Closet Organizers

Closet organizers are one of those things that have been provided as a solution to the age old problems of wasted closet space and disorganized bedroom closets. Whether it’s a walk in closet, a small closet or a closet for baby clothes, the custom design storage system ideas that come as part and parcel of a closet organizer are sure to assist even the most disorganized person. I’m sure everyone has been through the situation where their closet is made up of many pairs of shoes strewn about the floor of the closet along with a range of clothing hung along the rail at the top on coat hangers. This has left a great deal of space unused between the closet floor and the bottom of the hanging clothes. This situation is further exacerbated when the hanging clothes include a number of shirts, blouses and pants that only take up half of the vertical space compared to coats that reach closer to the floor. Some people attempt a makeshift solution to this problem by stacking a few packing boxes in the bottom of the cupboard in an attempt to use some of the wasted space for storage. There are a couple of problems with this. Once items of clothing have been stored in those boxes, it’s not long before the storage boxes’ contents have been forgotten and so they are rarely opened again. In fact the top storage box may be opened occasionally but even this is unlikely because it requires removing the lid of the storage box and then the contents have to be sorted through to see if what you want is there. Boxes underneath the top box are almost never checked because they require the additional step of unstacking the boxes above.

Some people have tried using a small bedside table or bedside set of two or three drawers. This adds a small amount of vertical space and even more if using the set of drawers, but even this does not maximize the available space because neither is custom made to fit in the closet. At this point a closet organizer comes to the rescue.

Closet Organizer Systems

It is safe to say that closet organizing has almost become an art form of its own. Closet organizer systems come in a variety of forms with two of the most common being based around a modular format that houses different methods of closet organization. These methods can be simply broken down into hanging space, drawers, shelving, shoe racks and storage cabinets. The first involves a frame that is fastened to the back of the closet and has different attachments that clip in to this frame and protrude outwards. The position of these frames effectively determines the width of each storage area. Hanging rails, shelves and walls can then be hung from the protruding attachments to create specific spaces within the closet. The second method uses more of a flat pack approach where actual prefabricated cupboard walls of different sizes are provided and shelving or rails are used to secure two walls to each other creating the storage space in between. In this case, the width of the shelves and rails determines the width of the storage area. As more storage areas are required within the closet, a new set of shelves are added to the other side of the wall and an additional wall added at the end.

Once the decision has been made as to which of the above methods is going to be used, the next decision is how best to use the storage space in terms of the methods of organization. For instance, one method might simply be a hanging rail that clips into the frame. Because the rail can clip in at different heights, the placement of the rail can be customized according to the needs of the user. For example, one user may have many long dresses and coats so that they require a large area for these long hanging items. Another person may have many shirts, blouses and low rise jeans or tummy tuck jeans requiring more short hanging space. This person could place two rails, one at the top of the closet and one half way down effectively doubling their hanging space. Another method may entail having several shelves spaced closely together that can be used for different types of clothing like shorts, jumpers, leather gloves and t-shirts. Alternatively a set of drawers that connect into the frame might be inserted for placing socks and underpants. The drawers can be part of either a wood or wire closet organizer. Finally a shoe rack or closet shoe organizer may be used for organizing every pair of shoes so that they don’t end up all sitting in a jumble at the bottom of the closet.

While drawers, hanging rails and shoe racks have specific purposes, shelving can provide additional benefits above and beyond their initial offering. For example they can be spaced in such a way that storage boxes can be slid snugly into them. Often cane or plastic storage boxes with a handle are used for this purpose and make it easier to get to the items at the back of the shelf. Shelves that are located high in the closet often lend themselves to storing items that are seldom used because of the difficulty of reaching them. In this case the shelves are perfect for storing gift bags, gift boxes and even packing boxes.

The above closet organizers are usually created in a completely empty space within a closet so that the storage requirements can be completely customized to meet all of the owners needs. There are many people though who will have a closet that already has preexisting storage solutions that do not meet all of the needs of the owner. In this case a hanging closet organizer can improve the situation. One of these includes fabric storage drawers or shelves. I’ve used the ones provided by Ikea and found them to be excellent. These are threaded onto one of the hanging rails in the closet and drop down to produce several fabric shelves with a fabric wall on either side. This is perfect for creating additional shelving space and two or more can be hung side by side if the hanging space they require is not needed. Along similar lines a fabric shoe rack can be threaded onto a hanging rail to create up to ten places for shoes to be hung.