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I'm back and having clothing storage problems!

Tanya

Veteran

Hello everyone, I have missed you so very much! I am half-back here, I won't resume my full YLF posting mode till this weekend since I have another big presentation this Friday so I will be working 18-hour days till then.

My move is almost over, tough we have only unpacked around 20% of our belongings so it will take quite a while to be done with it. It went relatively well, if you don't count the fact that stupid UHaul messed up our reservation so we had to pick up the truck from Brighton instead of Cambridge and then we had a minor accident ( our van scratched another car) that the insurance will cover.

The move made me realize the incredible ammount of clothes I own! I am sort of in shock about it! For example, I have just counted my pants and it comes down to 38 (!) pairs of pants, 19 pairs of jeans (5 are trouser jeans, 7 of them need hemming so they have never been worn) and 7 pairs of cords. They all fit and get worn at some point ( jeans the most). I guess shopping is both my therapy and hobby but I think it's gotten out of control. So from now on please do not let me buy anything unless it's absolutely perfect and I really need it (for example, white skinnies). And, in months prior to the move, I have given away tons of clothing to friends, Goodwill or consigment stores.

Right now I am facing serious storage problems. My old apartments had tons of closet space, my old one does not. I only have a small (7'x5') walk-in closet that does not have any built-in shelves/hanging rods, so I had to put my dresser, garment-rack etc. inside, which seriously made it even smaller. It's currently full, and it does not have any space for my coats and shoes ( the old place had a separate closet for these items). The basement has storage but it's not in good enough condition to store clothes there.

Sorry about this long post, I guess I am more venting than asking for advice. I'll hopefully figure out something!

General

28 replies

Latest reply was from Sarah

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Hooray, Tanya! We missed you.

I will post about your closet in a bit when I gather my thoughts about what to do.

Dana

Tanya, glad your move went well. Can you add any shelves and such to your closet? It's not that hard to do and Home Depot and Lowes have a lot of options. How tall are your ceilings in the closet? You can add shelves all the way up and make good use of the space above. You could then store things that aren't current in the upper portions of your closet.

You could also fold your jeans (GAP style) and put some shelves up to accomodate just those items in the end of your closet that might make some good use of otherwise dead space.

Sorry, that's the best I can offer without a schematic of your closet. I have redone many closets in my time and fit quite a bit into very small spaces. It can be done, you just have to be creative!

Tanya

Veteran

Thanks ladies it's nice to be back!

The ceiling is quite tall, I can't say exactly, but it's 2-3 ' taller than me, and I'm 5'6". The main problem is that the landlord won't let us have any holes whatsoever anywhere, so I can not install anything like shelves on the walls. The only thing I can do with it is add free-standing storage/furniture pieces inside

shiny

Veteran

Google "huggable hangers" ... I think that is it... they are selling them now at Linen's and Things. I just bought a bunch of them for my tops, and wow, they work GREAT.. they really do take up less space and your tops don't slip off.

I don't know how they work for pants and skirts and jackets, but I imagine they work just as good. I'll find out soon, because as soon as I can get back to LNT I'm going to buy enough for my entire closet.

Otherwise, can you put seasonal items up on the top farthest most shelves?

For shoes, can you make use of the back of the door or is it a slider door? What about under the bed, can you make use of that? Can you hang over-the-door hooks anywhere? Can you get a coat rack for a corner someplace, to hang coats?

I would probably put the free-standing furniture OUTSIDE the closet. Then get some of these, for folded tops/sweaters/pants:

http://www.bizrate.com/organiz.....97618.html

I'm assuming this is shorter than your furniture. It has wheels, so you can wheel it in and out and see what you have. I have two of these in my closet, for all my cardis and tops that can be folded.

Tanya

Veteran

Thanks Shiny, but I am afraid I won't be able to put much of it to use beacuse of the way apartment is.

All the doors in the partment are sliding doors, so no over-the-door storage would work anywhere. The closet door is a sliding mirror door. I already have three under the bad storage bins that hold our towels, bedding, workout and arounde-the-house clothes. I could get a corner rack for caots, but would have no place to put it - the way the apartment is designed you enter straight into dining/living area, so it would be strange to store shoes/coats there.

The free-standing furniture that's inside the closet now is a five-drawer dresser and this metal closet from Target:
http://www.target.com/Metal-Cl.....038;page=1
There's no space in the bedroom for any of them. They are both one next to other on one long closet wall and together hold all of the following: all the pants/jeans, woven tops, knit tops, thinner sweaters, underwear/sleepwear, socks/tights, cosmetics/make-up, jewelry and smaller accessories. The short wall opposite od sliding door has a free-standing multi-level shelf that holds all the bulkier sweaters, bags and anything that can be folded.

So what remains is coats and some skirts that need to be hanged and then shoes. I have the other 7' wall left ( well 5' of it to be precise), but: it has a huge window (but I don't mind blocking it), the sliding door entrance is on that side so whatever I put there can not be wider/deeper than 1.5' so that I can walk in between.

And I found the layout of the apartment here, the closet is on the bottom right:
http://images.mlsplug-in.com/p.....#038;num=2

I like those huggable hangers tough and shall give them a try.

shiny

Veteran

Tiny graphic and I can't make out the footage, but, where is your bed going? If it goes with the headboard against the windows, then what about the wall opposite? Can you put a dresser there?

And you have a whole second bedroom - can't you make that into a walk-in closet. hee hee

I don't think it's strange to store coats right near the front doorway - even if there's no official entryway. A coatrack like this will make an entryway:

http://www.stacksandstacks.com.....t-tree.htm

(we actually have something like this in our master bath, which is teeny-tiny and has zero wall space for hanging towels - they don't take up much space).

Otherwise, what about the back hallway? What kind of space is there? Perhaps you can get your landlord to make an exception for the no-nails rule and hang a nice long coat rack along the wall? We have one in our back hallway and all of our seasonal coats go there.

Shoes.... well, do you cook? hee hee... cuz if you don't, there's always the kitchen cabinets..... somewhere on the web I've seen a pic of somebody who never cooked but loved fashion so she turned all her kitchen cabinets into clothing storage!!!

Tanya

Veteran

Shiny it's so nice of you to try help me with this!

The bed is going with the headboard on the wall opposite from the windows. The free wall on the right of the bedroom is for BF's dresser. Our deal was that he gets that and the super-small closet in the second bedroom, and I get the walk-in closet.

The second bedroom is designated to be our office: we both have big desks, a lot of bookshelves, computers, printers and such and that's where they will live.
The BF did joke that theoretically I would need a closet of that size but my closet is too small for him to work in there

We could put a small coatrack like that in the dining room, but that would only hold a few seasonal coats. We'll still need storage for various coats/jackets that between two of us does come to about 25.

The back hallway has very shallow space that will hold tools, brooms, mops and such. Under no circumstares will the landlord allow any holes anywhere.
He did try to sell the place now but failed, so he'll probably try again once our lease expires. Currently we are in negotiations about him letting us put curatins in the bedroom, the sun is very strong in the morning, but curtains require curatin rods which need holes!

Yes, we cook so the kitchen will be kitchen indeed. I've heard about what you describe but have not seen the picture.

Dana

Can you rig something up using the 3M wall mounts that use tape instead of putting holes in the wall? You might be able to come up with some way to block the sun that way. If nothing else, you can use T-pins to hold up fabric over your windows. We have some rooms that we haven't gotten around to doing curtains for, but they need to be dark so people can sleep and I've hung blackout fabric from T-pins pushed into the window frames (very near the crack between the wall and the molding). You could always run some caulk over it to conceal the holes. I know it's not attractive, but you've got to sleep.

I know this is extreme, but what about vacuum suctioning storage bags for seasonal coats that aren't in use? Would that allow you to keep them in the basement protected?

Antje

Veteran

I know the picture you two are talking about (woman using her kitchen cabinets for shoe storage). It's actually an advertisement, not anything from real life I forgot what the ad is for (so obviously it's not terribly effective if all that stays in our minds is the image, without the product and the ad's message...)

I hate to be the one to spoil the closet planning, but seriously, is it time to talk about downsizing? 38 pairs of pants plus 19 pairs of jeans sounds a bit much; can you even keep track of them? Are they all different? Do you need them all? Do you enjoy them all? Can there be "too many" clothes? I'm not sure what the answer is (and I myself sure am guilty of owning more shoes than one would "need"), just thought I'd throw this out there. And here I am, worrying about finding ONE or maybe two pairs of jeans that fits real well

Tanya

Veteran

Thanks again!

We just got the permission to use curtains in the bedrooms provided that we put the holes in the wood frame, not the wall, so one problem less!

Antje, you are certainly right about too many clothes, I'm aware of it! The pants are the most extreme case since that's what I wear most of the time. In my defense, I often ruin them (ugly white bleach stains on the legs from the lab) so I have to toss them. They are all different, but I certainly don't need them all, I just like them all. There are very seasonal pairs such as velvet and wool flannel, dressy ones-brocade, satin, silk, thin wool business ones for interviews/presentations, cotton ones for summers etc. The jeans - some trouser ones, some skinnies, some non-denim ones - white, tan, black and grey and so on. At this point I shall be buying almost no new clothes. I am even thinking of employing an extreme version of Angie's closet rule: instead of one same type item out for every new one, I'll tweak it to two items out for one new one!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Welcome back Tanya. We missed you! You must be relieved that you’ve actually moved.

Before I delve into suggestions, first things first. Are you SURE you’ve edited your closet? If you were my client, you would not have 19 pairs of jeans! (got to do my job :0)

Maya

Veteran

I might be the lone wolf again, not to mention the party pooper, but I don't think any storage solution is the key in this case. Frankly, it sounds to me like you just need to downsize significantly.

Tanya, even if you wore a different pair of pants every day, which you probably don't, you have enough bottoms to last you over a month, and we're not even counting skirts. I know style is not about just what is necessary. Most of us keep buying new clothes not because we need them, but because we enjoy it, but are you really -enjoying- ALL those clothes? There are pieces I have that I just wear over and over again because I truly love them and want to wear them every week, not every month. What clothes do you feel that way about? Those are the keepers. You have a fantastic body and there will never be any shortage of clothes that look great on you, but that doesn't mean you need to own all of them. You yourself have said you have a bunch of pants you don't even wear because you never even got them hemmed. When I get new pants or jeans, I get them hemmed immediately because I can't wait to wear them. If you're willing to wait so long to get them hemmed, it doesn't seem like there was any immediate need or even a strong desire to have them. I love shopping as much as anyone here, but it can get out of control. Think about your clothes as friends: would you rather have lots of distant friends who you only see once a month, or just a few close friends who you see regularly and really depend on? Even if you cut it down to maybe 30 pairs of pants and jeans, that's still PLENTY to choose from. I can't even imagine having so many clothes. I feel overwhelmed now, and I have as many clothes as you have pants!

Tanya

Veteran

He he Angie, you are right and I know it! It's just that with jeans I'm like a child in the candy store! You must be great in your job and I hope one dy the opportunity will arise for me to be your client!

I have done huge editing recently, although same categories could still use some more editing , but not the jeans! I guess they are what I live in every day!
This is what they are: 5 pairs of trouser jeans ( 1 black, 3 dark denim - wide leg, bootcut and straight, 1 lighter summery wash), 2 pairs of skinnies (black and dark denim), 4 'colored' ones (white flare, cream bootcut, tan bootcut and grey flare), 7 normal ones - 2 pairs 7's bootcuts (one for flats and one for heels), two other bootcuts (Joes Muse and Honey) for heels, another two bootcuts for flats, and finally two pairs of old destroyed jeans that I use when I move, paint and such. I can get rid of one destroyed pair, but that's about all I could stand to get rid of. I do wear all of the other ones beside a few pairs that I have to hem, but they shall be worn as soon as they are hemmed!

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Tanya, are you sharing this closet with someone else? You say "we" so I assume you have to share it with your boyfriend or a roommate (but correct me if I'm wrong). The closet at my apartment is also only about 7'X7' and I share it with my husband (although, I do take up most of it).

I have to say, I agree with Antje about sitting down with your clothes and having a serious sorting out session. My closet used to be completely stuffed with clothes that I just would never wear. There aren't enough days in the year for me to wear all those! I could seriously have worn a completely different outfit everyday for 2 months, and still not worn all the clothing I had (I'm not exaggerating, unfortunately). I felt really uneasy about it too, like I couldn't find anything to wear and it was bursting at the seams and it just really overwhelmed me. I got rid of almost everything! It was painful, too, because I got rid of some really beautiful, brand new (tags still on) clothing, but it just didn't fit my lifestyle or personality anymore, or else I just had never worn it because there other things I would rather wear. I'm not sure if you're at this point, you always look really put together, but you might be glad afterwards that you really sorted through things and have a closet you can get into and is full of only things you really love to wear.

I took some pictures of my closet to maybe give you some ideas about organization.

I hang my belts and stuff on the door. I know you have a sliding door, so this wouldn't work. Maybe you can get some suction cup organizers like they have in the bathroom aisle and suction cup them to one side of your mirrored sliding door (the side that doesn't go behind the other side). You could hang belts, scarves, etc on it, or jewelry (this works in the bathroom as well).

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0245-1.jpg

Also, my husband has a lot of just t-shirts and things (he works in game development so he never dresses up for anything). I went to container store and bought a bunch of hangers that you can "cascade," which is hang the hangers on each other. I picked this trick up working at Express. In our back room we had very little space and organization was key. We can hang about 40 t-shirts in this small area this way:

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0247-1.jpg

Close up of "cascading":

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0248-1.jpg

I have a shelf up high and so I went to Target and bought some of those roller carts and just didn't attach the wheels and put them above. I keep things I don't use much in them, like painting clothes, some workout gear, etc and off season items. I like these because the front is transparent so I can see what's inside. That has been really useful when I'm looking for a specific item:

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0249-1.jpg

I bought a shoe rack, too at Target. I think you would probably need more than one, but they can fit in under clothes that don't touch the ground, like shirts, pants or skirts that are hung on hangers on a higher bar. This space can really be utilized for little things too. Get some bins or something for purses:

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0250-1.jpg

All my dresses and pants and skirts and shorts are all on this bar:

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0251-1.jpg

I put my camis, sleeves and short sleeve more "casual" blouses on the bottom rack on the left side:

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0252-1.jpg

And the long sleeve blouses, cardigans, and blazers on the top. And I could actually move the blazers into the front hall closet with the heavier winter coats if I ran out of room, and move the heavier cardigans into the drawers above with the rest of the winter stuff if I really needed the room:

http://i66.photobucket.com/alb.....0253-1.jpg

So, that's all my clothes. It looks emptier than normal because I haven't done laundry in a week, but all the clothes I have are represented by a hanger, so I know what goes where and how much room I really have. My husband and I also share a dresser where we keep our undies and pajamas. If there is room in your bedroom (and it looks like there might be from the floorplan) I would move the dresser out of the closet. Lots of people have their dresser in the closet, I know, but I really think there are smaller more versatile drawer systems that would fit better and make better use of the space you have.

And do think about downsizing a little bit. We can help!

Anonymous

Ana, your organizational skills are incredible. I am so envious of your beautifully set up closet. I need to get to work on mine. You all have some great ideas.

Tanya

Veteran

OMG Ana thank you so much for taking all of those pictures for me! That is so sweet of you! I would hug you now if you were here ! *blush*

Your closet looks extremely well organized, I shall have a lot of inspiration from it! I wish I had all of that hanging space around the closet like you do, it would help a lot!

This closet is for me only:) BF gets the smaller one in the other bedroom and also he gets to keep his dresser in our bedroom.

I think that I may have found the solution to my problem:
http://www.target.com/Seville-.....038;page=4
It is shallow enough to feet on the other long wall, I can squeeze inside, it will hold everything I currently do not have space for. I just measured the closet and it will fit safely. All I need now is to wait for Target to have free shipping!
They want to charge $45 to ship it me which is quite ridiculous in my opinion.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You are a honey-pie, Ana. It was so kind of you to give Tanya a comprehensive visual guide. A very impressive closet set up indeed!

Maya makes a great point. Tanya my dear, your next YLF forum task: pictures of you in your 19 pairs of jeans and we shall help you edit. You are not alone in this! I apprecaite you owning up to what you have enormously. This took courage.

anne

Veteran

What a cute apartment. Is it in one of those three deckers that Boston is famous for?

Nicole

Veteran

How about a free standing garment rack? If you have room elsewhere in the apt for the dressers that are in the closet now, you could put a garment rack in the closet so you can hang your clothes. Also a coat tree could come in handy for hanging non knit things--even on hangers. How about under your bed? Could you slide storage boxes under for either out of season stuff, or even things that you access daily, (like shoes)? Also (this may be a bit extreme), but if you have a lot of cabinet space that you don't need, you could store some of your clothes in there. This may not work if you do a lot of cooking especially fragrant foods--but some people never cook.... How about an armoire? Do you have room in the apt for something like that? It does not have to be expensive. JC Penny sells them for a few hundre dollars. They really do offer a lot of storage.

Welcome back--I misssed you--and good luck!

Tanya

Veteran

Maya, I know you are right, I just have difficult time accepting it. I personally actually like that I get to wear stuff relatively infrequently, because:
1. it offers me more variety, 2. things last longer and get less wear and tear and 3. I don't have to do the laundry that often! As for hemming those jeans, they have been sitting around for few months due to the fact that I either didn't have time to go to the tailor (who is way far from where I live) or if I did have the time, I did not have enough money to do them all at the same time, and I did not want to make multiple trips. But I seriously can't wait to wear them!

Angie, I shall take pictures of me in all of my jeans, probably this weekend once I actually locate the box that has the camera But it will be very difficult to convince me to get rid of more than one (old) pair, I seriously do like all of them!

Anne, thank you for the compliment. It is indeed a triple decker, tough I wasn't aware that Boston is famous for them. Thank you for that info too!

Nicole, I missed you ( and everyone else here) as well! Thank you for your suggestions, I might try some of them. The kitchen remains exclusively for kitchen purpose tough !

Inge

(website)

Welcome back Tanya, good to hear the move went fairly well.
You've received loads of good advice already and I can't think of anything specific at the moment, but I did want to suggest the Apartment Therapy website.
They recently held a 'Small Cool' contest, all participants and their living spaces can be viewed here:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.co.....mall-cool/
(I'm guessing you might be able to get some storage ideas from looking at the pictures, or you could just search the whole site for more ideas and tips).

And bring on those jeans!-)

Tanya

Veteran

Very very cool site Inge! Thanks for posting it! The pictures are more than inspiring!

Nicole

Veteran

I hadn't read thru the whole thread prior to sending my suggestions. Ana, I had been thinking of starting a thread where we could all post photos of our closets. I thought that would be kind of fun. You certainly do a great job organizing a lot of stuff in a small closet. Do you have other closets in your house or just the one?

Tanya, If you have several pairs of similar jeans, and your hesitant to get rid of them because the less you wear them, the longer your clothes will last...then maybe you could store the duplicates in plastic totes in the basement (up off the ground). Then when you're current ones are ready for replacement, you can dig the duplicate out of the basement.

Julia

Welcome back Tanya! I don't have anything more to add. I'm in awe with all the advices you guys have given!

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Tanya, I just read Maya's post above about editing, and I think it's a great idea. Plus, it would be fun to help you edit, I think. Imagine all these tasteful stylish ladies helping you pick only things that you love AND look absolutely fabulous in? Everything in your closet would be flop proof!

Nicole, I do have a front hall closet that is very small that I keep winter coats and a couple of very fancy dresses in (I think my prom dress might be in there, along with the vacuum cleaner, lol) and there is a second very small closet in the den that we just keep junk in. So, all my clothes are in that closet. I like your idea of posting pictures of our closets. I was curious how everyone on here organizes their stuff, maybe we could trade ideas. I love organizing and editing, I always feel better afterwards.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You can ALL be professional closet organizers by the sounds of things! Fantastic advice for our Tanya.

Don’t worry too much my dear – you will get there. Know that we are here to help if you feel overwhelmed.

anne

Veteran

Re Three deckers - Well a bit famous. I visited Boston (as a child) in 85 and noticed them. Went back in 96 and have 2 books on Boston architecture in which they feature quite heavily

Sarah

Welcome back Tanya! I'm glad to hear the move went relatively well. Everyone has given such great advice, and I'm amazed by Anna's closet. I thought I was an organizer. I would like to second Nicole's suggestion of boxing some of your similar pairs of jeans until others wear out. I know how you feel not wanting to get rid of them, and you don't have to, but you shouldn't have them all in your closet at once. I have 7 turtleneck sweaters (four in various shades of red). Two of them are stored away separately from my regular winter clothes, because I don't need a week's worth of virtually the same sweater. But when old ones wear out I can replace them with the others I already have stored away and ready to go.