Are your closets organized?

[maslex]

My bedroom closet is horrifying. Truly, I can't stand to open the door anymore. We have a standard double closet in our room. DH has one side, I have the other...although he takes up part of my side with his work uniforms???

But anyhow, my MIL and SIL both have those white wire shelving units that you can customize into whatever configuration you need. I believe they got the shelving at Lowes. They each have it set up the way that they see fit (with shelves, cubbies, pull out drawers, etc) I on the other hand want something really simple. I just want to have a double hanger (like one on top and one on the bottom) with a shelf on the top (similar to a regular closet but with an extra pole on the bottom to double the hanging space)

With that said, if you've done this with your closet about how much did it cost?

 

[Meriweather]

DH put the second pole in for hangers in one of our closets and also a shelf.
It didn't cost hardly anything. The pole is like $1 and th shelf maybe $20...depends on length and wood, etc.

We have a walk in, so no worries for my things

 

[asta]

I spent several hundred dollars and had my entire closet done. I think it was the best thing that I have ever done to improve the house. It just makes me happy to have everything organized into its space. I have tried do it yourself but I wasn't nearly as happy as I am with what the closet company did.

If you just want a second rod, Bed, Bath and Beyond has these neat double hang rods that you hook on to your existing rod.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=15040149

My daughters have a wood version of this in their dorm rooms and it does a good job of giving you more space.

 

[pl71]

I did this recently to my laundry room, kids closet and my closet. It made a huge difference in organization; it was a very satisfying project! I used the wire closet maid shelves from Home Depot. They are very easy to work with.

You may want to leave a small section for long clothes, even just 12". You just have the top rod go all the way corner to corner, and the second rod will stop 12" short from the wall.

You may need to move the existing rod higher, often a single rod is too low to fit a second rod underneath. You need about 39" of space between rods, so 39" from floor to rod 1, and 39" above that to the second rod. If your existing rod is lower than 80" you'll need to take it out and either move it or put in a new rod.

You'll need a drill, tape measure, hammer, step ladder, and a level. The parts below will cost you around $30.

Here are the basic parts you would need to add one rod/shelf if you want to use Closet Maid wire shelves:
Shelf/rod (cut to length needed with the bolt cutters, you can do this at the store):
http://www2.closetmaid.com/Look/Product_Catalog/product.cfm?product_id=2192
Wall clips for the back of the shelf:
http://www2.closetmaid.com/Look/Product_Catalog/product.cfm?product_id=652
support brackets (every 12", you do need to bend these slightly when putting them in place):
http://www2.closetmaid.com/Look/Product_Catalog/product.cfm?product_id=2172
End brackets:
http://www2.closetmaid.com/Look/Product_Catalog/product.cfm?product_id=2174

Draw the line with the level where you want to shelf to do, make where the wall clips should go (every 12"). Drill, then hammer the clips into the wall. Snap the shelf into the clips, the shelf will now be hanging on the wall. Have someone pick up the shelf, put the level on top and make sure it's level front to back (a small, short level works best for this). While holding it up, put the end clip in place and use a pencil to mark where the holes will go. Let go of the shelf and drill the holes. Before hammering the anchors into the wall for the end clip have someone hold the straight up, don't let it hang below where the end clip will go. Once the end clip is hammered into place let go of the shelf and it will lay in the end clip (I learned this trick the hard way).

Now you just add the support brackets. Put the bracket claw so that a wire is between it and use enough pressure to push the bottom of it against the wall. Mark the hole with a pencil. Remove the bracket, drill the hole. Put the bracket back and hammer in the anchor. All done!

ClosetMaid has two systems, traditional (as I listed above) and Shelftrack. The Shelftrack is much easier to install for multiple shelves, there's a lot less leveling and drilling, and allows the shelves to adjust, but it costs much more. I definitely recommend it if you want shelving, but I don't think it's a good use of money for just adding a closet rod.

 

[dis-happy]

You mentioned wanting just one shelf on top, but consider having 2 shelves if your ceiling is high enough. Sounds small but you get a lot more space to store things (out of season clothing, special shoes, etc). Makes good use of otherwise wasted space.

Is there another closet someplace in the house for storing your dh's work uniforms? I'd be working hard to get him out of your half of the closet!

The www.easyclosets.com website has some great closet organization photos. Maybe you can get some ideas from there.

Also, look into the thin hangars. I bought mind from Costco, about $15. per 100 hangers. You can hang a lot more clothing with them than the plastic hangers.

 

[Disney Doll]

Pretty much. We had a California Closets type place come in and do them years ago, so that helps. Also I go through our clothes every Spring and Fall and get rid of stuff we haven't worn in a while and so forth.

Other closets I neaten up on occasion and again, because of the California Closet type layout, it's pretty easy.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

I have all our closets done in 'white wire' My DW and myself share an 8' wide closet with sliding doors. In the center there is a row of shelving, double hangers and shelves on both sides.
In DD9's room the configuration a little different. Double hangers/shelves for part. Row of shelves up the middle and an area for dresses and longer stuff. Her colset is 6' wide and also has sliding doors.
We also have a hall closet with the same stuff, only in 20 inch deep instead of 16. It also has a more stable front edge than the clothes closets. We use it to store large pots/pans. George Foreman Grill, Waffle iron, Papaer towel and tp supply too!

 

[pixiefairy]

I wish, lol! One of these days, we'll get something done to it. It's a smallish walk in and the builders really didn't think it through when they put up the shelves. There a whole section that you can't really use. I envy those with the nicely organized, neat and easily accessible closets.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

Nope it is a huge mess. I really need to clean it.

 

[SookieStackhouse]

I dream of having nice organized closets...but mine are a disaster in reality.

 

[rie'smom]

We took the master bedroom and made it a closet. It's great because it adjoins the bathroom. On 2 walls we have double hanging and on 2 we have single hanging. The single hanging is for my evening gowns on one side and my purses and costume jewelry on the other side.
Our room is across the hall but that really is no problem.

 

[asta]

I wish, lol! One of these days, we'll get something done to it. It's a smallish walk in and the builders really didn't think it through when they put up the shelves. There a whole section that you can't really use. I envy those with the nicely organized, neat and easily accessible closets.

After working with two builders I am convinced that they just can't get closets right. Both times I had to rip out what the builder out in and pay a closet company to do it right. It is such a pain to rip the builder stuff out that my rule now is to ask them to leave closet space empty so that you don't have messed up sheet rock when the closet company does their work.

 

[KiminChicago]

We are gradually redoing every closet in the house with the Elfa shelving from the Container Store. We usually wait until January every year when they have their big sale. I think it cost us $1500 for our large walk-in closet, but we have so much storage in the closet now that we don't even have dressers or wardrobes in the bedroom. The nice thing about the Elfa system is that everything hangs off of a bracket strip that runs just under the ceiling, so the only holes in the wall are for the screws holding the bracket. We love it because the whole closet can be rearranged as our storage needs change, without drilling a lot of new holes in the walls.

 

[klmall]

KiminChicago - I was writing about the same system as you!

We had the standard builder setup in our master bedroom walk-in closet (a rod and shelf on each side) but three years ago we bought the Container Store's closet system which goes on sale every January.

You can change it after initial set up but we currently have it with a variety of high and low rods and the part I like most, sliding wire baskets for sweaters and underwear. After we started using it my husband moved completely out of this closet and over to the small closet on the other side of the room (Woo! Hoo!) so even though I have a dresser out in the bedroom I really don't use it except to store out of season clothes.

My other closets are fairly organized. I only have a few closets to begin with and I keep them clean and lean!