Family Closet Organized

Here is my family closet/laundry room/storage room.  We don't have an attic or a garage or a basement or a shed, so all of our storage is in here.  This room was once two rooms -- a laundry room and a storage room -- but I knocked down the wall dividing it, and now I have one long, great room!! This room is 26.5' long and 7' wide.  This shape works great for a family closet.  I have a lot of wall space and enough floor space to get dressed and put things away.  

I am so glad that I switched to a Family Closet.  Managing the clothes is so easy now!  I always know who needs new shoes, more dresses, a winter jacket because it is easy for me to check what they have.  It is also easy to pull the clothes storage buckets down from on top of their closets to quickly check to see if we already have what is needed. It is especially nice to have the Family Closet in the laundry room.  It cuts down on the work.

 

This room holds five people's clothes: Mom's, 12yog's, 9yog's, 7yog's and 4yob's.  Dad's clothes are in the master closet.  We each have our own "closet" where we keep our own things. If I had more kids I would either get a shed to move the passive storage to or replace a 43" closet with two 20"w pax frames (which is what 4yo is using now).

LAUNDRY ROUTINES

Each morning 9yo does a load of clothes after the girls have changed into day clothes.  

After the wash, anything that goes on hangers (sweaters, jackets, dresses, skirts, shirts, bloomers)gets hung.  Everything else goes in the dryer.  Once the dryer is done, the clothes are sorted into three baskets: Mom's clothes, Dad's clothes, Kids' clothes.  Dad and I put away our own things; 9yo puts away kids' clothes.  By 11am at the latest all the clothes in the house are clean and put away or on someone's body! We do wash PJs each day due to severe allergies and asthma, so each night the girls get to wear their favorite PJs.  They have 3 sets of PJs just in case I am sick or the washer/dryer is broken.

After the clothing load we do a load of sheets or towels.  Everyone's sheets get washed each week. 9yo is in charge of stripping the beds (with help from whomever is free); Monday is Mom's bed, Tuesday is lower bunks (including duvet covers), Wednesday is top bunks, Thursday is couch blankets.

I am in this room all day long, and I do insist that the girls put their things away properly. 

Facing South.  Standing in the hallway that leads from the kitchen into the playroom. 
The door with the mirror leads to the backyard.

West Wall: On each side of the W/D is a 88hx40wx24d IKEA pax frame.
When I take the clothes out of the dryer they go into Mom's Clothes or Dad's Clothes baskets or into the stack of baskets to the right for the kid's clothes.   Bath towels are rolled up and put in the wire drawer above the folding chairs; kitchen towels and napkins go in the kids' basket.  Each morning my 9yo puts away everything in the kids' basket.
Also in the picture are my vacuum cleaner (bottom right) which is plugged in with its 50' cord which will reach most of the house, a wire drawer of mom's shoes, extra hangers, and lots of other storage.

 

 

South Wall:  Next to the door leading to the backyard is the hanging zone.
We hang swim suits, swim towels and bath towels here.
Above the window is a clothes hanging system from IKEA.  It easily holds a large load of laundry on hangers.

South Wall: Next to the hanging zone is our sewing & folding zone.
I love having this station up all the time so that my 12yo who is learning to sew can work on projects,
but I don't have to see the mess.

Closeup of sewing desk and supplies.

The IKEA Expedit shelf holds active storage in bankers boxes and sweater buckets:
sewing supplies, cleaning supplies, hair clippers, paper bags, fabric, hats, helmets. 
On top are empty organizing containers.

 

 

 

South Wall:  Next to the Expedit is 4yo's closet. 
It is a IKEA Pax frame 88"hx20"wx24"d. 
Along the top is a hanging bar, and below are 4 drawers with bottoms, tops, shoes, PJs.
Next to the closet is a 4'w x 2'd storage shelving for passive storage.
Extra computer cables (yup, 4 big boxes full), extra cleaning supplies, goodwill donation bucket,
infrequently used tools, old photos, cloth diapers, empty CD & DVD cases.

North Wall: Across from the shelving unit is another one with more passive storage.  Fifteen big sterilite buckets fit in each one.
Next is an IKEA Pax frame (20"w), which holds the kids' church/dressy clothes.

North Wall: 4 armoires/closets for Mom, 12yo, 9yo, 7yo (in that order).
We went to IKEA intending to get more Pax frames to fill this space, but these were on clearance and cheaper.
On top of these are buckets of swim clothes, future shoes,  mom's extra clothes (pregnancy, etc.), future clothes  (as soon as 12yo grows out of something if it is in good shape it goes into 9yo's future clothes bucket).
Hanging are sweaters & jackets, dresses, skirts, shirts and bloomers.  On the shelf are their shoes.

Each closet has two drawers.  The top drawer for the girls has shoe buckets for socks, panties, bras, bloomers. 
The empty space in the front is where 9yo puts the owner of the closet's clothes and the closet owner cleans that space out each morning and puts their things in the proper area. 
Only PJs and play clothes go in drawers, so I am not picky about folding.

The bottom drawer has 4 sweater buckets which hold tops, bottoms, PJs and "junk."

Last on the wall is my closet, the two dirty laundry buckets and the IKEA clothes bar for hanging delicates that need to be cleaned and clothes that need to be ironed.  I divide my laundry into clothes (warm/cold) and towels (sanitary cycle).  If any clothes get really dirty, muddy or peed on, they go in with the towels.

One last look down the room to the end.

HOW WOULD I CHANGE THIS ROOM?

I really like the size and shape; it works well for our use.  I would, though, love to move all passive storage out into a garage/shed which would free up the 4' on each side at the end.  I would either put in some shallow shelving so I could store our extra pantry food there and our extra sundries (like lotion, shampoo, soap).  Having all those extras in one spot would make it easy for me to know quickly if we needed anything.  

Or I could use that space to put in desks and wall mounted shelves so the kids could each have a school desk in there.  A desk just for their school stuff, out of their room and out of the playroom.  They would love that.