Get It Done: Attack the Coat Closet

smoore Wallpapering the inside of a closet? Pure genius! I have always loved bold wallpaper prints but have never been brave enough to use them for fear I'd get tired of them quickly. Thinking that getting an occasional peek instead of a daily assault from a bright print might be just the ticket!

Becky Harris Smoore, totally! It's a great opportunity to try, say, Graham and Brown's skull wallpaper and be totally outrageous - in the closet :)

nitholm Love the black & white flock wallpaper in the closet - does anyone know the brand or where it comes from? Thanks from Sydney, Australia

TKraft Art & Interiors DITTO on the wallpaper sheer genius

Casart Coverings If you use a wallcovering that's removable and reusable, you don't have to worry about commitment or tiring of the design. You can change it whenever you like. Just return it to its backing sheet, roll it up, place it in its mailing container, label and store neatly in that closet you've worked so hard to organize.

astraea Flowers or a flowering plant in a coat closet? Maybe this is semantics; isn't a "coat closet" near a door to go outside, for outerwear like coats, boots, hats, maybe scarves & umbrellas? Why does photo 1 look like a "bedroom closet", with that array of shoes? That only makes sense, in a household that doesn't wear shoes in the house, and leaves all the shoes near the front door!

mrsben Some excellent tips Becky. Particularly like the one of taking a before snapshot! Excellent motivation! :)

Hope you don't mind me adding a few of my own tips --
Re wallpapering, as pretty as it looks personally I would not recommend it as the chore of hanging it can be a task in itself, let alone stripping it is never fun. If you plan to do it though, ensure that you use a Wall Conditioner Prep (an acrylic) before you start. My preference, is just to use paint as left-overs can be used and it can always be scrubbed down for freshening up. Don't forget about the ceiling either. The addition of a light fixture is always a plus. (Use a battery type if need be.) Also if you have a non-decorative rod (ie: Pic #2), consider covering it with a plastic shower-curtain rod cover. They are cheap yet durable, easy to install, come in a great assortment of colours and hangers glide easily along it.

Your suggestion of using 'clear' shoe pocket organizers IMO is also a very good storage solution. Besides in a coat closet, I use them when and wherever I can. ie: I'm a hobby sewer and use them for storing my many pre-wound bobbins and specialty threads. Also they are a good way to store craft paint supplies like smaller brushes, paint pens, etc. (The list goes on.) Their pouch is expandable and can accommodate almost any shape. I don't necessarily use the over-the-door type but what I really like about them is they can be 'easily' hung in a space not always fully utilized and that is the wall where other types of storage solutions can take up valuable counter and floor space and if the need arises, they are portable as well.

Apologize for being so long-winded.

thejancat Gotta get me some scarf hangers!!!

littlee25 Please be careful if you are using a battery light in closet. I had a beautiful blouse ruined by a leaking battery. Hard to imagine how but the marks were not on it going into closet but a week later there they were never to go away.

Becky Harris Nitholms, you may have better luck finding your answer if you click on the picture with the wallpaper you like and hit the "Ask a Question" button - it will get more exposure that way. I'm sorry I don't know the answer.

Astraea, Now that I look at picture #1, that is probably open shelving in a mudroom, hence the lavender plant! I'm a firm believer in taking off shoes before entering the house. It cuts own on how much I have to mop/vacuum and keeps a lot of gross stuff from getting tramped from room to room.

bluehouse I agree with having a light in the closet. If the light turns on when you open the door, even better!

olldroo Hope you realise you have started something Becky, what is the next area?

Becky Harris groovygranny, what would you like me to attack next? I'm looking to my own messes for inspiration right now!

olldroo I have the first of my 2 bathrooms being demolished next week so am having fun trying to relocate things away from all the dust and dirt while still having them accessible. This is the start of a total house makeover so any ideas at all for ways to create storage as I go will be great. I will be happy to follow your journey through your problems, but I am particularly interested in wardrobe storage. I have 2 bedrooms with walk in wardrobes, nothing like the ballrooms featured on this site, they are 4' deep, one 10' wide, the other 11'6" so am trying to find inspiration to fit them out nicely to make everything neat and readily accessible - all on a budget of course. I will probably be looking at Ikea or flatpack products as tailored craftsman creations are super expensive in Australia. .

mrsben @Groovygranny: Re closet organizers, have you checked out Closet Maid products? Usually they are carried by big-box stores and may run even cheaper than Ikea. I have one cupboard equipped with their system, and they are very well made and functional. (ie: The drawers that I have are far deeper than that of Ikea. Perfect for bedding and pillows.)
As I am from Canada, like yourself I can relate to having less options and outrageous pricing compared to that of the U.S. consumer, so never hesitate if contacting a Manufacture ask if they will ship direct to you. You would be surprised as to how many will all at cost price.

olldroo mrsben - Thank you for your input, every bit helps. I am from Australia, not Canada, and had never heard of Closet Maid but checking on Google I find it is now available here but it seems only in specialist shops which means bumped up prices.

I might add Ikea isn't as cheap here either, their excuse was the extra shipping to the Southern Hemisphere but we now find out our Ikea is actually being made in Indonesia and is of lower quality. Considering the $US and $AU are pretty much on parity now, as an example, the bed I would like is $349 here ($US149) and a chest of drawers $349 ($US179). The US also has 5 colour choices, we only have 3 and of course not the one I want. The latest excuse is we don't have the population for competitive pricing.

tripem @ groovy granny - i totally agree. we get so ripped off as australians!! our choice is very limited, there is definitely not enough of the middle range furniture here - it is either very cheap (& nasty, ie. needs replacing in 3 yrs) or too high end/not affordable. i looove looking at all the beautiful american furniture on tv shows and online - this site especially, unfortunately mostly we can only look as we don't have these options in australia.

olldroo Trouble is stuff doesn't have to be cheap to be nasty. The 4 items I am looking at in Ikea for my bedroom will be about 1/4 the price of other bedroom specialist chain stores and their furniture is terribly made, very heavy and ugly. I'll take my chances with Ikea. I've got some beautiful ideas from this website, can't wait to create them but then can't find anything remotely like what I've planned. Very frustrating. I might add for US readers, even Costco here is pathetic.

curraghgirl Wallpaper may look cool- not so bad putting it up- but I can't help but think that if you tire of it and need to remove it- ouch- head bumps- pretty tight space to remove it.

mom929 Some great ideas! I too, love the idea of wallpaper behind the closet. I'm completely inspired to tackle my mess of a closet. Can't wait to see what next week brings :-)

sunnycb02 @astraea, who wears shoes inside the house?

lisalovesquilts Please come and do it for me I can't face it! Sunnycb02 I wear shoes in the house because of lego mostly and other painful small items. No one else just me, I have a pair just for indoors though. I also have cold feet (sorry I know - too much info!) I'm not in Australia but I sympathise entirely. My friends here don't understand why I only want American bedding! Choice and quality. I wait for the dollar to drop (been ages), for sales and then that makes up for the high postal cost and the local taxman taking a bite.

olldroo C'mon Lisa you are made of tougher stuff than that!!! Get the creative juices moving, think how good you will feel at the end.

Becky, well 2 months on and things are starting to take shape with my wardrobe. It is all painted lovely and very white, so much so I need sunnies to walk into it. After much research have found more organising ideas and products that I think are fairly new on the market, and the male of the house has decided to be useful and has volunteered to build all necessary shelving I need - even went and bought himself a new electric saw!!!! Stay tuned.

lisalovesquilts OK groovygranny I'm shamed and tidying!

Casart Coverings Mark Brunetz, author of Take The U Out of Clutter, says the problem isn't your "stuff". It's your stories. More than 200 million of us still have too much stuff. Here's a post from yesterday that offers more suggestions for clearing the clutter and keeping your dreams. http://www.casartcoverings.com/casartblog/clear-the-clutter-keep-the-dreams/ Now that I posted suggestions, guess I'll have to put them into practice. Right?

olldroo Well, Casart, you know the old saying "practice what you preach". Theory is good, practice is definitely another thing.

Definitely so much of my 'clutter' are family memories that I feel it is my duty to keep for future generations and a lot of the family have requested I do so - better in my home that theirs, I know. If they don't want it, their problem, I won't be here to worry about it, but I know I will have done my bit. I am an avid scrapbooker and am using that to contain many family records and mementoes and put more meaning to them. The saddest thing I know I am going to have to part with is my mother's christening dress, painstakingly hand made but sadly disintegrating with age and quite beyond repair. I have just taken lots of photos of it for some record at least.

Casart Coverings @g.g.-That really made me sad to read and I understand completely about the christening dress. But, you will always have your memories and your dreams. Have you considered selecting a fragment of the dress and framing it as a keepsake. You could even do a keepsake box including a picture of your mother, a picture you took of the dress and any other relevant objects.

olldroo Casart - yes that is the sort of thing I am doing with the scrapbooking, everything is protected and acid free and I can mix photos and fabrics and include some decorative effects and it is all in albums that even the grandkids love to go through when they visit. The keepsake boxes do look great but the albums are taking up so much space as it is, I would run out of wall space if I started going that way with everything.

I also have some lace from her wedding dress that she made herself and I will use that with photos of my parents' wedding. I had her headpiece but my niece took that and some of the lace to create her own memory. She loves the headpiece so much she is thinking of wearing it herself when she marries so that will be special.

caseyem I use a clear plastic shoe organizer to store gloves, mittens, scarves and knit hats.

bfphillips Who says you have to actually hang the wallpaper? I have lived in about 10 different homes ( military) and I used wallpaper in my closets by using thumb tacks placed securely around the edges. That kept shoe marks off the walls and when it came time to move it was no clean up!