Despite the fact that my house is nearly 3,000 sq. ft., the master bedroom closet is miniscule. Even with my wife and I dividing it down the middle, if feels like it can only fit one of us. I’ve started to change this, and I have more ideas on how to make the room feel large and luxurious.
-
Edit your wardrobe
I’m guilty of having too many t-shirts in my closet, even despite paring down during our move between states last year. Many of them are “I might need a shirt that can get dirty” and “I don’t wear this on a regular basis.” The problem is, I only rarely need a shirt that can get dirty to the point of not being able to just throw it in the wash. That’s where the 20/20 rule comes into play. As The Minimalists put it, “Anything we get rid of that we truly need, we can replace for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes from our current location.” Simple, elegant, and it will free up a lot of space in the closet.
-
Baskets and Bins
When we moved into the house last December, we basically threw our clothes into the closet without any mind for organization. It was a “get the clothes in the closet, deal with the rest later” situation, and it hasn’t improved much in the 10 months since. I recently bought a basket and sliding bins, and as you can seen in the photo above, we have two regular bins. My wife co-opted the basket as a de facto hamper, but I’ve used the bins to great effect. I now store my jeans, loungewear and some winter clothes in the bins, saving desperately needed space – which will be all the greater once I put the last tip into practice.
-
Closet on display
There are cubbies built in at the center of the closet, seen above. I would love to display important items on the shelves to add an elegant touch. For me, it’s a collection of what has been termed “fashionable hats.” Instead of ball caps, my collection includes a trilby, Greek captain’s hat from my parents’ recent trip, a bowler hat, and two newsboy caps. Given that I haven’t had any space in my closet, they are sitting in a box in the garage. While the internet has done its best to ruin the reputation of fedoras and trilby hats, I still want to proudly display mine alongside my suits.
-
DIY shelving
The same cubbies I just mentioned are a detriment, however, in that they came with the house. I may need to build my own cubbies and hangers, and get rid of what we currently have, in order to be more efficient with the space. While I could invest in pre-made closet shelving, possibly from a certain Swedish furniture company, their nearest location is a few hundred miles away. Hardware stores with wood and nails are just down the street.
-
Drawers for the small things
There’s a small area where I keep my winter shirts right now, but I ultimately want to pull the wooden bar down and replace the hanging shirts with drawers as another DIY project. I’m one of the few people at work that wears a tie everyday, and I currently have my ties hanging from two clothes hangers. It’s not ideal. My wife’s ever-growing scarf collection also needs a place to live, as do my pocket squares and rarely used cufflinks.
-
Vacuum Bags
I have some vacuum storage bags left over from moving that have been sitting in my garage. I recently organized my garage (it was more important to get the cars in the garage than my clothes in the closet), so I now have room to store some of the bigger clothing items in a vacuum-sealed bag. My summer shorts and most of my t-shirts will soon be useless in the unyielding cold of an Idaho winter, so why should they take up space in my closet for a few months?
-
Unusual storage
I have recently become a gun owner, and I don’t own a safe. With my wife and I looking to start a family, I need somewhere to lock up our firearms where tiny hands won’t pry. The closet seems a safe bet. Unfortunately for me, gun safes tend to be expensive. Fortunately, metal lockers are not, and I can still lock them. It’s a short-term solution, to be sure, as I will definitely want a real gun safe by the time any future children learn how to wield tools to pry the locker up, but a locker in the closet should serve its purpose until then. Plus, the locker can also be used to further clothing storage when I no longer need to keep guns in it.
-
Go vertical
My wife is tall. I am not. I have very little hope of reaching anything at the top shelf of the closet, while my wife can barely reach it. For my last improvement, I would love to have some sort of ladder to reach the top shelf. It doesn’t need to be rolling, but I want access to that space so I can store more clothes. There’s a few hoodies up there right now, but it’s underutilized.
Even with the few changes on the list I’ve made so far, the closet feels much, much bigger. I have more room to store things, rather than just throwing them around, and it will only feel roomier with more improvements and sorting.
