3 Life-Changing Room Makeovers
Moved by reader stories of cluttered spaces causing family fights, Real Simple extends the olive branch—tackling an overrun basement, an overstuffed closet, and a chaotic teen’s room. And proving once and for all that in the right surroundings, everyone really can get along. By Nicole Sforza
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Stylish solutions that will turn every chaotic storage space into an ordered haven.
The Duel-Function Closet
The Family
Brooklyn couple Larry Smith, 43, the editor of an online magazine, and Piper Kerman, 42, a nonprofit consultant; parents of
Lukas, 1, not shown (he wanted to stay out of it).
The Fight
He says: “We moved to Brooklyn from Manhattan to have more space for Piper’s shoes—and the closet is still a disaster.”
She says: “He’s taking up more than his share of the space, especially considering that he always wears the same thing.”
The Smith Closet: Before
With no enforced borders, the closet was a free-for-all—bent bags, crushed hats, a spillage of shoes, and an overloaded, mixed-up
rod that turned getting dressed in the morning into an archaeological dig.
Found in (and Tossed From) Larry and Piper’s Closet
- 7 Chinese lanterns from their wedding, six years ago
- 2 bags of shoes from the last time they moved
- 2 old-school cameras containing undeveloped film
- 1 Walkman
- 14 early-90s hip-hop albums
- 1 bag of picnic supplies
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