Closet Organization Ideas & Our Master Closet

This year, in an effort to share the more real side of our home, I am highlighting some areas that I have never shared before.  A couple of weeks ago, I shared our front entryway closet and I have to admit that I smile every time I open that closet to grab a roll of paper towels.  Today, I am sharing our master closet.  I never shared this closet when I did the reveal for our master bedroom and bathroom because it definitely wasn't photo ready.  Here is a picture from our master bedroom reveal with the closet door tightly closed, hiding all of our clutter.

It is a fairly good sized (12ft x 6ft) walk in closet and, when we first bought this house, I envisioned a Container Store style makeover of the space.  However, Container Store prices are just not in our budget right now.  Plus, this is not our forever home, and like most homeowners, we are constantly weighing how much equity a project would add to our home when we inevitably sell.  With that in mind, I decided to peruse Pinterest for some affordable inspiration for this closet.  Here is the before:

The floral rug in the closet was once in our family room.  I moved it up here when I tired of the busy-ness of it in that space.  I was happy to cover up the dull brown carpet that the former owners put in this closet.  A couple of years ago, I admired a chandelier in Ikea and said it would be great in our closet, and my husband, Billy, made it happen as he often does.  We needed a light fixture, and with Ikea's affordable prices ($39.99), we were able to add some fun elegance to our closet.  We also added an Expedit shelving unit(now called Kallax) to the far wall of the closet at that time.  Last week, we removed everything from the closet, purged a bunch of stuff, and began trying to find a better system to keep us organized...without spending much money and using the pieces we already had.

We started by purchasing some storage bins at Ikea.  They came in a variety of cute patterns and sizes and the price was right ($7.99 for each larger bin and also $7.99 for a set of 3 smaller bins).  These larger covered bins store bathing suits and summer pajamas while the smaller bins hold some momentos for safe keeping.

Over on the opposite side of the closet, we have some simple built in shelves that were there when we bought the house.  I added a few Ikea bins here as well.  I purchased the turquoise metal basket at HomeGoods to hold linens.  I also added our family scrapbooks to our bottom shelf so they are more easily accessible (they were formerly kept on an upper shelf in the closet where they were just collecting dust).  

Billy keeps his shoes in an organizer that we have had for years on the bottom of this shelving area.

Over on my side of the closet, I purchased velvet hangers from TJ Maxx in some pretty shades of green.  These hangers are the best for actually keeping clothes on the hanger instead of falling on the floor of the closet.  I also purchased a couple to hang my scarves on.

I added a simple brown pin board (from Staples) to hang some of my jewelry on.  I just use push pins as the hangers.  So easy!  The plan is to add some pretty fabric to the board but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

When I was in the closet organization aisle at HomeGoods, I spotted some boot "shapers" for tall boots.  I have always stored my tall boots on a shelf above my hanging clothes, but the tops of the boots all sort of fell over to the side, which looked sloppy and was not the best way to take care of the boots.  However, even HomeGoods bargain price of $9.99 for each pair of shapers felt too expensive considering I would need several pairs.  A quick search on Pinterest showed me I could achieve the same result with some manila folders.  Here is my boot, on the right, before the folder held it upright:

And with a rolled up folder:

So much better!  Here are my boots all standing upright on the shelf.

This closet is still a work in progress and I plan on adding some more affordable charm with maybe a stencil or wallpaper.  Plus, I need to change over the hangers on Billy's side of the closet.  That side still has the plastic hangers.  For now, it is functioning so much better for us.  Do you have any tips for keeping things organized in a closet?  I would love to hear about it.