Closet Layouts for Small Spaces
During my usual evening scroll on Facebook, a friend posed a question that piqued my interest. Jeans: should they be folded or hung? Resoundingly the majority of the answers were to fold… ahh, so I wasn’t alone! Fortunately, my closet is designed with a wall of shelves about five feet across floor to ceiling, giving me plenty of room to stack my folded jeans, as well as other items of clothing.
I’m lucky to have all that space, but it won’t be for forever. That Facebook post about folding or hanging made think about the downsizing that my husband and I are dreaming about and what it means for my next closet. Yes, I’m fully aware that it may seem trite to consider closet design in the midst of a pandemic, but hey, it gives me something else to focus on.
I know I’ll need to get rid of some of the clothes that are currently populating my shelves. After all, that’s what downsizing is about. While Marie Kondo, the famous organizing consultant, isn’t my “best friend,” I’m sure I’ll get to know her well as I go through the process of preparing for smaller spaces.
To get an idea of how much downsizing I’ll actually have to do, I decided to research what closets are like in condo or multifamily new-builds these days. Fortunately, Schooley Caldwell is designing a lot of them, so I went to our interior designer, Susan Schwartz, to find out what I can expect.
“The closet size we’re seeing some owners request in our multifamily buildings is certainly smaller than most single-family home walk-ins, so your space will definitely shrink,” Susan told me. The good news, she added, is that “the space is designed efficiently by using different options for storage, such as double tiered rods, along with a few stackable cubes or drawers and hooks on the back of the doors.”
I like the idea of options, so I asked Susan for a little more information on what that means. She shared three typical closet layouts with me that she’s designing in many of our residential buildings. Here they are:
Closet Layout #1
Section for hanging longer items
Sections for up & down hanging items
(2) 9” deep drawers
(2) 12” deep drawers
24” tall open shelf
12” tall open shelves
Enclosed shelves
Closet Layout #2
Section for shoes
Sections for up & down hanging items
6” deep drawers
12” deep drawers
9” tall open shelf
12” tall open shelves
Closet Layout #3
Section for up & down hanging items
6” deep drawers
(6) 12” deep drawers
(8) 12” tall open shelf
9” tall open shelf
