A Closet Remodel:The Chaos Continues

So the closet is happening!  And I am a bit of an organizing geek, so I could not be more thrilled about this.

Impressively, I got an install date on July 7th!  So soon!  They were actually able to install it sooner, but I knew I wouldn’t be ready by then.  There’s a lot of work to be done.  Such as:

• emptying out the closet
• removing the current closet racks
• spackling the holes in the wall
• vacuuming and steam cleaning the carpet (easier to do before the closet system goes in on top of it)
• priming and painting the room (a very ridiculous color)

Given that it’s hot and humid outside, and therefore slightly humid inside, I’m worried about the paint (and spackle and carpet) drying, so I’m trying to give myself as much time as possible to get the paint onto the walls.  Plus I’d like to have a little bit of fun during the holiday weekend next weekend.  That means that this weekend, I had quite a bit to get done.  It was worthwhile, but it reaffirms that there is no way I should be building and installing this closet system by myself.

I can DIY, and I am good at learning on the fly, but I just don’t have the time to do it.  Nor do I particularly enjoy it.  I know some people like the satisfaction of a job well done, but I like instant gratification.  To each his own, and that’s something fascinating I’ve learned reading finance blogs.  We each have our own lists of saves and splurges.  What’s important is that everything in life isn’t a splurge.  Just those things that are important to us.

As part of all of this, I’m realizing how painfully disorganized my closet really was.  I did my entire move into this house as quickly as possible.  I grabbed stuff from my apartment, drove it here, and put it somewhere.  My closet has clothing in it that I haven’t worn in years.  I definitely recognize things I haven’t worn since law school, and I graduated seven years ago.  I’d say it’s time to clean things out.

Since I’m getting rid of so much clothing, for the first time, I’m making a point to itemize my donations so that I can get a good receipt and claim the additional deduction on my taxes next year.  It’s more work than I expected, but I’m slowly packing up boxes (while waiting for things to dry) and taping a list of the contents to the top of each box.  I’m hoping to finally get to a donation center sometime next month.  This is one of those things that I inevitably put off.

(This also means that I will have significantly less to put back into the closet that is designed to hold significantly more.  It makes me wonder what other things I have squirreled away in closets that could be moved.  Well, culled through, then moved.)

But back to the closet.  It’s not a cheap endeavor.  But I also believe that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right.  So I’m using good paint and I plan to buy quality baskets and bins to use on the shelves in the closet.  It’s going to cost a pretty penny, but I cannot wait for it to be done.

I did decide to hold off on putting a mini-chandelier in though.  Those things run around $100!  That’s a lot of money for something that’s just for fun.  I’ll just have to watch for one second-hand.

Have you ever done a closet remodel?

Megan Smith

Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:

In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance.  It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information.  It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck.  While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.

While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.

Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.

So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan.  I needed to budget.  I needed to know what I was spending my money on.  I needed to prepare for the future.

I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way.  I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.