Can you imagine how much storage would be needed while having up to thirty three special needs children living in a three bedroom apartment? Yes, you are starting to see how that could be a challenge!
I must give credit to my friend that leads the special needs orphanage Global Partners in Life supports. The odds may be stacked against her, but she utilizes the space she has very well. What a new person may see as clutter is actually organized to my friend. It amazes me how she can go directly to whatever she is looking for and find it immediately in all of the stacks of “things” she has.
The cabinets in the children’s room are so full a cord has to be used to tie the handles together so the contents don’t spill out. Ok, this may also keep inquisitive children out of the cabinets as well.
Before our help organizing the balcony storage.
There is also a glassed in balcony that is used for storage. This is a great use of space. It is extremely cold there in the winter, so it may be uncomfortable to use the space for anything else.
After, with the new shelves!
As you can see, some items were tied together in the closet, and some were stacked in whatever manner that would allow them to fit into the closet. A friend of mine was on the trip with me and he saw this. He is in the construction industry, so he took it upon himself to purchase the exact shelves that the leader wanted, and we emptied out the closet, assembled the new shelves, and restacked everything into the closet again! Trust me, that was a full day’s work! We were happy with how much difference our effort made, however it did get a little crazy trying to take everything out of the closet with all of the children wanting to play!