Pics of my small closet - YouLookFab Forum

I'm doing spring housecleaning today and for a break I took some photos of my closet. It's small, but it works for me. Here's the official tour...

1) It has two doors that swing outward. On the back of each door, I have shoe organizers:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2.....519274840/

2) On the top shelf I keep my winter boots, a hat box that contains... hats! ... and a box with some of my better winter sweaters. I don't like putting too much up on this shelf, because I'm too short to reach it without a footstool.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2.....otostream/

3) This half of the closet is where I store my blouses and my leather jackets (the ones I don't want my DD's borrowing). You can see the huggable hangers that I just got. I am going to do all my clothes with these hangers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2.....otostream/

The tops are organized according to type, basically by the type of material/style. Dressier blouses on one end, more casual/weekend appropriate tops at the other end.

As you can see, jackets are in the middle.

At the far right corner, there are several shelves. Hard to reach them, but this is where we stash extra bathroom supplies and toiletries.

4) This side of the closet is a bit more of a mess - but that will get fixed once I get more huggable hangers. It includes skirts and then dresses and then dress slacks (I hang them long - hate folding them because they wrinkle). In the farthest corner, where you can't see and I also can't easily reach because it's behind the wall, are my formal dresses. They have special hangers and most are covered in plastic or muslin to keep them dust-free.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2.....otostream/

5) On the bottom of the closet, below the shorter hanging items, I have two three-tiered wire baskets on rollers. This is where my sweaters-in-circulation go. I have tried all sorts of ways to organize these - I tried organizing by color once. This current organization is working well: I have cropped cardigans separated from long cardigans, sweaters short enough to wear with skirts, warmer sweaters for 50-below days (getting rarer!), and a basket for sweater twinsets that go best with dress slacks instead of jeans.

Below the long-hanging items is a laundry basket that I use for dry-clean only items, and items that need mending. I have a separate laundry basket outside the closet for dirty clothes.

In the far right corner there's a mess... it's mostly exercise equipment, and I think that my summer beach stuff is in that corner too. Actually, I'm not sure what all is there... I need to get in there and clean it out desparately!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2.....otostream/

6) You must be wondering where all my fall/winter clothes are??? They're here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2.....otostream/

A closet beneath the stairs. I have pants in one box, skirts in another, etc. Sweaters, however, are in under-the-bed boxes. And out-of-season shoes (other than my boots) are in another under-the-bed box. So - with exception of formal dresses - only in-season items are ever in my closet. As soon as it gets hotter here, I will do another "minor" rotation and put away some of the sweaters and jackets and bring out more skirts and dresses and skirt sweaters.

Tee/knit shirts, exercise clothes, jeans, shorts, pj's etc are all in my dresser.

7) Finally, here's where I store my purses!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2.....otostream/

Right by our front door, in this piece of furniture.

In-season coats hang in our back hallway on a rack, and out-of-season coats hang in our hall coat closet. Those are shared by the whole family, which means DD's and I are constantly borrowing each other's coats.

17 years ago

Tanya

Veteran

Wow Shiny, this is very impressive! Your closet looks relatively small but everything has it's place and is beautifully organized! Congrats!

shiny

Thanks!

I forgot to mention, we desparately need a new bed (our current one is actually falling apart on us). I've long been considering this one:

http://www.potterybarn.com/pro.....cfurbedalb

... because of the extra storage it would provide for clothing! Under-the-bed boxes only work so well. Unfortunately our local store doesn't have a floor sample, and I'm loathe to order something this big-ticket online sight-unseen.

If anyone has seen this bed in person, let me know what you think.

Ana

(website)

Thanks for posting the pictures of your closet Shiny! I love to see how other people organize their clothing. I'm editing my wardrobe again, putting the last of my winter stuff away since Summer has definitely arrived in Austin!

We have a Pottery Barn with a huge bed/bath section, I'll head down there this weekend and see if they have the bed, and if they do, I'll take pictures and stuff.

I hope other people feel inspired to post pictures of their closets as well!

Ana, thanks - photos aren't so necessary (the site and the catalog has given me a good idea about how it looks). What I'm most curious about is:

1) how easy is it to pull the drawers out? Do they glide out nice and easy, or do you have to fight with them?

2) How does the floor sample seem to take wear and tear? I.e., does it scratch easily?

3) Does it seem solidly constructed?

4) Are they as deep and roomy as they appear to be? I.e., do they make good use of the under-bed space? Or are they misleadingly small, more like typical dresser-drawer size?

Some of PB's furniture isn't the greatest construction. I worry the "more moving parts" factor of this sort of bed may be an issue.

Of course, there's an issue with nightstands, which I imagine would block some of the drawers. But we only have room for one nightstand anyway, and I figured we could use that drawer for longest-term storage, like keepsakes and such (not clothes).

Julia

Active Member

Shiny you made me want to organize my closet tonight. Before seeing your closet, I imagined that you had much more clothes, but looks like you have a highly functional wardrobe. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Nicole

Shiny, my son has a bed with drawers underneath. It's not the PB bed, but here are some things to consider with this type of set up.

1. Clearance once the drawers are open. Make sure you'll have enough room to stand in front of the open drawers. If there's only a few inches of space from the open drawer to the wall, accessing the drawers can be tricky.

2. Does the frame accomodate for a mattress and boxspring? My son's bed is a platform bed, which means the mattress sits right on top of the plywood. Hes 8, so it's not a big deal to him. But when I've stayed in his bed (if he's sick or has a nightmare), the lack of boxspring is noticeable.

3. Height of the bed. This may not be a big deal to you, but the bed could be quite higher off the ground if it has drawers underneath.

4. Moving the bed is a royal pain in the butt. It's very heavy, and not easy to disassemble. Once it's in place, it pretty much has to stay there.

A few other issues that we have run into with his bed-- the outside corners of his bed are really sharp. I have smashed into them so many times. This is a feature of platform beds though. The corners of the bed are wood, not mattress. Also his bed has doors between the drawers--they don't open in the right direction for his layout. Granted we put a queen size bed in a fairly small bedroom by choice. His room is L shaped and our original plan was to put one side of the drawers against the wall and have an alcove of just bed. But then we decided to turn the bed so he could access all the drawers, and make it easier to "make the bed". When we redo the floors in his room, I'll probably turn it back against the wall. But it's too much of hassle to do now.

Jenniferblue

Shiny, You might want to go to the Reading Jordan's Furniture. I've seen several styles of underbed storage beds in that store. Inventory in each of their stores varies so other stores might not have the same items. I've seen a twin bed that looks very similar to the PB bed. That might answer some of your general quesions about this style of bed. By the way the PB bed looks beautiful.

Julia, I do think it's true that having a small closet really does force you to edit scrupulously. I only have so much room for my active wardrobe, and so much for my seasonal storage.

Nicole - thanks for your post! Yes, these are definetly things to consider. We have a tiny bedroom too. I hadn't thought about not being able to move it so easily. Actually, our current bed it pretty heavy too, but mostly because of the mattress. Height is definetly an issue. I think our current bed is too high as it is. The mattress is one of those ultra-thick, overly padded ones. I was hoping a platform bed would bring it down to a more manageable height - I hate having to crawl up into bed!

Thanks for the tip Jenniferblue!

Sarah

Great closet Shinny. It certainly looks like you’ve found a method of organization that works for you. What are huggable hangers? I seem to recall you mentioning them before, but I can’t really see what they look like in the pictures.

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