First, you winnow your wardrobe to a manageable minimum; then you install a system of rods, shelves, and drawers so intelligently planned that it's almost impossible to put anything back in the wrong place.
This system was designed for a typical closet— two feet deep by six feet wide by eight feet high.
For $135, you can put together a group of inexpensive storage pieces that produce a quickly assembled, serviceable space. For around $325, you can have a sturdy wire-grid system that gives you more durability and flexibility and more features. (The catch: You have to spend a day installing it yourself.) And for $600 to $1,000, you can have almost anything you want. You'll get more rod space, shelves where you need them, a no-clutter system of shoe storage.
Don't you feel better already?
Free Up Some Space
The best way to increase your closet space is to decrease the amount of clothes you store in it. Gather five large boxes (Storage, Trash, Charity, Friends, Mending), set aside an afternoon, and pull everything out of your closet. Be ruthless about clothes you haven't worn in two years, or that will fit as soon as you lose 10 pounds, or that you never had a good time in. "What you want to avoid is the question, 'Might this come in handy someday?'" says Stephanie Winston, author of
Getting Out From Under: Redefining Your Priorities in an Overwhelming World ($12,
www.amazon.com). "Ask that and there's nothing in the world that you'll say no to."
As to the keepers, put your out-of-season clothes in the Storage box and your mendables in the Mending box, to be dealt with later.
Sort what's left— the clothes you're going to wear this season. Put all your jackets together; do the same with your dresses, pants, skirts, shirts, sweaters, pairs of shoes, the works. Expect surprises. Who knew you had five black A-line skirts? On the other hand, it's not until you've thrown out the khaki skirt that adds five pounds, the one that's a little too short and has a faint, persistent stain that you realize you don't actually own an alternative. This is a good time to make a list of wardrobe gaps.
Now count the number of items in each category. According to Jean Chene, the learning and development coordinator of California Closets, each suit, jacket, or bathrobe takes two to four inches of rod space; shirts, skirts, and pants (whether folded or hung by the cuff) take one to two inches; dresses, one to three inches; and overcoats and outerwear jackets, four to six inches (a good reason to move them to a hall closet). Sweaters (which, like all knits, should be folded rather than hung) are 10 to 14 inches deep when folded; T-shirts and turtlenecks, nine to 10 inches; laundered shirts, nine inches; pairs of women's shoes, seven to eight inches; men's shoes, eight to 10 inches. With these measurements, you'll have a better idea of how much rod space you need, how much of that can be doubled up (a row of short items like jackets hung over another row of short items), how much you need for long garments like dresses and skirts, and how much shelf space you'll need for sweaters, knits, and shoes. (Probably more than you think. Sneakers count.)
Make Your Closet Work Harder
1. Hang them high— and hang them low. "People lose the most space under the single plank and pole," says Devin Dutcher, the director of public relations for Closet-Maid. "So much space is wasted between where the clothes stop and the shoes on the floor start." Hang a second rod under your first for part of the length of your closet. Hang the upper rod at 68 to 70 inches and the lower at 34 inches from the floor. That should take care of blouses, jackets, short skirts, and pants folded over a hanger. Longer things like dresses, pants hung by their cuffs, and long skirts can go where you just have the top rod.
2. Shelve it. Open shelves let you see what you've got. They're also the best place to store knits or any fragile fabric— beaded, bias-cut— likely to stretch out of shape. Add a stack of narrow shelves in easy reach. If you don't want to invest in built-in shelves, hanging canvas shelves do the same job. You may have to steal some rod space, but since you're shelving things you might otherwise have hung, and you've just added a second rod, you're ahead of the game.
3. Build in some drawers. For socks, gloves, whatever is spilling out of your bedroom bureau.
4. Allow for shoe overflow. Store the pairs you wear every day on shelves in an accessible place. Have extra storage space in the top of your closet for out-of-season and special-occasion shoes. Stow boots on the floor under your longer clothes. Use boot shapers to keep them from flopping over and creasing.
5. Be shallow. The most common mistake people make is building storage too deep. Shelves should be no more than 14 inches deep; the rod should be 12 inches out from the wall. Things stored in back of things have a way of getting lost.
