Thursday, October 12, 2006

The girl's gotta have it (a closet)


I wonder how many of us out there have lived without a closet for a period of time? I did this summer and until recently because my closet is in our den. As you may know, our den was completely gutted this summer.

My new closet may not look like much to you with grander closets- but you should have seen it before. Jam-packed with stuff and no light inside. The door had a full size shoe rack and I was constantly bumping into it and shoes would fall on my head. A real treat in the morning when you are getting dressed for work.

Living in a smaller home, you learn to maximize space and be innovative with storage. You also learn to not accumulate stuff and get rid of unneccesary stuff. I believe this is a gift.

I am trying to make my wardrobe simple and not filled with things I never wear.

The new closet has double bars, but has space for full length items on the left. Before my full length items would drape over the lower bar and become a tangled mess.



Perhaps the biggest improvement will be the shelving up top. We are going to add a shelf for a row of my shoes. I am going to have to have a little step stool to get at the top stuff. I plan to keep the floor clear for easy cleaning.

We're not entirely done as I said, we are adding another small shoe ledge and some hooks for purses etc... But I believe when we're done, I will be able to see everything I have, which is key.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice! It's a challenge to make the most of our small closets, isn't it? The shoes are the hardest to deal with...mine ended up in a different cloest.

SmilingJudy said...

I agree wholeheartedly. Every passing year I get better at not wanting nor needing all the STUFF. Minimal storage is a gift.

Ms. P in Jackson said...

Your closet looks great! One of the best things about moving cross-country is elimination of things you no longer need. I must have ditched half of what we had before we moved. Then, a year after living in our new old house, I went through boxes that had been packed and never opened. I donated and threw away even more of it. It's amazing what you can get along without. I believe it's easier to get rid of stuff the older you get, it must have something to do with years of picking-up and packing and picking-up and packing... I'm sure there will be another purge in about six months!

Anonymous said...

what a great closet! I can sympathize as we have a small old house that lacks a linen closet and a hall closet, and has only small closets in the bedrooms. How did you to get space for full length items on the left--did you do something special to suspend the bottom bar?

By the way, I love your site and have been so impressed with all your hard work!

amanda said...

I'm so jealous of your gorgeous closet. We have three very odd closets- two are not standard hanger depth (very shallow, all hangers must be turned) and cause a lot of problems with trying to make them useful. One of those two has the cold air return running through it, making it useless. Then there is my closet, under the attic stairs which is very deep, but very short and hard to see what I have. At some point we're going to have to build at least one of them out to make it useful. Thanks for the inspiration to starting mulling this over again!

Christina said...

In the apartment I was living in when I met my husband, my closet collapsed and I had nothing for a few months. I started dating my husband, he came to fix my closet (when my landlord was completely useless in that matter). The rest is history...(I think I now might know what to do in that situation).

We still have to finish off our dressing room, so a good closet is still some point in the future.

Congrats on getting your done!

K said...

The closet looks fabulous! I love the idea of utilizing the high-up space with shelves. Somehow it never occurred to me to use a step stool!

I can't wait till we get to build our walk-in closet.