Behind Closed Doors

There's an old country/western song that I was thinking about today: "No one knows what goes on behind closed doors."  Charlie Rich was talking about romance, but I'm grateful no one knows about this mess (until now, that is--EEK!):

This is my master bedroom closet.  It is a space that most people would envy because it is very large--long and narrow (16x7' or so).  Maybe it's too large because it has become a dumping ground for all manners of things.  When company is coming, the clutter gets stashed in here.  When I change out decor, the excess ends up here.  I think I need to follow a simple rule: when something new comes into the house, another thing (or 20) needs to leave.

Anyway, my closet has three large built-in cabinets.  Mine stores shoes.  My Man's is filled with shoes, jeans and t-shirts.  The last one holds a mish-mash of stuff, mostly home decor items that I don't want exposed to the heat of the garage or attic.

I am a very sentimental person and keep many things because they remind me of people or places from the past.  That is a real problem that I need to work on, because some things are worth keeping but many are not.  One keeper is this old laundry bag that my Grandma made probably 80 years ago or so.  Can you imagine having the time to beautify such a utilitarian item as a laundry bag?!

Another keeper from Grandma are these rug beaters.  The red one is dated 1927.   I'm not sure what I'll ever do with them but I love the lines of them.  I know I could hang them on a wall somewhere, but I'm just not sure where.

But I digress.  And because I digress so often, today's project took all day.  I didn't do anything earthshattering, just cleaned up and organized the chaos.  And since I have those built-in storage areas (which are basically closets within the closet), I also cleaned those out.  I had 2 hefty bags of trash and 2 more hefty bags of donations when I was done.

Here's the big reveal:

I have upper shelves that line the perimeter of this closet.  I wish I could afford something better than the see-through plastic bins I'm using, something that would cut the visual clutter.  I would love either covered baskets or canvas storage, but with this many bins, it would cost a small fortune.  Any ideas?

I carved out a place for future scrapbooking with this little area.  I want to try to get some nice photo mementos together for my son's high school graduation in 2 years.

Speaking of photos, I tried to get to that this week, too.  I was only mildly successful and ended up frustrated because I was tackling the project after long, long days at work.  Oh well, maybe later.

Now that I have cleared the floor, My Man will have no excuse not to replace the flourescent tubes that have burned out.  I hope.

I'm linking this to Songbird's Gitter Done linky party.  This on-going party is inspiring me to right my many wrongs!  I'm also linking this to Decor Chic's Real Homes, Real Messes party.