My favorite part of the closet in our new house is the built-in dresser in between his side and my side. It has open shelves above it where my hat-collecting other half has a place for ALL of his hats! It's made a problematic eyesore (they used to pile up all over the bedroom) kind of cool to look at!

I'm an in between-er too. I finally managed to hang up the mirror - only 9 months after moving in... Last week I even managed to put away the sandals and get out the winter shoes. With my level of organisation, trust me, this is an achievement!

(photo time!! a before and after with the mirror)

Am waiting for someone to come out here.

For me it isn't so much as messy or neat, it's having a place for everything...and knowing where that is. That way I'm not digging thru the closet making more of a mess. Underwear is in bins, shirts and casual skirts and pants are hung on hooks. I like the idea of upgrading hangers to all one type but just can't bring myself to do that. I'm too thrifty and green and perhaps lazy for that.

Ladies (and a gent?!) indulge me, please, I absolutely have to tell you this story.

One of my mother-in-law 'ladies who luncheon' was very miffed recently because the city council dared to send out an inspector to see this new apartment of hers, after she asked for a tax deduction saying it's unoccupied and unfurnished for occupancy. The two bedroom apartment was in a house across the road from where this lady lives (posh area close to the city centre), and apparently they suspected she has a maid or some other staff living there and she doesn't want to pay council tax for it.

Well, what happened was that she bought this apartment so she can store her summer, respectively winter clothes in it, depending on the season. She has a large walk-in in her house (a refurbed bedroom) but noticed it was getting too crowded, and because she didn't want to spoil her guest bedrooms or do any other wardrobe manoeuvre, she decided to buy this place and store the out-of-season clothing in there.
Apparently the inspector (a gentleman) was really bewildered that she hasn't lied and that indeed, the place was 'unfurnished for occupancy' - it was furnished with (clothes on) railing and (shoes) shelves and a few large mirrors and the such, but nothing that would allow a person to (comfortably) reside there. Useless to say, they awarded her the tax deduction...

Now that is a place I would love to see (and photograph) but obviously the lady wouldn't allow it - she doesn't understand what the big fuss is and why not more people use this solution if they struggle for space...!!??!! (I found a similar size house for sale in the neighbourhood, if you want to get an idea about how big her actual home is: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43148231.html

That is a great idea! Why didn't I think of that? Hmm...there is a house for sale two doors down from where we live. I could use that for storage. I have to check my wallet to see if I have enough change:)

When so many are homeless.

Organized is always best. Take the time to color coordinate clothing and arrange by size. This way, you'll see the empty hangers and will know exactly where everything goes once the laundry is done!

Studio M- I turn the hangers to the front when I take the clothes out as another reminder where I got the clothes from.

my closet is organized but didn't label for everything....!

I think, being messy entails a lot more work than being organized. Ironed or neatly folded clothes get crumpled again - so what's the point of being messy? Saving time? Definitely not.

I confess as far as my rooms go there is never a thing out of place but for some reason until recently I could not keep a closet neat or organized in any way. I just kept shoving things into my closet that didn't even belong there. Finally I got serious and got my closet and other storage rooms fitted with everything needed to keep everything in place. It has made a huge difference. I no longer have to root through "stuff" to find what I need. One of the best investments I have made in a long time.

My closets are pretty neat--but nothing is labeled. Honestly, I have to laugh when I see these lovely walk-in closets with all the shelves, cubbies, and hanging rods. When we bought our 19th century stone house, there were no closets on the first floor, and one small closet in each bedroom (no utility closet, no linen closet). Via some modest renovations, without changing the footprint of the house), we added a small coat closet and pantry on the first floor, and a small linen closet upstairs. The vacuum cleaner, brooms, mops etc. get stored on a small landing behind the cellar door.

The bedrooms still have their small closets, although my husband was able to add some shallow shelves to the "ends" of the closets, perpendicular to the hanging rod. There is also a shelf above the rod. The most I can say about my closet (my husband uses a closet in a different small bedroom now that the kids are gone) is that like items are grouped together. I actually have two rods so that I have two levels at which to hang blouses and pants. Since there is no full length hanging area, my few dresses go up to the attic to a cedar closet my husband built up there. I'm not really a "dress person" , so this seems to work. The situation forces me to donate no-longer-worn clothing rather than just let it go on taking up space.

I fall in between, more to the organized side. Huggable hangers along with some purging have been a huge help.the huggable hangers or a similar type take up much less space..

Organization saves time in the long run. It certainly helps to have the framework in which to organize your closet. Large or small there should be dedicated spaces for everything you need to organize. Nothing like a remodel to set the priorities straight and evaluate what's really needed and what needs to go.

Anybody know an inexpensive supplier for boxes for shoes that have pull down door in front so don't have to move whole big stack to take off lids? Defeats purpose for saving time if have to reconstruct 'towers' -- I have a lot of shoes (as my feet don't gain/lose weight and I buy wonderful designer shoes at Harrod's sale -- got to get there first morning of sale for real bargains -- that are classic for their high fashion types!).

European Spaces, judging by the sise of the full length mirror, that closet on the left is about the size of one of our bedrooms--it does have the advantage of having two windows in it, however. It also has one single-width closet.. I can't argue with your comment though, that large or small, it helps if a closet is organized.

When I moved two and a half years ago I took the time to organize my closet...since the clothes were coming out of boxes I had to touch up everything with the iron...I worked at it little by little over the next 10 days and made sure I never put back anything on hangers without it being cleaned or touched up first. That way my closet has remained clean but I do not label, that would be too much!

I stated earlier that's it's a little of both, but it's more organized than messy. Everything is hung by colors, summer clothes on one side, winter on the other. Summer shoes in one area; winter shoes in another (All on shelves). Sometimes, I'll toss shoes in then put them away the next day or throw dirty clothes on top of the hamper instead of inside the hamper, but then I'll put them inside of it in a day or two. It might get slightly off kilter with those things, but not messy. I added more shelves before I moved in (the white wire kind), but I'd love to have a closet organizational system installed!

My home was built in the 70's with small closets so we took it upon ourselves to organize the shelving, etc. ourselves. Worked out relatively well...and to make issues easier I hang by color, object, and label boxes. My purses have their own section...as do my belts. It remains small but at least I know what's there. We interchange by season. It may be tedious but I promise you it is well worth it. If you are partially OCD - like me!!!!!!! - it makes sense. My niece and her girls initially cleaned out the closet....my heavens I forgot half the stuff that was in there so it went into the trash...GONE and never missed. Clean up, clean out and organize. If you do it once you are set for the future...GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!

My house was built in 1936 so the bedroom closets are only about 5' long. Since there are 9' ceilings throughout the house, I used that height to add another clothes rod in the bedroom closets up at the ceiling which allows for me to store off-season clothes up above. It would not be real convenient if you had to get to them all the time, but is a great place instead of storing them in the damp basement. I have found that I can use a yardstick to easily lift a hanger off the rod to bring down an article of clothing, & just as easily return one the same way.

My problem isn't clothes and shoes. It is things like luggage and the ironing board that are stored in the closet. Oh! Purses and hats that rain down from the shelves!

Right now, mine are messy. I have way too many other projects going on.
I will say, mine look no where near as messy as the photo.

Hi

for once I would love to see what someone has done with a Single Bi-fold door closet!!!

Our closet is mostly neat and hubby will throw a pair of jeans or that on top of the shoe racks. Ours is not just for clothes. On his side he has some boxes on his top shelf for stuff he is saving. He even hung his crossbow from his side. ugg! My side is all color matched and his side is neat except for some hunting gear and other man gear.

Buy another HOUSE for clothing storage? Rent an apartment--and then ARGUE with the TAX MAN over wether or not CLOTHING constitutes an OCCUPANT?

Seriously--such First World Problems.

I voted organized... But I don't have labels. Well... Not exactly... I do have some shoe boxes labelled though! :) We can always find what we're looking for in the closet though and the messiest it usually gets is when my beloved drops his clothes on the floor instead of opening the tilt out hamper. ;) oh well... We all have our annoying habits. :)

This is such an easy fix, but I have quit buying those thick round plastic hangers, when all together, they just take up too much space, I hate spending $ on hangers, but its practically a one time investment & once you bite the bullet , hopefully you will not have to do so again for a long time. Also, I purchased hanging shelves from MacBeth/typically used for folding your sweaters, and while I do have one for sweaters, I also have one for PJ’s. My fav purchase is the MacBeth hanger for handbags, what does not fit, I hang the bag with a hanger, it works great. Also purchase the hangers that have several slits to hang jeans and/or leggings. The ones I purched @ Target, I can hang 8 pair of leggings on one hanger. - I also hang (I know this sounds wierd but it so works - my boots) it is a great space saver. also buy the belt organizer that you can find in the men’s dept and hang on wall & do same for ties and hang your scarves and long necklaces. If you do not want to invest in the holders for bangles use really cheap, like from $ store fto keep bangles together - sort them by color, this helps so much. I wear hats a lot so I have purchased a very large plastic bin for all my hats~ Now for the truth - I am such a slob, and no one can ever believe how organized & tidy my closet is. I really do love my tiny little closet!

Paulamcnulty,
How about plastic, see through, pull out drawers?

Last year I had my master bath remodeled, my closet door is in this bathroom. My husband, who is quite handy, and I decided we would tackle organizing the closet. A year later it is still fairly organized( husband's side messier than mine). I do have another closet in another room that I keep my off season clothes. I did a lot on research on Houzz, got lots of good ideas. My favorite feature is the mirrored doors my husband built to cover what was very messy open shelves. We have high ceilings, so husband also built high shelf over door for our luggage and mounted ironing board on back of door.

Nechamaj - clear plastic shoe boxes would be fine. But don't want top opening as have to dismantle a whole stack to get at one box in middle. Haven't been able to find stackable plastic shoe boxes with small / side opening (not too $$$). A pretty big investment if wanting to buy 40 or so to handle all shoes!! ANY SUPPLIERS YOU KNOW OF???

Ikea has boxes that open at the front that have clear fronts, I think?

My closet right now is awful, although I dream of it being neat. I used to have a neat closet, but that was a move ago, and nothing ever got really sorted out where I am now, and I'm moving again soon so there doesn't seem to be a lot of point to really making an effort here unless I'm sure it's items that will be useful elsewhere (like hangers.)

What I struggle with most is having multiple 'types' of wardrobe. I'm never sure if I should put all the things together, or divide my storage space up into 'wardrobe sections' or what. (I don't wear office clothes every day, but I do sometimes need to, so that's one section. Then I have everyday 'nice' stuff and also everyday 'omg my skin hurts I am not wearing anything more irritating than yoga pants' stuff - I have severe psoriasis so sometimes something like jeans is just Out Of The Question, but I refuse to live in yoga pants - and a handful of 'dress up' items for holidays and parties, and then a small collection of stuff related to riding horses/barn clothes that will probably grow when I get back into taking riding lessons regularly. And of course some stuff crosses over between sections and I end up waffling over where to put it and if something doesn't have a home that makes sense to me it never ends up there... Ugh.)

Speaking of Ikea - has anyone used the shoe holders you can get for the Pax wardrobes that holds the shoes vertically? They look like they actually manage to fit a fair amount into a small space with everything accessible, so I'm considering getting one after I've moved and figuring out how to build a box or something to install it in since I won't really need an actual Pax wardrobe, I don't think. (There's a built in drawer unit in the closet with hanging space to either side so I'm thinking maybe I could anchor the shoe rack to that on one side, and just have to build a sort of stand to support the other end, so it'd be pretty stable since it'd be fixed to the built in unit.)

Thanks, PirateFoxy. I don't have Ikea nearby (luve in very rural area) and stopped getting catalogs years ago. Will try again!

Every 1-2 years I host a "closet party" for my friends who are a similar size to me (2-4-6). Give them about 3 months notice, and tell them to invite others who are similar size (especially the ones who like designer clothing!) So for 3 months, lots of girls are taking things out of their closet that they don't wear anymore. On the night of the party, all the girls bring their stuff, and everyone takes what they want (first come, first serve!) Anything that's not taken goes to charity. It's fun to see friends show up to parties in clothing that was brought to clothing party.

My biggest problem is I have such a small closet for me and my husband. How does one organize well when there isn't much space to organize you know? I used to be pretty organized when it was just me but now it's me and my hubby

Brave people that post pictures of their closets! I have a robe on a chair, shoes on the floor, socks on the floor. An empty travel bag that needs put away. I have mentioned this before on Houzz that I have a large extra bedroom that was made into a closet. It is nice to be able to close the door and not worry about it.

Mine is as well something in between, i dont have labels at all, but try to organize things by categories and colors, the only problem is that the closet is too small!!!

A good strategy was to place a mirror in front of the t'shirts spot, so if they get a little disorganized they are hidden =).

By the way, I've been looking for hangers for boots, I saw some in some inspirational closets pictures, but I don't manage to find a place where they sell them. Any advice?

Here are some pictures of our closet:

Those of you that have a sort of organized closet, please post pics! I would love to see pictures of a normal, usable closet. We won't judge here!

I badly need ideas for the closets in the house we are moving into. There are 3 closets with sliding doors & 1 small closet with a hinged door. Only 2 of these still have the typical rod & shelf in them, but that's it. We want to outfit these before we move in. I would like to put some shelves & double rods in. I don't want to use the wire shelf systems, as they are not very sturdy.

Unfortunately none of my closets are walk-in closets. Walk-in closets for me are like dreaming of a Camaro, but instead having a reliable 1995 Camry. I would love to have them, but I will have to make due with what I have.

I have found that if I use small dressers or an antique armoire, which we already had we can organize the closet without needing to purchase much of anything. I do want to put a splash of color. So I am leaning towards using up the rest of a can of light lilac paint. Nothing in my closet would clash with that, so that is the plan.

No walk-in closets in our house...put pants in dressers, my husbands jogging pants etc. go in the storage bench at the foot of the bed...only hang up the "good/work" clothes; actually bought a vegetable bin with pull down doors...store summer flats and flip flops in it. Added additional shelving to the top of the closets. Store some out of season stuff in under the bed bins. Have huge bin of old black jeans (32 pairs faded to varying shades of gray) that my husband says will fit him again stored in the garage. With small closets you can really get creative for storage:)

My dressing room closet is a mess! It's the only room I allow myself to be a slob. :)

I've started spending my time surfing on houzz lately, but even didn't know how to comment and just found it. How stupid i have been. I brought a large wardrobe and i just don't have much stuff to put in there. Too sad to think about how to organize it.

My closets are the most organized part of the house. Everything is in order. Plastic stacking boxes with labels. Clothes in color order. Shoes lined up. Wish I could stay as organized elsewhere in my house.

A new husband could be my best change for an organized closet ; 0

Hey, does anyone have any tips for estimating the amount of hanging closet space to allow? Or just closet space in general?

Organized like my new home - picture before move-in and it is still neat!

Our closet

The first thing I’d do is to clean out the closet and get rid of clothes and accessories that I no longer wear. Then I’d rearrange my wardrobe and organize them into several groups by season, style, and type. I'm currently using these storage bags to reclaim more space in my closet. I store my T-shirts, shorts, tank tops, and sportswear in separate storage bins, and stack them on top of one another. These storage bins are super helpful, they’re not only space-saving but also allow for easy viewing and access to stored contents.

There're many types of storage bags on the market. I love to use this kind of cloth storage for off-season clothing, bed sheets, and blankets. It's water-resistant and features a zipper closure to keep the stored items from dust and moisture. The carrying handle makes it easy to move the bag from one place to another. There are many ways to incorporate the storage into your space. You can store them on the higher shelves of your closet, bottom drawer of your dresser, and even under your bed.

I’d recommend these cube closets for those who live in a small apartment or move frequently since it's very easy to set them up and take them down. The closet is spacious and provides multiple compartments to store different types of clothing and accessories separately.

If you need a place to store your frequently worn clothes and accessories, the open closet system is a great choice for you. Most open closet system can be modified to suit your needs, but open closet system is more complicated to install and most of them need to be fixed on a wall for proper stability.

You can also choose this kind of simple clothes rack. They are lightweight and easy to move around. The ideal rack is one equipped with caster wheels for increased mobility.

For scarf storage, I’d recommend these scarf hangers; each hanger can hold and display multiple scarves for easy accessibility.

Get more tips in Blog:Emma Walsh's Organizing Story

I am pretty organized and yes I do label to access things more quickly. I have those cubby hole cabinets from Ikea as it is what I want.

These are located facing the inbuilt closet area all across the wall. In this I have those fabric foldable cubes and with in these I place and store some of my handbags, just a few on display since I don't want them squashed. I bought the clip-on labels which name bags either by brands or 'formal' and "causal" handbags.

Atop of these cabinets I have the wallets organized into colour sand store in clear shoe boxes.

You could also use one of those larger decorative laundry 'baskets' with cover for bags too. Just leave it next to make up table or in closet area.

I use a slim bookcase behind the wall of bedroom door for storing boxes of shoes, socks and the like.