Project House Update: That Needed to Get Done, Right?

Both Dan and I have the full week off for Thanksgiving. While it's nice not to have to work, it's even better to have all sorts of time to get stuff done on the house. Unfortunately, there's a bit of a bump in the road: in laws. I love my in laws, but my husbands productivity drops to zero when they stay with us.

So, it's a fun little game I play, seeing how much I can get him to do before they come into town. In a dirty move, I decided we needed to reorganize our entry way closets and pulled everything out of them the second he left me home alone. One was filled with all our luggage and the other with our cleaning appliances, like the vacuum and brooms. Why we were holding onto so many old, broken suitcases was beyond me. There was no reason we couldn't chuck most of it and fit the contents into just one space.

With the closets empty, Dan got inspired to just redo the whole closet while we were at it. Just one, the one I had completely emptied. Since I wasn't planning on this being a project, this is the best 'Before' picture I managed to get.

And here's a small portion of the mess I made pulling it all out.

We did three big things to the closet.

First, we removed the coat rod. "What? How could you remove the coat rod?!" Well, we did and here's why. Numero 1: it's Arizona. I don't think we've ever had guests over and they've been desperate to hang their coats. Numero 2: it's the front entry way. Dan and I rarely, if ever, leave through the front door. We store all our coats and bags in the laundry room.

Second, we painted the walls. They were the same creamy/beige most of the house was originally painted and they'd been pretty banged up from the dirty wheels of the luggage.

Third, Dan installed some shelves. While we'll leave the other closet shelf-less to store taller items like the vacuum, this one didn't really need any height to store things. In a twist of fate, Dan had removed some shelves in the garage to replace them with stronger ones. Wouldn't you know it, they were the exact right width and height for this little closet.

And without further ado, here's the 'finished' product.

Eventually, a different set of junk will go on the shelves and we'll hopefully get rid of another car full of donations, but it's better. For now.