Looks like you are trying to find someone to design you a dressing room for free. I'm not a pro, but I would drop by a kitchen and bath store and see if they can offer either 1. a free design (using their products) or 2. can recommend a professional to help you. That's where I would start, anyway. Good luck!

jannie - Yes, I am looking for an efficient design and will visit some closet design shops in Houston next week. However, I would appreciate ideas from someone that has already organized their space, things they like, things they don't like, wish they had thought of etc. In building this house, I have found the professionals (kitchen and bathroom cabinet design) are good to have but I love the down to earth real advice I find on Gardenweb. I have searched and read all the posts on here for closets and that's how I decided to send a request to Easy Closets. One bit of good advice here was to take into consideration how I dress and then apply that to the closet.

If the consideration about how you dress means the kind of clothing/fabric you wear and whether you hang or fold, then that is a great first step in solving the rods vs. drawers conundrum. Otherwise it's a bit abstract for me, but I'm sure there are peeps who have a POV! In hindsight I would have set aside space for cold-weather shoes (boots, slippers, etc.) in the "shoe area" of the master closet. More aesthetics than function but it's also something to consider.

westvillager - Yes, I hang more than I fold, even stuff you are supposed to fold. Good point about separating for seasonal stuff. Thanks.

Ditto review what clothing you plan to use/store, because that is how you arrive at the drawer number and dimensions, rod space and heights. For example, when you say, "I was thinking . .. (feet of hanging rods, types of drawers) " --what does that mean to you? What stuff are you going to put in the drawers? How much long stuff or short stuff do you have?
Re: shoes, I have several types that I might wear only a few times per year, so I am willing to use some upper, inconvenient shelf space for some boxed and labelled shoes, with rack space more for the ones I wear use frequently.

Here is one tip--pay attention to the amount of room between the closet rods and shelf immediately above and the type of hangers you use. In one area of our closet, the shelf was installed pretty close to the rod below--just enough so that with some of my existing pants hangers and plastic hangers, you kinda feel you have to work the hanger over it, or the top of the hanger curve hits the bottom of the shelf when you hang stuff. Seems like a small thing, but it was annoying, because I like to rip & go. I found a different style hanger that has a shorter curve that fits better.

I wear mostly pants, and I prefer to hang them on those open-ended pants hangers as it's pretty easy on-off, but if I had more space, I would have devoted more rod space to long items and hung more of my nicest pants long-wise, especially off-season when they may get more creased from just sitting on a hanger. Or, have more space and use those hanger-adapters which make a fatter hanger for the pants so less creasing (or my thrifty alternative is a paper-towel cardboard tube over a standard cleaner's pants hanger.)

Frankie in zone 7 - Thanks for the note about the space between the closet rod and the shelf. That could be a real irritant. But it's good that you were able to remedy with a different type hanger. I did say "I was thinking" but I actually went and measured stuff in the closets here. The problem being that they are squashed in and I was estimating that I would need more room. I hear you about putting the everyday stuff close at hand and that's another good point. What I really need to do is get rid of stuff that I don't wear and that would help a lot.

One thng I'd like in a closet would be double closet rods-one in front of the othger. The back one would be for out of season, the front for things I'm wearing now. When spring comes, all you need to do is "rotate". And I do find I like to hang most everything-including sweaters, which can be folded, of course. Give some attention to storing clothing,shoes and purses that are out of season. and if you're really serious about organizing, pick some things to donate from your little-used stuff.

Our closet is long so one side is my hubby's and the other side is mine with our shoes at the far end on what looks pretty much like bookshelves with a couple with more height for boots.

The rods on hubby's side are higher since he's quite a bit taller than I am. This allowed an extra shelf for storage over my double rod section and the shelf over my tall section to be lower for me to easily reach.

On my side the tops are in one over/under double rod section. They are sorted by sleeve length and by color. I have all the three quarter and long sleeves on the bottom and the sleeveless to short sleeves on the top. Our seasons overlap, meaning there are warm days in winter and cool ones in the summer, so I don't feel the need to switch them seasonally.

My various length pants, skirts and dresses are in one "tall" section sorted by item and color.

We each have a vertical shelving section for folded clothing though on my side I use collapsible storage boxes to store work T's, socks and undergarments.

At each corner we have shelves with a large/tall section in each for storing over sized items such as extra blankets and pillows. There is a shelf that goes all the way around the top that we use for storing luggage and less used items.

Here's some pictures I took when it was almost finished. Before I dusted (blush) that might give you an idea how the sections look. It's nothing fancy, I'm very utilitarian when designing storage space, but it works quite well.

These are clickable thumbnails...
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You'll notice the white brackets that support both the center of the shelf and hold the rod. You can purchase them at any home improvement store and they'll help you set the shelves above the rods at the right height for ease of hanging and removing hangers from the rods.

jannie and justgotabeme - Thanks to both of you for your comments. I definitely will throw out some things and not fill our new space with junk. If I can just keep it that way. I will look for the white brackets which will be a huge help. I hope I will sort by item and color. That's a great idea.

I'm a bit, okay allot, OCD. So much so I prefer to call it CDO.
I have to have things sorted the way I mentioned above.
{{!gwi}}

justgotabme - Love it!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe I never thought of that myself since if I'm not color coding something, I'm alphabetizing it, but I found it online somewhere.