This blog post feels like a very *pinch me* moment. I don’t mean for this post to come across as, “Oh look at how organized I am! Look at these shoes!” Instead, this space represents 6 years of working from home, nearly 4 of those with kids, and space I can FINALLY dedicate to shooting content. It’s part lookbook studio, part closet, part office organization…all a dream come true.

I always say it’s good to live in a space for a bit before you do a big project so that you can see how you REALLY use it. In my office, I was using the space to store clothes, backdrops {seen above}, items for giveaways, items to test. I was NOT using the space to write blog posts. After almost 2 years of it, we decided to do something about it.

For closets, I was using my closet in the master {it is SO narrow I couldn’t even walk in there pregnant lol} for current season clothing. I was using half of my husband’s closet for off-season clothing. I was using the playroom closet to store items I needed to photograph for brand photography. {A lot of my job can revolve around shooting content for a brand’s social media. It is easier for a brand to hire me to shoot for them than say hire a photographer, model, stylist, etc.}

I was spending a solid 4 hours a month organizing my master closet because it was SO narrow. And this photo was the tipping point for my husband. Harry was 2 weeks old. I was, of course, still healing. And I had to shoot content for a brand’s social media. So my sister came over to help a fresh-out-of-labor sister spend 4-5 hours cleaning out the closet so I could send the brand a photo to make sure they wanted their items featured here. After 5 hours, the brand told me it was way too narrow their product wouldn’t fit in the space {they were right}. And I felt defeated I’d wasted 5 hours when I could have been healing. Plus, I was proud I actually made “fake space” in the closet- aka, my other clothes were hanging in Harry’s closet. ha.

Paul sat me down and told me that I worked from home and needed to utilize the space better. He had a lovely office at work, and I didn’t need to feel guilty about needing a space to shoot for myself. He said, “In no world would I feel guilty for needing a space to do my job, so why do you?” We decided we needed to use our desk we had in our master {that’s what I was using to write all my blog posts anyways!} and utilize my office as a space to shoot content and store ALL my clothes/work needs/product for brands.

I nodded and agreed with him, but still wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with the space. A few weeks later, Inspired Closets DFW e-mailed to let me know they had opened and they shared a bit of what they did.

What is this organizational Fairy Godmother service I speak of? Inspired Closets is like interior design for your organization. They do free consultations, so I figured I’d see what they could offer.

Y’all it was brilliant! They came and MEASURED my clothing. My backdrops. My paperwork. They saw me with my kids. They really understood what I did for work. They presented a solution and partnership where they’d totally refigure my built-in closet to store off-season, paperwork, brand product, testing items, photography equipment and then turned the room into a boutique-like closet to shoot look book content for you all.

I left that meeting feeling like, “This will not only work, but this will make my work/life balance SO much easier.” It sounds so trivial, but I spend an unseen amount of hours each week organizing and cleaning spaces so I can set up spaces to shoot. I couldn’t tell you the last time Paul and I had just sat and watched a movie at night because instead, we were setting up backdrops, etc. {I’ll have you know since the closet was installed we have BINGED all of our shows and time together, and it feels life-changing.}

Inspired Closets combines function with lifestyle and they do spaces from closets to garages, which can be repaired if necessary by professionals like the one on this weblink, to pantries. I mean anything you want, they can do.

It’s not just standard-grade white shelving. I’m talking they match and give style recommendations for your home, add in glass, designer hardware. It’s truly interior design meets organization. They created glass shoe-shrines to show off my wedding shoes as art. They added pull-out rods in hidden spaces so I can steam items for the blog. Everything installed has two purposes: beauty and solution. Their reach-in closet systems are just unreal. You can see more in my highlight here. They made recommendations on how to even prolong the life of my accessories, like handbags. We placed them in glass cabinetry so they will stay in mint condition by the time I give them to Maxi when she is an adult. Once we had our meeting, we set up an install day. It took two days, where they brought an install crew in. This is NOT putting together bookshelves and setting them up. Think more HGTV, less DIY. They paint, they build in, they wire lighting. They took out the old reach-in closet and put hanging on the SIDES {who knew to even use vertical side hanging and shelving in the front?!} to have more room. I can fit 3x the amount of clothing I did in the reach-in closet than prior. I can fit everything and then some in the room.

Once everything was built-in, Maxi helped me organize everything. She left a little gift, too. 😉

This has been installed for a few weeks now, and it feels so silly to say this, but my WFH life is different. I was waking up at 4 am on shoot days to make sure we had ample space and lighting with no toys everywhere to shoot. Now I have a studio-ready space that holds everything I need but serves as an open space to create the content YOU as readers ask for. I’ve built in organization units in each home/office we’ve had {nothing like this of course} and the pricing on Inspired Closets is so comparable, and yet this is totally custom to your space. Paul has seen such a difference in my time allocated to work {I can get way more content created vs. spending time cleaning to make space that simply wasn’t there} that he’s like, “Okay what other spaces do you want to do? Laundry room? What will help our life more?“

Ultimately, THAT is why I’m so passionate about organization. Sure, pretty spaces can seem frivolous. 😉 But when spaces aren’t being used properly you are taking time away from what you love { for me, family and creating content} to try and make it work. It becomes time-consuming, and all-encompassing- ESPECIALLY for a year where my entire life has been at home.

Is this space gorgeous? Um, yes. I still can’t get over it’s my closet/space to shoot. It feels so beautiful, I have a hard time accepting that it’s OKAY that I have this space all to myself. In true mom fashion, I’m like, “Shouldn’t it serve the whole family?“

But that’s the thing… it DOES serve the whole family. My kids have a more rested mom that isn’t getting up at 4 to make room for a backdrop. I’m not thinking about how I have no room for a project. I’m not spending 5 hours organizing a closet that is way too narrow for what I do for work. And instead, we are doing a whole lot more of this below.

I’m not sure what space may be giving you frustration in your home, but I was straight-up giddy to share this space with you all and the work Inspired Closets DFW did. Because it really represents everything this blog is about. Frivolity is fun, but I hope this blog serves as a way for you to spend less time finding products and more time with the people you love. And Inspired Closets did that for me!