Jan. 11th - the junk pile AKA the boys closet.

Here is the before shot of my two younger sons closet. Not enough storage for all the toys they have. I have this dream of my kids having a clean room where they can play on the floor and clean it with ease! Doesn't every Mom have this dream? Yet each time the kids clean their room all I hear is a yelling match and after two hours I go to see the "finished" room and it is NEVER close to my standard of done. I decided that since my boys never hang much in their closet I was going to add shelves to store all the plastic tubs that line the edge of the room and hopefully make it easier to keep clean! Hey, I can dream. 

I started by measuring the storage tubs that I had and deciding how many shelves I could sit in the space. I came up with 3. I will be able to fit 8 tubs easily with extra room! I cut spare pieces of wood that we had from another project but you could easily use Lowes to cut all the wood for you! All you need is some 2x4's, some cheap pine board the depth you want the shelf (mine were 16 inches) and some drywall screws. I think from start to finish it took me under an hour. I finished it in nap time so not long. 

I started by measuring the depth of the closet. For me it was 25 inches so I cut 2 pieces of wood for each shelf 24 inches. I ended up with 6 if the frame pieces. I used a really thin drill bit and pre drilled holes in 3 spots on the board to make putting the screws in later really easy. I measured the height of the area so that I knew how far apart to put the shelves. Mine are 15 1/2 inches apart. I measured 15 1/2 inches from the floor and held my first board in place. Using a level I made sure it was even and screwed the drywall screws right into the wall. Super easy. I did this 5 more times so that I had 3 on each side of the closet. I decided to leave them wood but you can paint them as well at this point. 

Here are the 3 framing pieces on each side of the closet once I was done. 

I laid a long piece of pine over each of the "brackets" that we made with the 2x4's. Making the 3 brackets look more like shelves. I added a screw on the front corner of each shelf into the 2x4 to make sure they wouldn't wiggle.  

Here is a close up of the shelf so you can see how I rested it on the 2x4's. Since the hanging rod is useless now I am going to use an old shower curtain rod at the very top of the closet to hang all the jackets that don't get used much here is sunny California. I will try to remember to add a pic of the tomorrow. 

and here it is in action with all the totes on it. Now to fill them:(
I will have the finished room pics clean and being used as tomorrows project. Remember it's all about one step at a time!
If I forgot anything please remind me. I forget sometimes that what may seem easy to me may not be for others so please ask! I love questions.
Thanks,
Ali