How Twelve Little Drawers Saved My Relationship With My Daughter . . .

You are looking at a photograph of something that makes me truly happy. I am weird, I know.  But one week ago, this closet was a huge nightmare of hanging clothing tripping over itself in an effort to see the light of day and shelf space shoved tight with memory boxes, hand-me-downs and cast off stuffed animals. In essence, it was a freak show. 

Hannie B., you see, has one tiny dresser with three drawers into which she stuffs every last blasted thing she owns.  What doesn’t  fit in the dresser gets thrown on a hanger or on the closet floor to be forgotten by the girl or washed by the disgruntled mother even when it isn’t dirty.  Uncool.

Hannie’s closet was one long stretch of hanging rod with awkward dead space at either end – you know, that space to either side of the doors but behind the walls where things get lost.  We decided it was time to put that dead space to use. After a trip to Ikea with the Queen {I wish you could all do this at least once – she’s a riot} my girl now has twelve – YES! TWELVE! new drawers and six extra shelves. 

What on earth could a girl need so many drawers for, you ask?  Why, to contain her sock-scarf-underwear-tank top-pajama-tee shirt-slipper-shoe-sweats obsession, of course.  Then her three drawer dresser could be used for all the shirts and pants that used to crowd her closet, causing her closet floor to be seen again for the first time months, resulting in the proper alignment of the stars and elements, which in turn would affect the turning of the Earth on it’s axis, finally restoring balance in the world of her mother who swore she could not utter one more time, “Daughter, this closet is a pit of despair and doom!” {Cue birds singing now.}

All is harmonious in the room of Hannie B. And I’m happy to report that since Saturday, it has been as neat and tidy as these pictures. 

Of course, it’s only been three days, but a mom can dream, right?