After finishing the master bedroom closet declutter, we turned our attention to the hall closet just outside our bedroom. It had become a catchall for photo albums, old videos and notebooks, random keepsakes and a mountain of spare shopping bags. In short: clutter that needed a plan.
Our approach was simple: undo the haphazard decisions that created the mess. That meant actually assembling photo albums instead of letting loose prints pile up, getting rid of nearly every extra bag or box we’d kept “just in case,” and finally making tough choices about personal keepsakes that occupied two towers of clear plastic drawers. The goal was to reclaim valuable square footage and make room for items displaced by the third-bedroom-to-nursery conversion.
Once we committed, it wasn’t nearly as painful as we expected. We tossed a lot of fluffy, meaningless items and kept only the things that truly mattered. That made the remaining photos and mementos feel more special because they weren’t buried under piles of junk. Not every old photo needs to be saved—do we really need every poorly-lit high school picture or every angle of a cluttered dorm room? We flipped through everything, said goodbye to many pieces, filed the keepers, and even managed to keep a sentimental shot of teenage Sherry with her childhood dog Dante.
One rule we reinforced was to limit relationship keepsakes to a single box. Sherry is sentimental—she keeps plane tickets from our first trip, a napkin from our wedding, and other small tokens—so she long ago designated a box for memorabilia. That made it easy to see what should be kept: if it didn’t fit, it either went or was documented differently (a photo of the item placed in the box, for example). During this purge we found we’d been spilling into a second box, so we pared down to that single container again. The result was satisfying: we enjoyed revisiting the most meaningful bits, discarded things that didn’t matter, and made room for any new special items that might come along.
We ended up eliminating an entire plastic three-drawer tower by grouping like with like and discarding outdated items—old business cards from past jobs, notebooks of college assignments, and the like. That freed up room for our vacuum (which had been displaced by the nursery conversion) and our fireproof safe. The safe holds a CD of our wedding photos, our wedding video and copies of irreplaceable documents—items we’d want preserved in an emergency.
Sherry had another idea: find a better home for her wrapping paper and gift supplies now that she’d lost her previous station to the nursery conversion. She spotted a never-used mirror on the back of the hall closet door and envisioned a back-of-door storage solution. After a quick trip to Target we picked up three inexpensive wire baskets that fit the bill.
We screwed the baskets directly into the door—two near the top for stationery, cards and small supplies, and one lower down for rolls of wrapping paper. To keep the paper from flapping when the door opened, we installed two small hooks and used a ribbon as a simple “seat belt” to hold the rolls neatly in place. The entire installation took only a few minutes and created an accessible, efficient wrapping station at standing height—especially helpful as bending becomes more challenging during pregnancy.
In a burst of nesting energy, Sherry also touched up the closet’s dated wood trim late one Sunday night with a quick coat of low-VOC trim paint. It refreshed the entire space, making it look cleaner and more current. We also added a hanging shoe/sweater organizer (a hand-me-down) to corral gift bags and additional wrap supplies. Grouping like with like transformed scattered supplies into a single, compact wrapping center.
Next we tackled the usually hidden shelves above the laundry nook, which were messy because items had been hastily shoved up there instead of thoughtfully stored. We decluttered, recycled old cell phones and rusted tools, and vacuumed the dust. The result was more usable space ready for whatever we need next—likely more baby gear as our family grows.
After the closet refresh we ran several errands to complete the purge: donating a large bag of clothes, returning borrowed items, recycling old cell phones, dropping off books and magazines at a used bookstore, and cashing in loose change at Coinstar. The three wire baskets cost about $16 total, and our coin drop netted $54, so the project actually earned us a small profit while giving us valuable storage.
In the end, the hall closet went from chaotic and overcrowded to organized and efficient. By setting sensible limits on keepsakes, grouping similar items, and adding smart storage solutions—like back-of-door baskets and a hanging organizer—we reclaimed space and reduced everyday clutter. If you’ve recently decluttered a closet or created a new storage solution, we’d love to hear how you did it and what worked for you.
- Brought a large bag of clothes, shoes and accessories to donation drop-off
- Returned borrowed books, clothes and DVDs to friends and family
- Recycled old cell phones at a recycling kiosk
- Dropped off books and magazines at a used bookstore
- Converted found loose change into cash via Coinstar