Your Closets, Drawers, Shelves

Rearranging your closets (or, wardrobe cabinets) can make a big difference, both in gaining space and in easing the frustration of finding items.

For example, you can move the horizontal rod for clothes hangers high enough to allow for use of the floor space underneath. You might hang all your long garments at one end of the rod. Shorter garments, such as shirts, suits and blouses, could go at the other end. Underneath the short garments you now have considerable free space. One young married couple found this an excellent place to put a chest of drawers.

As for closet shelves, shallow ones hung on the back of a closet door (or, cupboard door) may prove to be practical. They allow for things to be out where you can easily find them. Similarly, a shoe rack on the back of the closet door can help to eliminate the crawl-around-the-closet-floor search for them. And you may find that narrow shelves around the walls of closets are more useful than deep shelves, as you can see things and get to them more easily.

Special consideration may be needed for your small child’s closet. If you put the clothes bar down low, he can hang up his own clothes. You may also find it practical to give him a colorful wooden box on wheels or casters, perhaps painted as a house or a garage​—a “home” for his toys. Your little one can then be encouraged to pull it out, fill it and push it back into the closet.

It is good to make full use of any drawers you have or can add. They are usually better than shelves. In drawers, things are kept cleaner and usually you can more easily see and grasp the item you want. Sometimes deep shelves can be given “drawer convenience” by storing items in racks or trays that you can pull out. Also, if your shelves are deep, strive to put similar items behind one another. They will be easier to find. That is, try to place cans of beans behind cans of beans or the same kind of drinking glasses or cups behind one another.

Sometimes there is a hallway that dead-ends, going beyond the last door. Might this vacant space be turned into a helpful closet? Also, take a look upward. Is there space above the door of a closet? Some people use this space for a shelf, with a curtain over the front of it for the sake of appearance.