Making the Most of Our Closet

We recently moved to a new (to us) house. Now that it's almost July, we're very thankful for the central air conditioning in this home. However, since our home was not built with central air, there are a few places that duct work has been added. Two are in our son's room, and one is in our master bedroom closet.
Our closet is a walk-in, but it stores less clothes and accessories than the his & hers closets in our last home. And since the duct work was placed in the corner, we lost some hanging space. Observe:

It even takes up an entire shelf!

 When you put the clothes in, the hangers get in each others' way.  This leaves 10" of unusable space on one side, and 8" on the other. So much wasted space - there had to be a solution!

But then I was Pinspired by diy Design Fanatic's closet baskets

Beautiful! Functional! Expensive... I did a quick search for something like those pretty, pretty baskets. Target had similar ones for about $15 and The Container Store had them for $30 each. $60-$120 for four baskets? Add in the the mounting hardware at approximately $60, and we're talking well over a hundred bucks. The dollar signs were adding up!
Well, there was no way I was going to spend that much money, even if it looked pretty. Let's be real. My baskets would basically be hidden by clothing, and our closet isn't exactly a high-traffic area for guests, so I wasn't concerned about getting a high-end look. I took some measurements and decided to go to Dollar Tree, my favorite source for inexpensive storage, to see what I could find. I found some cheerful blue baskets and picked up some 3M Command hooks at Walmart to mount them to the wall.
Using a ruler, I spaced out baskets, and marked where to place the hooks.

Once I had waited for the adhesive to cure, I mounted the baskets. The holes in the basket fit perfectly over the hooks, and as an added bonus, I can take the baskets off easily if needed.

And here they are in all their glory! They hold my unmentionables and socks, so I took a picture while they were empty.

 

Since our hamper is in the closet too, I get dressed in there, eliminating the pile of clothes next to the bed that used to drive my sweet husband nuts! ;-) And look at how the clothes fit in now!

The best part? The entire project cost me a little over $15 -- $1 each for the five baskets and $10.88 for a package of Command hooks. I couldn't be happier with our storage solution!