When it comes to closets, it seems that small closets are the bane of many home-owners existence. So to address that problem, I decided that I would write a post about the problems and solutions with small closet organization. It is a common problem that has been written about many times before, but the problem still persists. If you just need a little encouragement to get you started, or if you need a ‘how to organize small closets’ tutorial, then here is your guide.
Small Closet Organization Problems
Let’s start with the problems that you are typically faced with when you have disorganized closets. Perhaps it has more to do with the closets themselves rather than your organizing habits. On the other hand, there could be problems with the amount of stuff that you subconsciously think can be properly stored in the closets. Let’s take a look at each of these potential problems.
Not Enough Closets
I myself have a lovely large 3 storey Century old Victorian house. It has 4 bedrooms, but sadly each bedroom comes with a teeny tiny closet which barely holds my shoes and a few coats. As beautiful as the house is, the storage situation is dismal at best. I bet that a lot of people are in this same situation, either because they have an older house, or there was just a lack of planning when the bedrooms and living spaces were designed.
Too Small Closets
This point usually goes hand in hand with the previous problem of having too few closets. Generally if a house has been designed with a minimal number of closets, those closets have probably also been skimped on and are way undersized as well. Most people aren’t willing to do any structural changes to increase the size of their closets, so the only solutions are to add other storage space, or re-design the way you are using the existing small closets.
Poorly Designed Closets
Especially in older homes, sometimes closets have simply been poorly designed. This could be from any number of design flaws, some of which are fixable, others less fixable. If you have a fairly wide closet with a tiny door, it makes the corners of the closet in accessible. On the other hand, some closets were designed without a hanging rod, or without any type of shelving at all. This greatly limits the utility of the closet. With such a closet design, you will probably end up storing only a few large items, or you will end up stacking things up on top of each other, making it impossible to reach all but the last few items stored in the closet without having to completely remove everything first, and then repack the closet once you’ve found the item you were looking for. And putting things back is exactly the same procedure – unpack closet, put thing back in bin, repack entire closet. For this reason I think this is the most deadly type of closet organization problem. It inherently leads to things not being put away, or if they are put away they are stored for good. At this point your closets are not really being used as functional closets, but as a type of self-storage, where you may not see the things you stored away perhaps for years.
Other times the poor design is because of badly placed closet shelving. For example I have a shallow closet with a short door, and the overhead shelf was installed too high. So it is very awkward to put things on this shelf, as there is very little room between the front of the shelf and the front of the closet. It limits the size of objects that I am able to get on the shelf, as well as how high I can stack items, because it is impossible to get more items through the narrow space once there are already things on the shelves.
Lack Of A Closet Shelving System
This is an extension of the poorly designed closet problem. If there is no closet shelving system at all in your closet, then it becomes impossible to store more than a few big items, or alternatively you end up with a lot of bins or boxes stacked on top of each other. If you are going to have a good closet organization system, then it is essential that you can easily store and access many items of many sizes.
Too Much Stuff In Each Closet
The problems discussed so far have mostly been structural or design problems, which you can do little to change in them-selves. You can make compensations for such problems, but the inherent problem will still exist. However, the issue of ‘too much stuff for my closets’ is a common problem which actually CAN be changed. With the right mind-set and some encouragement you can easily fix this problem. Then along with some other storage solutions such as bins or adjustable shelving, you will soon be on your way to being an organizing guru.
People Have More Stuff Today
I just wanted to mention this aspect of organizing that many people aren’t aware of. The fact is, with the invention of big box stores and the global economy; it is easier and cheaper than ever to acquire a lot of stuff. And no matter how much new stuff you seem to acquire, it is not always coincident with getting rid of the old stuff. People have more hobbies, and for each hobby there is equipment, books, magazines, clothing – all of this stuff will eventually be stored in a closet, waiting for the return of the hobbies season, or as is more common than not, waiting for someone else to take up the hobby, because the original hobbyist decided they didn’t actually love the hobby as much as they thought, or a new hobby appeared and took its place. However it ends up happening, it just seems that the trend these days is for people to cram their lives full of activities, hobbies, sports, or work. And for each of these things there is a requisite amount of activity related stuff. Whether this is a weight bench, a stack of exercise videos and a closet full of work out gear, or a home computer, a fancy briefcase and luggage set, and a closet full of work clothes.
Small Closet Organization Solutions
Now that we’ve talked about all of the problems that are prevalent with small closet organization, we’ll talk a bit about some ways you can organize small closets.
Reduce Clutter
The first closet organization tip I have for you is to get rid of all the stuff that you really will never end up using ever again. This can be anything from old clothes that you just never wear anymore, either because they’ve been replaced with newer nicer clothes, or (gasp) they just don’t fit anymore. In either case, you really should get rid of them. If you find you don’t wear old clothes because they are replaced with newer clothes you like better, well, the fact is you are never going to wear the old clothes again. Soon your newest clothes are going to be replaced as well, and your pile of old clothes will continue to grow and grow. If you actually got rid of everything but your useful clothes, you would find that you have a lot less clutter taking up valuable storage space, and you would probably also find that it lightens your stress about having so much stuff you don’t know what to do with.
Reorganize Contents Of All Closets
Another task that many people don’t think about doing when they are getting their closet organization under control, is to make sure that each closet has a clear purpose, and the contents of each closet are appropriate for their location, and the contents of the closet are for the most part related. One of the biggest issues I have with organization of any sort is not knowing where to find things, or not knowing where things should go. If there is one spot for all camping stuff, then it is easy to find it, but more importantly, it is easy to put it away after you’ve come home from a weekend camping trip and need to pack away your packing gear so you are not tripping over it in the garage for the next month.
Reorganize Contents Of Each Closet
After you have taken apart all your closets and made sure that each closet now has a clear purpose – for example, the winter coats are all in one spot close to the entrance, rather than having half your jackets in the hall closet and half your coats in the bedroom closet. Now that you have your closet design plan all set up so that everything is organized by type, you can further refine this organizing plan so that you put less used items further back, and more frequently used items closer to the front.
Add Shelving Or Closet Organizers
The next way to organize tiny closets to make more effective use of space is to find a suitable closet organizer. Depending on the size of your closet, this may be a handmade collection of adjustable shelves, hanging bars, and perhaps a pull out drawer or two. Or it may be a complete closet organizer system designed for the size of closet that you have to work with. Either way, having properly sized shelves, bars and hooks for the items that you have to store will make a big difference in the amount of items that you can effectively store. If you don’t have the right sized shelves for your items, then you might end up shoving all sorts of things on top of and in front of each other, and you will end up just like before not being able to easily access more than half of your closet items. On the other hand, if you install more shelves for small items, you can line everything up in a row so that you can access everything without having to move other things out of the way.
Make Use Of All Available Space
Another little used design trick in for organizing small closets is to use all available space. The most often overlooked space that could be used is the back of the door. There are special hanging wire organizers designed to hook over the back of your door which allow you to organize a lot of smaller items that would normally just clutter up the main part of the closet. Perhaps the most commonly used version of these type of storage systems are those hanging shoe organizers, where you have a pocket for each shoe. These sorts of closet organizers may be retro, but they sure are effective in using space that would not otherwise be used in a small closet. And that is the bottom line when it comes to organizing the little closet space that you have to work with. Make use of every square inch, and make it accessible. That becomes a skill in itself, to make all the available space in your closet accessible. Otherwise you will just end up unpacking and repacking your closet every time you want to find something, like we talked about at the beginning of this article.
Use A Closet Organizing System
Using a closet organizing system in this example doesn’t mean getting a closet organizer – what I mean by this is to make a plan to organize your belongings, and stick to that plan. So if you want to put all yellow items in one closet, and all red items in a different closet, that is a plan that will work as long as you stick to it. Probably a more effective plan would be to keep all your sports gear in one or maybe two closets, and make sure not to put any sports equipment anywhere but these locations. Once you have a plan in place, keep to the plan and you will always know where to store things and find things. Having an organization plan is the same thing as having a closet organization system.
Hopefully I’ve been able to give you some good information to get you inspired to finally figure out the problems you have with your small closets, and some of the ideas in this post will finally help you solve your small closet organization problems.