Remember last August when I went to visit my sister in Ontario and helped her to do this:
(You can see the before pictures here)
Well it turns out that my organizing freakness abilities may have rubbed off on her because just recently in preparation for their new baby who will be arriving next week (yay!) she took this closet:
and turned it into this:
What a difference some purging (ahem) and a closet organizer can make!
Closet organizers are a must in my book and definitely worth the investment although I’m not even talking big dollars here necessarily. Closet organizers come in all different configurations and prices so you can spend as little or as much as you want BUT since you’ve come to my blog you know I’m all about the affordable. So it’s safe to say that if you are looking for the $4000.00 closet solution, you’ve come to the wrong blog. I mean I’m not knocking the $4000.00 closet organizer because I’m sure they are hunky and dorry and the things that dreams are made of but this lady just doesn’t have that kind of cashola. So instead here are some solutions that work for me and my bank balance.
First decide what your requirements are for the closet. In other words what do you want to store in there? Clothes, toys, books, or all of the above? Take your requirements into consideration when shopping for a closet organizer.
Most department stores will sell some kind of basic closet organizer for under $100.00.
Closet organizer from Canadian Tire $54.99
You can see a picture of my entryway closet with this organizer here, the only difference is the addition of a drawer in the middle. Very effective I must say and if you are super handy (unlike me) you can customize these inexpensive closet organizers to suit your needs without spending a lot of additional dollars. My friend Shari is a pro at this and you just have to go check out the amazing work she has done BY HERSELF in both her daughter’s room as well as the walk-in closet in her bedroom. How’s that for inspiring!
The point is it is possible to maximize space in your closet no matter what the size. Just simply adding an extra shelf at the top of your closetlike my hubby did for instance can make a huge difference.
Or how about this new product I just discovered on the Solutions website which looks pretty nifty for adding extra space at the top of a closet:
These closet doublers also look great for creating more space at a great price:
I’m also a HUGE fan of dressers and bookshelves in the closet especially in kid’s rooms. In fact I created a closet library in my daughter’s closet to house all her books and allow her visual clutter to be kept to a minimum. Putting dressers/shelves in a closet also frees up bedroom floor space which for a small room can make a huge difference.
Whether you have clothes, toys or books to store in your child’s closet using cubbies is also a fantastic idea as seen here on The Nesting Diary. You’ll even find the instructions for making the tags to attach to the cubbies to assist children in knowing where to put things away. Love it!
Need more motivation? Check out this picture that appeared in the very first issue of Organize Magazine. All three girls share this closet.
The closet organizer works to divide the space so each girl has a section hopefully alleviating some potential fighting.
I hope you find this useful today. If you are currently using any of the products mentioned in this post I would love to hear your thoughts on them.
Have a happy weekend everyone!
dawn says
But what do you do if you don’t have closets?
Sarah says
You could either get a wardrobe (this option is better if you tend to have people in your room besides yourself, or if you don’t like to see your clothes), or you could attach a bar on one wall (using those metal triangles you can probably find at home depot). If you have more clothes than can fit on one bar, you can get a second bar and either install it like you did the first, or you can suspend it from the first bar with some thin, strong string. That’s what I’d do.
Maine Mom says
My closets could definitely use a makeover. What a great job your sister did on her daughter’s closet. It looks great!
Liz says
Dawn: I lived in an apartment once that had one small hall closet to the whole place. I ended up taking a wall from the bedroom and putting up a closet organizer against the wall. The plan was to eventually hide it with some curtains, but I never got that far. I loved seeing my organized closet every day! I only lived there for about 8 mo’s, but… it worked for me! You can put those closet organizers just about anywhere. 🙂
carrie says
Laura,
Could you tell me where I could find the closet organizer your sister just used in the US? Thanks!
Avlor says
@ Carrie:
They sell similar units at Lowes. (Just put up a similar but wider shelved system for my daughter lat month.) I didn’t see what we bought online, but they did have them. I think they have the skinny shelf version too.
After we put in the system, I could get rid of the dresser and make more space in my daughter’s small room.
Laura says
Liz thanks for letting us know how you handled no closets, that’s a great suggestion. Also wardrobes work great as free standing closets as well.
Thanks to Avlor for answering Carrie’s question about where to find the closet organizer in the US. Go to lowes.com and search on closet organizers.
You guys are awesome!!
Thea @ I'm a Drama M says
Hi Laura!
The issue I’m having right now with my sons room is leaving me stumped. He has no dresser so all of his clothes are in his closet. He has a low rod with several shelves above it. My problem is how to fold the clothes for the shelves so they don’t topple over.
I thought of putting some drawers or bins on the shelves (one for each type of folded clothing), but I know that he would just always wear the thing on top and then when it got folded, it would go right back on top…meaning he would never wear the 4 other pairs of pants in the drawer…
I hope I am making sense. Any suggestion from you (or your readers!) would be greatly appreciated!!
Michele says
This is a great post on closet organizing. Makes me want to go work on mine! My house was built as basic housing in the 1950’s so closet space is minimal. I used Elfa from The Container Store for all 3 of my closets. It is really high quality and priced much less than comparable systems. They also have a 30% off sale every year in time for New Year’s resolutions, so that makes it more affordable.
Dawn says
Since you are talking about closets, and we are doing kids’ rooms this month, and I am organizing my daughter’s room, which has a closet that is basically the space underneath the stairs, do you have any great tips? Right now if I face the closet it is basically a closet the width of the door, with a very short rod hanging up, and to the left is the space underneath the stairs. I would like to use that space somehow, but it is so awkward that I can’t think of what to do in it.
Darci says
This looks great. Now I just need to organize the floor in my closet.
Sarah says
I just stumbled across your site and it looks so neat!! I love organizing stuff as well and just the look of a beautiful closet gets me excited!! Great job on the website! 🙂
Heavenly Homemaker says
What great looking closets! And…congrats on your expected new niece!! How exciting!
Sharijoy says
Thanks Laura for the PLUG!!! I do love to REDO a Closet….Maybe I’ll have to post my laundry closet pics too! I was reading this and I had an Idea for DAWN….I am assuming that the space is to the left or right of the closet door. I am also assuming its depth is 3-4 feet and height about the same. again I am envisioning a corner staircase with a landing that allows for the void under the stairs. My idea would be to get bookcases about that height and mount them on wheels put a handle on the side of the bookcase so you would be pulling the entire bookcase out like a moblie drawer…depending on the depth of the bookcase you could get three to four bookcases in side ways. I would also suggest you use wheels that cant swivel and add a wood guide rail on the floor for it to follow. depending what you are putting in there you may want to add dividers with in the bookcaes so when you are pulling and pushing the bookcase in and out your things don’t topple over…..HOPE THAT MADE SENSE!!! PS if anyone is redoing their stairs use the base of the steps as a drawer its great for hidden storage.
Nicole McDevitt says
Great post. I was at Home Depot and I spotted the same kind of organizer as the one from Canadian Tire. It’s by closet maid and the model number is T6. It was $49.99 here in Vegas. Also, if you have a home depot and you want to do a self install custom design then I suggest you go to closetmaid.com. They have a section that lets you put in your closet measurements and you can design the closet yourself. You can see what it’s going to look like as you add or take away shelves. Then you just print out the instructions, take them to home depot, buy the stuff (the store will trim the shelving if you need it) and install. I did this to my son’s old room and it turned out great. I’ll have to take a picture next time I’m at the old house. It was about $80 but it was also a very long closet.
palmtreefanatic says
wow! that was some great organizing! I enjoyed the before and after pics!
TSS says
That last organizer is amazing. I still can’t believe that those girls all managed to fit their clothes into one closet though.
Mrs. Wilson says
I JUST bought one of those closet doublers the other day! Apparently it’s hard to share 1 closet with 4 people!
Adena says
I’ve never used those particular organizers before but they look awesome! A picture of an organized closet definitely gets me motivated. We once had a pretty deep coat closet that we really didn’t need. We took out the clothes bar and instead made shelves on either side of the wall (it was about three feet deep or a little more). Then we put all of our board games on one side and the other side used baskets for things like hats, gloves, umbrellas and such. The best idea we ever had.
Alison @ Pennythough says
This is great! I’ve been plotting a closet makeover for a couple of months now, but it’s a little overwhelming–especially since the $ estimate I got from The Container Store was so far outside my budget. Thanks to you, I now know that I can get other organizing products for MUCH less.
Jenny says
http://www.completeorganizingsolutions.com/2008/05/stairway-storage.html
dawn says
Thank you for the ideas for my ‘no closet’ problem.
dawn
Betty says
How does one store their purses in their closets? I looked for one of those cardboard boxes that has divided sections in it but they were too tall for the space I have between my shelves. These shelves are not adjustable, built in by previous owner. I store my fannypacks in a plastic shoebox, but I want to find some type of storage for my good pocketbooks so the closet will look neat and not cluttered, and the dust will be kept off the purses. Any ideas? I thought I saw something on one of the organizing websites but can’t locate it now.
Amanda walker says
I just love what seeing what you do! I live in the uk with my husband and two daughters, aged 3 and 9, in a house that is 800 sq ft! And my backyard? 16ft by 16ft! So anything that can make my life easier and more organized is just great, since we lack the space! 🙂
Ted Manner says
I’m proud to say that with a little bit of work and reorganizing I was able to clean my closet just like the pictures above! All I needed was a couple shelves to make sure my stuff could be sorted properly. Thanks for the post!