Into the closet...

I have had the first run-in with something that I do not necessarily like about the baby.  What did he just say, you might ask but it’s okay it is nothing to do with our future bundle of joy herself but what she wears and her apparent lack of sympathy to her parents’ frustration of her closet’s inability to provide decent organization.

This weekend, we decided that we must do something with the clear lack of organization the nursery’s closet has in store for us.  Thanks to the builders and the previous owners, all we were left with for a closet system were two highly placed shelves and one lengthy closet bar for hanging clothing.  If I am supposed to read into the obscenely large amount of clothing that Shannon has decided to purchase for our girl, then I must be able to foresee that the single closet bar would quickly become as useless as a boat in any of the current Texas lakes.

So in order to avoid the eventual extinction of any foreseeable organization within the nursery, Shannon and I moseyed on down to the local hardware store (Home Depot for those that care) to purchase the means in which to fix our quandary.  This adventure started off with good intentions but as things are, they quickly dissolved into lengthy discussions involving much head scratching and outright confusion. 

You see, we thought that developing an organizational diagram in our heads would surely suffice as a model for what we would need.  It was seemly obvious that our little girl would only have a limited need for shelving, drawers, and other such devices.  Quickly we soon figured that our plan was destined to failure once we gazed upon the hundreds of options in closet organization.

I never would have guessed that there would be such an abundance of shelving sizes, options, and what not that it would necessitate me writing a dissertation on “space management issues and concepts in the modern American home closet.”  We in our hour of hopelessness and utter despair must have looked as confused to the staff as turtles to a rodeo and as such we were peppered non-stop with questions on if we needed help or even transportation to the local mental care facility.  While I did consider their last request as an option out of my pickle, I ultimately decided not to accept such an offer as it would have left Shannon stranded and all alone at a time of great adversity (appealing though that is… Haha). 

After an hour of picking out the various features we would probably not use and loading our cart to an unsafe level, Shannon discovered a prepackaged box for small closet organization.  This kit consisted of the mounting brackets, shelving, and other odds and ends needed to complete the transformation.  We decided that since we will not be purchasing a dresser to put into the nursery that a four drawer system that hooks into the closet system would be the best decision to add as an addition to the closet system.  With our purchase complete and my wallet drained, we headed back home for the installation.

Never would I have guessed that a relatively straight forward boxed system entail an entire afternoon of frustration and heavy cursing such as I encountered.  Luckily, I have read that our baby girl, up to that point, could not hear such frustrations and would only hear the innards of her momma.  Unless, her first words involve a diatribe about the closet’s mother and the unnatural way it was conceived, I can only assume that my rants went unheard by little forming ears.

Mistake number one in this whole ordeal was that I decided that we needed to keep the permanently installed closet shelves to hold anything of substantial weight and also to prevent me from completely dismantling drywall and the like as I tried to gently coax the shelf from its mooring.  As such, Shannon and I had the parameters under which we were supposed to work within.

After hours of dissatisfaction and disappointment, we were finally able to step back and view the monstrosity that we created.   What we did find out was that there is no rationale behind the various sizes and lengths of baby clothing articles and therefore my preconceived notion that all of her clothing would hang nicely in order went out the window. 

I can only hope that what we did will ensure successful organization without any additional help but only time will tell.  Baby girl, I do hope you’ll appreciate all that we have done for you thus far… if not, your Grandparents will surely be receiving you for an extended visit! (Okay not really…)

Pictures of the real closet are forthcoming.