Closet Redo

My kids are ready for their own rooms, having just about out-grown sharing the nursery. Their closets need a little reworking though before I divide up their heap of toys and create "a place for everything" so "everything" can be "in its place." I took measurements of the baskets we use for toy storage. They are almost all 14" cubed and some of them 14 x 14 x 20". My initial plan was to build floor to ceiling 16" cubes to fit the baskets in in a column, but two problems. The kids can't reach the ceiling so they'd only use the bottom three shelves. Plus, materials are getting expensive. Just one side of nice pine, 16" x 8' x 1/2" is pushing $80 in some places. Then there's measuring, cutting assembling - the stuff I usually take pride in. After some shopping around, my pride took a back seat and I bought two of these.
It's the Sterilite 4-Shelf Cabinet and I got them for $90 at The Anderson's. It would have been cheaper to get them online from Target and have them shipped, but I only have so much vacation left before the new year starts and I needed them today, so premium paid, local economy stimulated, off you go.

Putting them together was quite literally a snap. All I needed was a pocket knife to separate a couple of pieces that came bound together with a thin plastic strap. The whole thing feels like it's made from #2 recyclable plastic but it's also fairly sturdy. We haven't fully loaded it with toys as yet but that will come soon enough. I was impressed with how easily it went together and how well designed it seems to be.

One modification was necessary, however. Despite me telling the younglings not to close themselves in to play Narnia, I know they will. So I used my pocket knife to drill two holes in non structural areas in the bottom and two in the top. That way, if they are in there, their body heat will circulate the air through the box and they should have enough to breath till they get bored.

The only real work the closet required was removing the half height bar that was in the way. I'll be relocating that to the other side of the closet with a couple of $3 brackets to provide some shirt hanging area. With this configuration, they'll have all the hanging space as before but also now have additional storage in a neat container. And when one has children as innundated by loving family with small toys of various description as I have... "neat" and "container" can not be underestimated by-words.