STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

valenciana · Dooney & Bourke

making due with very little closet space

BellinaJessica · Kenneth Cole

No real suggestions except maybe find a house with a small extra room that you could turn in to a closet. biggrin

carmenb513 · Coach

I'm curious as well to know what people will suggest. While I have a two bedroom and live by myself, I do have plenty of storage. I am however the biggest slob and piglet I know. So I need some ideas for organization. It's so bad that I actually run to close the 2nd room's door if someone rings my doorbell. Actually at this very moment I'm going to play John Legend for about 20 mins and do nothing but pick crap up and pack bags to goodwill.

Hope someone chimes in!

lynnie · Chanel

What about just buying a few armoires? I've seen floor to ceiling ones at ikea that you could line up and wind up with a wall of closets.

Kel · Coach

I am in the same boat. My DH and I just bought our 1st house and it to is an older house (1949) so it has small closets. I also have been spoiled by big walk in closets. However, I am lucky that my DH gave me full access to the master closet. He is using the guest BR closet. We also have 2 big closets in the hallway. One is a semi walk-in closet which I will also be usinig. What I decided to do is to plan the closets carefully and do my own custom closet. I am working out what works best for me, in terms of shoe storage and purses and such. We are putting in duel bars in the closet because I hang up everything. I am also making little cubbies for my purses and some of my shoes. For my heels I am doing a shoe ladder. I am also doing cubbies for heavy sweaters and long sleeve shirts since I live in FL and don't wear them much. Hope this helps. Good luck on house hunting.

Kitty · Hermes

lynnie wrote:

What about just buying a few armoires? I've seen floor to ceiling ones at ikea that you could line up and wind up with a wall of closets.

This is exactly what I did two apartments ago. We only had a 1-bedroom with a tiny coat closet, so what we did was buy 2 large armoirs (with mirrored doors) and put them right next to each other. It almost just looked like a mirrored wall because they were floor to ceiling.

carmenb513 · Coach

lynnie wrote:

What about just buying a few armoires? I've seen floor to ceiling ones at ikea that you could line up and wind up with a wall of closets.

didn't even think of this. Good idea.

Starstuff · Kenneth Cole

DH and I share one clothes closet in our bedroom. It is about the size of 3 small coat closets put together. I switch out my winter/summer wardrobes and keep the non-current season in storage boxes under our bed. The boxes are about 9" deep by 3' by 4' and they hold a lot. Consider under bed storage, if your bed frame can accomodate the boxes. I have one chest of drawers that is about 2' by 2' by 6' to hold t-shirts, undies, etc. I've found that it is best to get tall furniture. It takes up less floor space. HTH

ILoveChoo · Hermes

Try to make the best use that you can of vertical space. A well planned closet can make a big difference! You can also commandeer a guest-room or hall closet for yourself if you have a spare. I keep a shoe rack near the front door, I have about 6 pairs of whatever is currently in my heaviest rotation on there. That way, i can put the rest in a little more of an out of the way place and not have to scramble around to find them. (I also tend to kick my shoes off as soon as I come home, so a pile would always form by the door anyway. It looks much better to have them actually on a rack!)

Also depending on the layout, you might be able to add another closet or make one bigger. We have an old house too and it has all sorts of weird nooks that could easily be walled or curtained off to make closet space.

sfclinevandy · Coach

We live in an old Atlanta house so I can understand. We have a decent size closet in our bedroom... however it's not that great since we both have to share it! I'm all about under the bed storage... I have all my seasonal clothes in under the bed bins. Our bed is really tall so it works fine... it's just really annoying pulling them out when I need something.

We also overflow into the other 2 (small) closets in the other bedrooms. Thankfully we use those rooms as an office and the nursery so we don't feel bad about not having any closet space for overnight guests.

sydney · Kate Spade

I agree with using overflow closets either for your DH's clothes or for your out of season clothes and I like the armoire idea if you have the room for it

jj · Kate Spade

Old houses are wonderful, except for the closets. We got a Pax from Ikea and LOVE it! The quality of it is amazing for Ikea too. We got the biggie with two sliding, frosted glass doors.

In order to make the most of the closets we do have, I got the Loews version of the Container Store's Elfa (much less expensive) to help keep things organized. We don't have a lot lof long hanging clothes, so we got a system with double rods to increase capacity and shelves that let us stack things to the ceiling.

Because it doesn't get cold here, we don't need a coat closet, so I use it for clothes overflow too. I just keep it really neat so if a guest opens it, things aren't falling out all over them.

BTW, when we first got married, we lived in a beautiful 1 BR apt with the tiniest closet - but there were tons of cabinets in the kitchen, so half of them were filled with clothes!

cc · Marc Jacobs

I agree with the other ladies - you just have to be creative! I much prefer older buildings so when I was looking at apartments I actually decided against one with huge closets because I hated the thought of living in a newer building. I've made do by getting a big dresser and keeping all of my tops in it, as well as some pants and casual skirts. If I had the space I'd get an armoire as well. I keep my off-season clothes in boxes under my bed, but you could look into under-bed drawers and use them for pjs, gym clothes, shoes, whatever. I got some of the tiered hangers for skirts, which helps a bit. Also my entry closet is very deep so I put two rods in it - the front is for coats and then I got one of those big fabric wardrobe bags from Container Store and keep my fancy dresses in it.