Inspired by the Messiest Closet Contest - or rather by not winning the contest - Holly set out to redo her own closet and reclaim a small portion of her life. Following is her story which is worthy of a small Oscar and should earn her a place on Oprah:
Where I began was as a candidate for “Messiest Closet in New York” and hoping for the votes to win me a professional redo. You saw the evidence. Not pretty. But apparently not messy enough to win. But I did rate a copy of Apartment Therapy which tells me I did everything backward. (I repainted my apartment last year, which I now see as putting lipstick on a pig.) Now I needed to deal with the pig.
I let go of clothes that don’t fit and I seldom wore and with ruthless weeding, I filled several trash bags with clothes to donate. I sorted through papers, discarding most. I felt tremendously free.
At the lumber shop at 96th Street, I got shelves cut to fit and installed them myself with my new power drill.
I painted the closet spanking white during one steamy weekend.
After a week of not receiving an estimate from the professional Handymen of NYC who I want to move the gridwall from the door to inside the wall, cut thin boards as subflooring to cover the horrible old floor, and then lay vinyl, I decided to do all these jobs myself.
I scored a piece of ¾ inch wood and ¼ inch board from a local cabinet shop and discovered a local carpenter willing to cut them for me in ten days for $150. No way! I rented an electric saw and did it myself.
And here are the results of my unprofessional closet redo. Here are the befores and afters. Note the floor, the neat shelves of organized stuff. I am especially pleased with the gizmo I devised to hang my iron board neatly out of the way but very reachable.
Moving my broom and mop from the kitchen’s broom closet freed that space up for another shelf as part of my pantry.
Now when I open my closet door, I am pleased and proud rather than embarrassed.
Before, overflowing and mortifying
Before, a teetering mess
Too much!
Too many clothes blocking shelves in the back
Gridwall stored my iron, umbrellas, but mostly for hanging bags on.
Painted, see how little hangs in here now
Hooks now hold the bags
Eye screws and S-hooks with loops of cord-- my device to hold my iron board
Cleared and ready for paint and a new floor
I cut this board myself and created the subfloor
New home for the gridwall inside closet now holds the iron, a rain poncho, brooms, mop and umbrellas.
And see the floor?
Nothing spills out anymore
Laundry box in better spot, too
A place for everything
Brava!
WOW.
Just wow.
Nice job! You should be proud!
This is awesome! I am working on creating my own closet as well and find this to be inspiring and motivating. Looks great, congratulations!!
Congratulations! Well done!
Holly, that is fabulous and very inspiring for me since I have done nothing to my closet since the contest. But I have to say - you must have gotten rid of a ton of stuff - like a megaton of stuff. Are those all the clothes you have in the world hanging there?
congratulations!! people of the world raise high your power tools!
Thanks, all!! I was hoping to inspire as I have been inspired.
matilda, yes, indeed, I did shed a good deal of stuff and yes, those are all the clothes that hang. Most of the clothes that I actually wear are folded in drawers. 90% of the stuff hanging in the closet before never left it. Just hung there taking up space, blocking access to the shelves. The space is worth so much more than the worthless clothes. I don't miss them.
I'm officially going home tonight and not only cleaning out my pen cup, but also making a headstart on my closet. Thanks for kicking my butt Holly!!!
You had me at "(I repainted my apartment last year, which I now see as putting lipstick on a pig.) Now I needed to deal with the pig."
Hilarious. True. But sometimes you need to reward yourself with seeing a little bit of lipstick... I fixed up my bed area when the rest of the place was in utter chaos and still needed some serious decluttering. But I needed to give my self a carrot (oh my) to keep my momentum.
Congrats.
Fantastic; I particularly applaud your (far better than mine will ever be) DIY skills, and for having the gumption to take it all on. I hope you are monumentally proud of yourself!
Reminds me of "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." I've also found it difficult to get tradesmen to come out, take a look, give an estimate and, so, had no choice but to tackle a the project myself, but what a feeling!! Amazing what we can accomplish when we make up our minds to, which is exactly what you did, so I congratulate you! Your new closet is sooooo nice, free of clutter; a really nice job!
Wow! Congratulations in finding your inner DIYer.
From a fellow DIYer, I am truly impressed.
Way to go!
Wow! So impressive and definitely inspiring.
HandyMen of NYC's two reps arrived on the dot for the appt. to see the jobs for the estimate, but I haven't heard from them since. I think this is very unprofessional. If my handful of jobs to be done was too piddly for them, you'd think they'd have the manners to say so. So I do not recommend ever calling them.
I still remain with the pipe across the lower back of the closet which will become problematic once the heat comes up again.
Handymen told me that my idea of sheetrock covering it is illegal. They were going to put insulation over it. Anybody have any thoughts on this? The pipe goes from the radiator in the kitchen to the radiator in the bathroom.
WoW! And I mean WOW! You have definitely earned an apartment therapy star. Will you adopt me?
Hi Holly- nice job
As for the pipr, I doubt it's illegal, although it may violate your lease to "enclose" the pipe. However, I would go to a plumbing supply place(check the yellow pages) (not a home depot) and get pipe insulation (the kind that has very thick yellow fiberglass on the inside and white foil on the outside). You'll need to measure the diamter of the pipe first to get the right size, but a plumbing house should have very very thick insulation that you can then tape/wrap and you will notice a dramatic change in temperature. Good luck
Holly -- really really fine work. Gave me the jolt I needed to reclaim my own closets (stuck mid-Apartment Therapy -- installed dividers and filled them with the same crap that inspired the therapy in the first place). Love the floor!
Thanks for the advice, NYC resident! I will follow up and get it fixed before cold weather and heat come back.
For fun, I thought I would tote up the cost:
shelves cut to size & supports $30
primer/paint 25
hardware 12
saw rental 15
garment bag 10
metal strip 5
total $97
PLUS
drill and bits $64
The wood for the subfloor and support for the gridwall were free. The vinyl was leftover from my kitchen installation.
grand total---- $161
pretty reasonable!
Great job, Holly! I'm in the process of decorating my bedroom though alas my drilling/hanging skills are not quite there yet. But your closet gives me hope...
wow - I'm impressed. Although I'd like to think I could do all this... I'm not sure I could cut the sub-cloor to the right size, this seems like something I would screw up. Measure twice, cut once... but still I always mess up.
Honestly, I can't see why anyone else couldn't do what I did! Really.
I did measure twice and thrice, I confess. And what I did was think of the closet floor as a puzzle. I didn't have to create one piece to fit and couldn't do that, obviously, and so it seemed that the easiest and best way was to devise pieces, like a puzzle. And the beauty of its being a subfloor was that they didn't have to be perfect, just good enough and sized right to fit.
I used GRAPH PAPER--- very useful. And cut squares and rectangles and one triangle to accommodate the angle on the side.
And of course, the vinyl covers it! And the metal strip added across the entrance? I had the store trim that to size, cutting the ends at an angle. Came out fine.
I am not particularly handy, believe me. And I am surprised myself at what I have been able to do. I think more people could DIY if they tried, if they had the desire, they can do it!
Wow! Semi permanent make up has alot of uses! But did you know that a woman consumes over 4 to 9 lbs of lipstick in her lifetime! Here is the link that I found that shows all of the research:
http://www.lipink.com/lipstick_wax_s/6510.htm&Click=33586