't do it. I think that plan fell apart in about three days.

So we've been living with a tangled mess of shoes. We each have about 4 pairs stored there. It's a disaster area. It's always fun when you're in a hurry. It can be a little dark in the closet if you don't open it wide enough and I have managed to run out of the house with one black shoe and one brown shoe before. Not really the best system.

Last week, my rage just couldn't be contained. I'd had it. So I made a little trip to Lowe's, picked up a little Closetmaid organizer and a couple of baskets. Twenty minutes later I had a nice clean closet. Six years of griping for something that took twenty minutes to fix. Silly. Just plain Silly.

But I love the way it looks now. I've divided it so that I have the top two shelves, Collin has the middle two shelves and Darian has the lower shelf. For now this works because Darian's shoes will fit in each box as a pair. Collin and I are limited to one shoe per box, except for in the case of my flip flops.

I put the two baskets on top to hopefully help solve some of the clothing issues we face during the year. I can't tell you how many hats and gloves we've lost. I still can't find my nice black suede gloves that went missing fall.

So from now on, things that are being worn frequently will go in the baskets. I also figured that if we got too full in the bins it would also allow for expansion. My flip flops can easily be relocated to a basket and free up more space.

Now...if only the rest of the closets in this house were this organized...