1 small closet...3 uses

Our home office is one room in our house that we could not do without. The room is just a small extra bedroom; and the closet is even smaller so I knew it would require lots of organization to function at maximum capacity.

We needed the closet to do 3 very specific things:

1. House all our gift wrapping supplies
2. House all our paperwork
3. House basic tools and craft supplies
   

Since the closet is SO small I decided to removed the door to give us easier access to our "stuff". Here it is...all 3 feet of it!

ZONE 1: Gift Wrapping
LOCATION: Top Shelf



I have 4 large white bags that contain all my wrapping supplies:
1. large bags
2. large boxes
3. small bags
4. ribbons & bows.

To the left is a birds-eye view of my "bag filled with small bags!"




Then I have 2 boxes; one that contains a variety of small boxes, and one that contains tissue paper. (Yes, I save tissue paper!)

Then I labeled each bag and box with cute tags that I made from construction paper.



ZONE 2: Paperwork
LOCATION: Filing cabinet and fire-proof safe

In the center of my closet is a large 4-drawer filing cabinet. And if we need to find piece of paper, we know just which drawer to look in!

Drawer #1: Personal paperwork
Drawer #2: My business paperwork
Drawer #3: Hubby's school paperwork
Drawer #4: Craft paper, cards, envelopes, etc.

I use the tabs down the center for our main categories, and the tabs on the left for subcategories.

For example: the main category might be "utilities" and then the subcategories would be each of the different utility companies we work with (DTE, AT&T, Consumers Electric, Allied Waste, etc.)
This system works wonderfully for us.

We also keep a small fire-proof safe on top of the filing cabinet for important documents and information.

ZONE 3: Tools & Craft Supplies
LOCATION: Peg Board

Inside our closet, on the right side, I installed a small section of peg board to house some of our smaller tools and craft supplies.

Our larger tools are either in the shed outside or down in the basement but these are the ones we need to keep on hand for more regular use.

This section of the closet would otherwise just be a bunch of wasted space.

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So there you have it... 1 small closet transformed with virtually no out-of-pocket costs to fit 3 distinct needs in our home office.


Next week I'll post more pictures of our office along with more organizing tips so make sure to check back!