Nursery Organization–Frugal Style

update: I was featured on IHeart Organizing for Reader’s Space!  If you are here from IHeart Organizing, thanks for stopping by!

One of the two closets we have in our Brooklyn apartment is in the kids’ room.  It has been the catch-all for anything that doesn’t have a home…and it’s been driving me nuts.  It wasn’t high on Ben’s priority list because he isn’t in that room very often, and there wasn’t a lot of money in the budget to spend on cool organizational containers.  So…I decided the tackle the task, frugal style.  In the end I was very pleased with the results.

BEFORE:

I only took one before picture, and it’s hard to tell what is going on, but most of it was a mess!

AFTER:

Here is the final after shot.  I’ll show you some close-ups as we go along!

Nolan’s clothes were organized into plastic tubs and labeled by size.  I already had these containers, but they were a mess. 

I used the same labels that I had designed for Elaine’s clothing bins.  They match the Peter Rabbit décor of the nursery.

Nolan’s clothes had to go in the closet because Elaine’s were already stored under the crib (below).  I would have preferred bigger containers, but the closet isn’t very deep so I had to get the only size that would fit.  In the end it was a good choice because I will have to be selective in which clothes I choose to keep for future boys (if there are any).  I don’t have room to store everything!

Back to the closet.  There is a lot of storage room above the shelf, but the height of the door frame limits the access.  I had things in zippered plastic bags (like new comforter’s come in), but they were all just thrown and shoved onto the shelf and it was hard to find the needed items.

I decided to use cardboard boxes.  I have a lot of them on hand from my internet business.  But…I was going for a more visually appealing effect.  So I covered the front of each box with a piece of 12”x12” scrapbooking paper.  I just folded it to overlap on the top and the bottom.  Since the items in these boxes are not used frequently, I didn’t feel the need to cover the whole box.  I popped off some more labels – IHeart Organizing style – and taped them on the boxes!

I also re-organized the toys.  For one toddler and one baby, I feel like I have toys coming out my ears!  (Thank you, grandparents.  The endless noise from these toys never ceases to remind us of you!)

I also added a shoe organizer for Nolan’s little shoes and other items.  Elaine had an organizer on the front of the door was was whipped into better organization.

 

And I sorted the clothes by child and by size, eliminating the ones that Elaine had grown out of.  Why didn’t I do that before?  Now I have a better idea of what we have and what we need for the fall/winter!

Elaine loves to draw and color.  I used some containers already on hand to get her art supplies into shape!

We use a frosting container for crayons and a parmesan cheese shaker for markers!

I don’t have much space to store a lot of craft supplies, but I do like to keep things on hand for making projects for my toddler.  I don’t remember where I saw the idea, but I chose to use Ziploc bags and clip hangers (or clothespins and a hanger) to hang them in the closet.  Most of the kids’ clothes are in drawers, so we had the space to spare on the clothes bar.

 

These plastic drawers have been around for a while, but we re-purposed them for the toys, baby doll “equipment”, purses (Elaine has TONS of those considering she is not yet two!), and quiet/learning activities.

I really like Elaine’s book “center.”  It is an old army trunk from WWII that I got for $1 at a garage sale when I was in high school.  I sponge painted it.  It holds extra sheets and bedding.  (We have another larger one as the coffee table in our living room).  We just turned a crate on it’s side for the books.  And the blocks found a home in a big plastic candy “barrel” that our neighbor was going to recycle. 

And just in case you’re wondering – that is an original Little People farm.  I played with it as a little girl too, and now Elaine gets to enjoy it!

And since we’re in the nursery, I just want to take another opportunity to show off the crib.  Ben made built (that’s a more manly word, right?) it, and it will {hopefully} last for generations.  I think it is just so pretty!  And I made the crib sheet and blankets.

So that’s it – the nursery organized, and I didn’t spend a dime on it!  Thanks for stopping by.  I found a lot of my ideas at IHeart Organizing, and Pinterest.