The truth is most homes are not gifted with enormous walk-in closets and private dressing rooms. In truth, a lot of homes have small closets that get easily cluttered and disorganized. Especially hall closets, and the closets in children’s bedrooms.
It can be frustrating to try to keep it all tidy and organized one day. Only to open the door the next day to find everything has reverted into a disheveled mess, jammed together in ways that can’t be described by our modern understanding of geometry.
In a time like this, a lot of people resort to drastic downsizing in hopes of reducing the inventory in that closet. While holding onto something for 10 seconds and asking yourself if you really need it might sound like a feng shui, you’ll probably regret tossing your kid’s baseball mitt tomorrow.
So, before you do something too drastic, you might want to try a few of the following tips for making the most out of the small closets in your home.
Make The Most Out Of Corner Storage
Corners are some of the least used spaces in any closet or bedroom. They’re just sort of there, holding the two walls together at a joint. Yet corner shelves are easy to install. You can put them in a small walk-in closet or hall closet to give you more storage space. You can even install them in the room itself as a display spot for mementos that might otherwise be buried by the rest of the closet contents.
Install Shelf Dividers
Disorganization is a thief when it comes to making the most out of your available small closet space. When you can’t quickly find something on a shelf, it tends to get scrambled like eggs. This just makes the disorganization worse and worse for all the things around it on that shelf.
Installing shelf dividers forces you to be disciplined enough to keep everything in its proper place. It also encourages your family members to put things back where they belong. All while keeping everything neat, tidy, and easy to find. The couple of square inches you give up for the dividers will be made up by the easy organization.
Use The Back of Your Closet’s Door
The backside of a closet door is one of those less thought-of spaces that actually offers up a lot of vertical real estate. It’s a great place to hang a mirror. You might also consider adding hooks to the interior side to hang necklaces, scarves, and other lightweight items. If you have a fair amount of space between the back of the door and the shelves when the door is closed, you might want to use small bins to keep small, loose items organized.
Give Your Shoes Their Own Space
Are you someone who needs to have the perfect pair of shoes for any occasion? If so, then chances are good you’ve had a few times when you were overwhelmed by the task of trying to keep all those tasteful pairs properly organized.
Installing shoe cubbies into a closet lets you give every pair of shoes its own dedicated spot. It also makes them much easier to find the perfect pair at a glance. If you’re trying to organize a hall or entryway closet, might want to also think about moving the majority of your shoes elsewhere. Then just keep two of three utility pairs near the main door to your house.
Install a Pull-Down Shelf
Do you have a small closet that is blessed with tall ceilings? If so, you can make the most out of that excess vertical space, by installing a pull-down shelf. Some use a spring-loaded system or a special mechanical crank to help you bring the shelf down where it’s easy to access.
You can then use this pull-down shelf as a place to store seasonal items in sealable heavy-duty tote bins. You might even be able to install a hanger rod under the shelf to let you keep seasonal clothing items like winter jackets, sweaters, and suit jackets.
Install Adjustable Shelves
The truth is, the storage needs of most of your closets are going to change with the seasons. Especially if we’re talking about hall closets and entryway closets, or linen closets that are also used to store comforters.
Installing adjustable shelves lets you make the most out of the vertical space in your closet as the season changes. There are tons of different systems to consider from metal brackets to dowels and more. Each lets you add or remove shelves as the season demands.
Move Seasonal Storage Elsewhere
Seasonal storage items can be suffocating. Especially if you’re trying to store winter jackets, sweaters, and decorations in the same closet where you keep your summer items. When two drastically different seasons start rubbing elbows, they will inevitably start to mix, causing more chaos than it’s worth.
Rather than letting winter and summer items have a spat, consider setting up seasonal storage space elsewhere in the house. This might come in the form of shallow long totes that will slide under your guest bed to store winter coats or heavy-duty sealed stackable totes for summer swimming items that can tower in your basement or garage.
Install Pull-Out Wire Baskets
Wire baskets are all the rage, and you often find them integrated with wheeled carts and stackable tubular towers. Though the latest and arguably greatest way to use them in a closet is to install them on pull-out drawer rails under a shelf. They are perfect for older closets where the shelves are static and there’s no good way to install adjustable shelves.
Under-shelf pull-out wire baskets let you put lightweight items where they are easy to see and find. When you need something, the basket is easy to pull out and push back in. Perfect for making the most out of the vertical storage space in a closet that might not let you add an extra shelf or two.
Clean Out & Rotate Seasonally
Putting away the outgoing season’s items and pulling out the incoming seasonal items can be a bit hectic. Especially when the weather seems like it can’t make up its mind. Though once the new season does finally settle in, be sure to set aside some time to properly organize all your small closets for the months ahead.
The extra hour or two it takes to do this will pay for itself in time saved by not having to rummage through a disorderly, disheveled small closet.
