Month: April 2020

Deconstructed – Easy Closet Design with Hanging Shelves and Shoe Storage

Sometimes we want a little more structure in our closets without the total confinement of custom shelves and DIY organizer units. This very basic closet setup featured on Real Simple shows us how we can achieve a very clean, easy-to-maintain aesthetic by adding just a few organizing products. Let’s deconstruct it!

What You’ll Need:

How-To:

Similar to doing a new hairstyle, closet organization projects have the best results when completed in a freshly cleaned, purged closet. Once you have determined the items you would like to keep in the closet, dusted any built-in shelves, and cleaned the floors, you can achieve the above-pictured organized closet design by following these steps:

1. Position your shoe rack in the corner of your choice. The two-tier wooden shoe rack listed above is designed to store six to eight pairs of shoes while the available three-tier option can store up to 12 pairs. Depending on the size of your closet, you may be able to fit more than one shoe rack if you have more shoes. In a standard, reach-in closet, I generally recommend positioning shoe racks against a wall or directly in a corner with the most frequently-worn shoes positioned on the side of the rack that is closest to the closet entrance for easier access.

2. Position your fabric hanging shelf to one side of your closet rod. Inside the fabric shelf, you can store small items like scarves, socks, tights, and folded t-shirts. Adding the optional drawers makes the fabric shelf more suitable for storing intimate apparel or items you don’t need to access throughout the year like hats, gloves, and earmuffs. I recommend using the drawers to store items you would prefer to have out of sight. However, it is also important that you remember what you decide to store in the drawers. Otherwise, you may unknowingly go out and purchase duplicates. If you are afraid you won’t remember what’s stored in the drawers, feel free to add discrete labels.

On the open shelf, I recommend sticking to items you can neatly fold. Alternatively, you can also store items that do not require folding like a few small handbags and clutches or perhaps a few stackable hats. Whatever you decide to store on the open shelf, be sure you are able to maintain the appearance of these items.

3. Decide which clothing items you would like to keep on hangers, and transfer them over to the wood hangers. The closet in the photo only shows tops on hangers. However, in the supply list, I’ve recommended sturdier wood hangers that will allow you to also fold pants over the bottom rung. While these hangers are a little bulkier than some other styles like the popular slim velvet hangers, the hangers I’ve selected will give your closet a more upscale retail aesthetic. They also feature notches that will allow you to secure tops that have very thin straps and are more prone to slipping off of standard hangers.

To achieve the color scheme pictured above, start by positioning your white tops on the left side, and gradually add tops of darker colors as you move rightward, carefully keeping clothing within each color group together. Beginning with your white tops on the far left side will also help prevent color transfer onto your light-colored clothes. If you would like to include pants in this particular closet layout, I would recommend putting them on hangers and keeping them together in a separate section further to the right and also organized by color. You can also check out my post on my quick, go-to color-coordinating closet-organizing strategy.

4. Lastly, place your small hamper adjacent to your shoe rack on the opposite side of the closet. I recommend keeping the hamper in a position within the closet that will allow fresh air circulation if possible. Place the wire cube bin onto your closet’s upper shelf to create easy storage for lint rollers, fabric sprays, fashion tape, and other closet supplies.

Now, step back and admire your work. We did it!

Once again, the following supplies can be found at Amazon and delivered conveniently to your home. Thank you for supporting me by purchasing through my affiliate links:

Stay tuned as we deconstruct more picture-perfect spaces and learn how to make them our own!

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Deconstructed – Add Drawer Storage to Your Closet

New Yorkers are well aware of the space constrains that sometimes mandate improvisation when it comes to choosing storage furniture. But space constraints exist in a variety of cities and settings. Whether your bedroom simply cannot accommodate a sufficiently-sized dresser, or if you prefer a more affordable, less permanent way of storing folded items, I’m here to help! I deconstructed a popular photo that was posted on Pinterest by Popsugar to help you recreate the look and functionality of the flexible closet storage solution pictured below:

How To:

Supply List:

Procedure

Start by purchasing all the required materials. To achieve the look in the photo, you may choose an organizing cart with wheels or one without wheels. You will need two of them if you would like double-sided storage. While the photo utilizes a stationary cart, I prefer to use wheeled carts when adding storage to closets. Wheeled storage carts can easily be rolled out of place for cleaning. They also provide easy mobility in the event your  storage needs change and you would like to reposition the cart or if you would like to use the storage cart in another area in your home.

Use The Top Drawers for Your Smallest Items

The top drawer is shallower than the remaining three. Therefore, it is best suited for storing underwear, socks, headbands, and other small items. To replicate the top drawers in the photo, you will need to make two grids. Assemble your drawer divider strips to create the number of slots you will need to accommodate the items you would like to store. Once constructed, insert an assembled grid into the top drawer of each cart.

The remaining drawers can be configured as needed. Two packs of fabric drawer organizers will give you more than enough organizers to divide among all the drawers.

Organizing The Right Side

To achieve the configuration on the right side of the photo, remove one of your three lower drawers, leaving two lower, larger drawers in your cart. Between your two packages of fabric drawer organizers, you should have a total of four small 5.5-inch x 5.5-inch cube organizers. For bra storage similar to the photo, place four small cubes into the second drawer. Fold your bras in half, and “nest” them together into four small groups. Place each nested group into the four fabric cube organizers.

To create a similar configuration to that of the third, and bottom, drawer on the right, use the rectangular fabric organizers. The sizing of the rectangular bins is perfect for leggings, scarves, or hand and face towels. Simply roll each item neatly, and place each roll side-by-side in the fabric organizer.

Organizing The Left Side

To achieve the look on the left side of the photo, leave all three of the lower, larger drawers in place. This will create a four-drawer configuration, including the shallow top drawer. On the second level, if you would like to create neat rows of stored items similar to the photo, use your remaining fabric organizers to neatly roll and arrange the items.

In the photo, the middle and bottom lower drawers on the left side house larger towels. They can also accommodate sweaters, jeans, t-shirts, and other items that easily fold into a rectangular shape. You may also opt to use your leftover fabric organizers to store smaller items that fit can neatly fit inside them.

All the products you need to create this look can be ordered from Amazon through the enclosed affiliate links (thanks for your support!):

If you are considering trying this closet configuration or if you would like to see another organize photo deconstructed and broken down into step-by-step instructions, let me know in the comments below!