Space Bags=Space Saver!

It's no big secret that Y has had a lot of clothing in her 2 short years on earth.  It's also no big secret that we haven't had a lot of extra space during those 2 short years of life.  Now I know that there are many people who have had many more children in much smaller places than our apartment was (1000sqft).  I, honestly, take my hat off to them because I just don't know how they do/did it!  I was going absolutely insane in our apartment, probably partially because I was ready to own something, but also because my living room was doubling as a play room and I was quickly running out of places to store/hide things.  One big issue was Y's closet!  I dunno if it could have handled one more season worth of clothes. 

Now she has a closet that rivals the size of her bedroom in our apartment (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration...SLIGHT!  It's probably close to half the size though).  So I was able to fit more stuff, unfortunately most of the stuff I wanted to fit in there was large stuff (this is where a basement would come in handy, but you make due with what you have, right?).  Her infant swing is in there, the headboard of her crib is in there (and it needs space because if it gets scratched I might have a coronary), her jumperoo, all of her current clothes, diaper bags, her infant bathtub, I could seriously go on and on.  needless to say I wanted more space so all those bags and bags of clothing (8 large trash bags to be exact) had to go.  But there was no way I was getting rid of the clothing so a friend suggested Space Bags.  After reading reviews online I was seriously torn.  So many people complained of the bags tearing or not staying deflated once filled.  The stupid bags are not cheap either so I didn't wanna invest a ton of money on something that didn't work.  Finally I just started asking people I knew, whose opinions I trusted and everyone of them had been extremely satisfied so I decided to give it a shot...I was not disappointed!

This was taken after I had already done 2 of the bags.  I went to Walmart and purchased a box of 2 large bags for $10 in order to try it before buying more.  I intended to take a picture of the closet before I started but completely forgot until I already had these 2 done.  I think went online to see if I could find them cheaper.  I found a box of 3 large at Target.com for $13 and since it was free shipping and I could use my AAA discount I purchased 2 boxes there.  They have the imitation ones cheaper on eBay but I didn't want to take a risk and they tear or something.

This is the pile of bags that I needed to condense.  While I was at it I decided to include all the blankets she used as an infant.  i should also add that I ended up adding more clothes to this pile after I took this picture.  I ended up pulling out more 18 month clothes which she has outgrown, so it was even substantially more than this picture depicts.

All the clothes/blankets/bibs/etc. are in the bags ready for the air to be vacuumed out.

The end result.  It was time for dinner and completely forgot to add an "after" picture but it is much nicer and much more organized!  Maybe I'll go take another picture tomorrow and add it.