A Thing of Beauty

The boxes were unpacked...The mess got worse before it got better. But in the end, we have a closet.

Elfa was indeed easy to install, as we remembered from when we did the living room. Small details, however, seemed pointlessly cheap, especially considering how much the whole system cost. For example, we have shelf liners, but they were not pre-cut for our shelves (they pre-cut other things, like the horizontal and vertical tracks). So I had to try to trim them with scissor and an x-acto knife but couldn't really get them precise enough to lay flat without over-cutting.

The cover for the top track also needs to be trimmed, and the top of the drawers need to be stuck on with (literally) tiny squares of double-sided tape. These things all could use improving.

However, the closet it done and already in use! We also coincidentally inherited a cute rainbow set of drawers from family, and my toddler loves both and is eager to put things away (I'm sure this will fade, but I'll take it for as long as it lasts).

We have the door of the closet set up with a hanging area and a deep container for crafts.

Inside the closet - shelves, drawers, and a hanging rack (for now I've just got some smocks and a halloween costume there, alongside the drawers).

We haven't decided what to put on the top shelves so obviously out of reach of the toddler (and to a large extent out of our reach as well without a step-stool). So there's more space once we figure out what to do with it.

The real question - did it work? Are we more organized? Well, there's certainly no guarantee that we'll continue to put things back into the closet, but at least a space exists for toys where it did not previously. I think this before and after puts how far we've come into perspective (keeping in mind that it got way worse in the weeks leading up to the new closet while I decided it was futile to keep obsessively stacking things just to free up floor space, knowing a solution was in sight).

The office last week:

 The office today:

There's plenty more to do, along the main wall, as well as some additional big storage boxes we need for legos and other things, but hey, there's a floor now.