Where do you keep your clothes?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I need a clothes storage makeover. </p>

<p>I’ve got a five drawer dresser in which all the drawers are the same size and none of them open or close easily. Consequently I tend to pile folded clothes on top of it until I have time to wrestle with the drawers. My mother gave it to me when I first moved out on my own, like 45 years ago–it’s an antique and not bad looking. I’m willing to give it the heave-ho as I’ve recently liberated myself from keeping things my mother gave me with the realization that she gave it to me because she didn’t want it. But I don"t know what to get instead.</p>

<p>I have a fairly big closet but it’s awkwardly laid out, just one door and deep, but not big enough to walk in. It’s possible that some sort of closet organizer system could help, but I don’t think I’m in the California Closets league.</p>

<p>So where/how do you keep your clothes? What furniture or system works for you?</p>

2

<p>Check out Ikea. H built a whole closet for me from Ikea, with drawers, shelfs for handbags, shoe rack and overhead lighting. This closet is along a whole wall in our bedroom.</p>

3

<p>I have a set of white coated wire drawers in my closet. My whole closet is wire shelves that my husband put in for me to my specifications. I have two shelves most of the the way around three sides. The lower shelf holds folded jeans, and folded sweaters. The drawer thing has six drawers. It holds socks, underwear, turtlenecks, t-shirts, scarves…the things one would usually put in a dresser. </p>

<p>I have two hanging racks in the closet…one about below the lower shelf, and one below the upper shelf. Slacks, jackets and blouses are hung there. There is a small section of the closet where the upper rack is the only one…that is for dresses.</p>

<p>The upper shelf is for out of season things. I just moved my shorts, capris, bathing suits and short sleeve shirts up…and bright the colder weather clothes down.</p>

<p>So what is in my dresser…the one with the sticky drawers like the one you have? Table linens. Placemats, cloth napkins, table runners, tablecloths.</p>

4

<p>We’re getting an Ikea here! But not till fall of 2014. </p>

<p>So how hard is it to design the closet organizer things? Is it a DIY sort of thing?</p>

5

<p>You can order Ikea online.
<a href=“Products - IKEA”>Products - IKEA;

6

<p>I have two large drawers and two small drawers in my half of the dresser which is used for socks, underwear, and pajamas/sweatpants. Then I have half of a walk in closet with some shelves… It’s laid out kind of poorly so that apart from the shelves it’s no bigger than a standard double closet. I fold jeans and workout clothes and they go on the shelves, other clothes get hung up on hangers. I have a wire crate on the floor full of folded t shirts. </p>

<p>We have three little sections in our closet and we each get one, and the third is for outerwear. We have no front closet. :(</p>

7

<p>Wellspring…the IKEA closets are very very nice. I believe they are not something that goes into an already existing closet, but rather ARE closets…but they are terrific if you have the room.</p>

<p>Re: “designing your own”…really, I knew what I wanted. I wanted drawers, double rods, double shelves, a place for shoes and purses. My husband came along for the ride to Home Depot where we bought it all. he had the measurements!</p>

<p>I think if I were doing it again, I would not get the white wire things…I’d go with solid shelves and such. But the white ones really are fine…and give me the storage space I need.</p>

<p>Of course, it would help if I got rid of some of the clothes and shoes!</p>

8

<p>thumper - I’m so jealous. I keep looking at all those doo-dads at Home Depot and wishing I could have it. I am the closest thing to a do-it-yourselfer in my house and I’m not so bad at it but I have no funds to buy anything.</p>

<p>Wellspring - I end up keeping my clothes on the floor of the closet and on the bed in the spare room. Luckily I don’t have many clothes but I have the same dresser problem only mine came from my mother-in-law.</p>

9

<p>Is there somewhere else in the house where the dresser can go, and you can get a functional one?
We did the Container Store shelves, drawers, shelves and such in our closet. It’s amazing but pricy. But, if there is a store near you, take your closet measurements in and see what they can come up with. You could do it in parts, or part of their plan and part via Home Depot.</p>

10

<p>Lowe’s had a thing where you put in the dimensions of your closet and you clicked off what you wanted most of - drawers, shelves, long hanging, short hanging, etc and they offered up options and then every piece you needed to buy.</p>

<p>Hubby installed it for us. I wouldn’t have the skills to put it all together and it was a little trying for him, but luckily he has tools and knows how to wield that electric saw when the pole was too long.</p>

<p>I don’t care for the wire racks to hang clothes, so I got the pressed board. It made a pretty tight space pretty livable. </p>

<p>I also finally got bedroom furniture a few years ago. We have this big dresser that’s really 3 pieces and I pretty much took over 2/3 of it. It has the big wide drawers for shirts, jammies, etc and the side drawers are smaller that I have the undies, bras, socks, etc in separate drawers. We also had a stackable washer dryer in our room in a closet that I didn’t like and was a fire hazard and hubby retrofitted that to be a shoe closet for me.</p>

11

<p>I like our IKEA white tall boxes with wire drawers at adjustable heights. I also had reasonable improvement of stacked bulky sweaters on top closet shelf by putting plastic egg crate carriers up there, facing out not up. The crates divide the sweater piles and keep them from sliding around. Also the top of those crates makes a new very high shelf, useful for out-of-season small items (winter gloves or swimwear) put into small clear plastic bags.</p>

<p>A good use for old dressers with tough drawers is up in the attic or basement to hold old photos, kids art and report cards that do nothing for anybody except scream, “organize me someday.” It’s not fireproof, however.</p>

12

<p>I finally broke down and had a Container Store closet designed for my closet space, which makes it MUCH more efficient.</p>

13

<p>Ahhh, having one of those closet systems is on my to-do list…for someday. Right now we have builder grade wire shelves which do not have the free slide. Therefore hangers can only travel so far, 12"?, before they hit the next support. I hate that and wire shelves. Our bathroom closet has the…wire shelves. Nothing stands on wire shelves but towels.</p>

<p>H has about 65% of closet space. I do have the Walmart type plastic thing that hangs from closet rod and makes about 4 sections going down. Tshirts, shorts and shoes in there. I have very few clothes and they are at the extremes–professional type work clothes or crappy sweatpants and t shirts.</p>

<p>I also have the dressers with drawers that stink. From my mother… She’s queen of acting like she’s doing you a favor/really getting rid of her junk :)</p>

14

<p>I have to add… I bought my old oak dresser and I LOVE it. Reading this thread makes me think I should NEVER offer it to any of my kids. It is a beautiful oak set with carved drawers…dresser and commode night stand. It was the second piece of furniture I bought when I got my first apartment.</p>

<p>My mother had REAL junk…it got donated!</p>