If your closet is so jam packed with clothes it looks as though everything would stay upright without the aid of a hanging rod, it’s time to wade in and stop the madness. Cleaning and rehabilitating your closet can be a freeing experience, and one that you can do on the cheap. The task may look overwhelming, but that’s just fear talking. With less than $100 and a weekend, you can reclaim your closet—and everything important in it.
Step One? Empty The Closet
Dragging everything out of the closet is the hardest part of a makeover. Don’t try to sort as you go. Just place everything in a nearby location.
Grab the vacuum and attack those closet dwelling dust bunnies and layers of dirt along baseboards. Your efforts will also help banish spiders and eliminate carpet beetles and other pest larvae. Leave the floor space in your new closet makeover accessible for easy cleaning going forward.
Carpet beetles can destroy wool garments, and you won’t necessarily see them coming. For a sweet smelling closet that discourages pests, add lavender sachets, or sprinkle dried lavender blossoms on the floor.
Sort, Give Away, Discard
Now that the closet is empty, it’s time to go through all your belongings and organize them into manageable categories, like items to: keep in the closet, relocate, give away or throw away. Eliminate clothes you haven’t worn in the last 12 months and other items you haven’t used in the last couple of years. It can be painful in the short term, but transformative!
Measure
Taking measurements of your closet and making note of the type of door or doors you’re working with will help you organize the space later. You’ll want to know the measurements: front to back, side-to-side, left from the door frame to the wall, right from the door frame to the wall and from the floor to the ceiling.
Paint
Once your closet is empty and clean, it won’t take long to realize it needs some serious rehab. Scuffed walls, hanger scratches, faded paint and a dingy ceiling can make the space look downright drab. You can pick up a can of paint for pennies, especially if you visit one of the big home improvement stores and ask for their bargain paint. This is typically paint that was purchased and returned because the buyer didn’t like the color. You may end up with a shade you didn’t plan on, but you’ll pay next to nothing.
Whether you opt for bargain paint, or go full price to get the shade you want, prefer water-based latex paints to oil based, enamel paints. They’re easier to apply, dry faster, produce less odor and clean up more easily.
Update The Lighting
If it’s been years since you got a good look at the back of your closet, bad lighting may be part of the problem. Good illumination will help you find things more easily and avoid fashion faux pas, too.
New style bulbs can help eliminate the problem without the high heat associated with incandescent light. That means you get brighter light, a somewhat less stuffy closet and cooler clothes (temperature wise, anyway) for your energy dollar. You may pay a little more for new style light bulbs, but besides being energy efficient, they last longer, too.
Customize
The easiest way to ensure you end up with the right type of storage is to configure the space with the items you want to store in mind. For example, if you want to corral your child’s toys, add easy access bins that will help get playtime cleared away quickly and easily. Business attire would benefit from a mix of long and short hanging rods. A hat collection could be tucked into a series of vertical shelves, and a large assortment of shoes could be arrayed on wire racks, in over-the-door pouches and on wall mounted, tilted shelving. When it comes to other areas of a home, fashion may rule, but in a closet, form follows function.
Your first choice might be a modular closet solution from a popular manufacturer, but there are other options. Conventional closet storage can get expensive, but similar items are sometimes offered for less, either as office storage, garage organizers, or kitchen storage solutions.
Once you know how you want to arrange your closet, and have the right measurements to work with, you can exercise some latitude in the way you source individual components like shelves, baskets, hooks and bins. Browse options from office supply sites as well as large home improvement retailers in multiple departments (closet organizers, bathroom, garage). You’ll discover prices can vary quite a bit for similar items.
Add Door Storage
Over the door storage makes use of the dead space at the entrance to a closet. Although shoes are the most common items stored this way, there are lots of other possibilities. Pouch units available for under $20 can hold crafting supplies, toiletries, socks, folded scarves, rolled belts and other small or relatively flat items. Sturdy, solid doors can even accommodate organizers on both the front and back.
Go Seasonal
Using a seasonal storage strategy makes good sense if your closet space is limited but you have plenty of room in a garage, basement or attic. Stow away those heavy coats in the summer to free up space. To help organize, products like vacuum storage bags help protect and reduce the volume of bulky articles like sweaters, comforters, blankets, pillows and bedspreads.
Add Overhead Storage
There are a number of outsized items that can fit in the shallow area near the ceiling of a closet space and be secured with the addition of shelves, wire supports or hanging hooks. It’s a great space for wrapping paper tubes, but can also accommodate umbrellas, vacuum storage bags and flat items like scrapbooks.
Get Creative
When it comes to storage, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Take your luggage, for instance, which takes up a lot of potentially useful closet space. Use your luggage to stow seasonal items, folded clothing like tees or smallish objects (crafting tools, backup hosiery) that can be removed easily when you do plan on traveling.
Reinventing your belongings as backup storage creates some interesting possibilities. Those handbags look beguiling hanging from hooks on your newly painted closet walls, but maybe they can do more than reflect your good taste. Could they become a new home for your belts or scarves, or a hidey hole for items you want to keep nearby but out of sight?
You can also use non-closet aids to stretch your storage dollar. Install a tension shower curtain rod low along the closet’s short wall to hold light items like scarves, or employ a sturdy curtain rod with a center support for somewhat heavier items. Add cup or utility hooks to hold belts or even jewelry and finish off with a wall or door mounted kitchen cooling rack to hang ties.
