A reach-in closet is one that is shallow, with a wide front opening. Most come equipped with a long hanging bar that is about eight feet long. If you’re lucky, there will be a shelf above that. Unless you come up with a plan, then this style of closet will always hold only hanging clothes and not much else.
One big convenience of the reach-in closet is the wide open doorway. This gives you access to a lot of square footage that would have ended up hidden in a standard or walk in closet. You can utilize the space underneath your clothes by installing drawers, bins, shelves and shoe racks.
Your goal should be to determine how much square footage you can free up. It doesn’t really matter if it is a big walk-in or a regular closet, because square footage is square footage. See what happens if you hang all of your shortest garments on one end. Does it create more space below? What if you moved the top shelf and bar up? Does that help to use some of that ceiling space that normally goes to waste? What if you move the bar back closet to the back wall? Do you now have more room in the front corners? Be creative and think outside of the box when you are trying to make space.
Another tip is to think about more than what will look nice. If you’re thinking in numbers, then you are more likely to think of a way to make more room. For example, if you do all of the things listed above, move the top shelf up and move the bar up and back, then did you just make room for a second hanging bar below? What about on one side? If you started out with an eight foot bar, then couldn’t you divide it into two four foot bars and condense them to one side of the closet? If so, then you still have the same number of feet of hanging space, but you just emptied literally half of your closet for additional storage.
On the empty side, you can slide in a dresser, add a closet system or simply add shelves. You may be able to extend your top shelf out to the front wall on each side of the door. Then you may have room to build or assemble book shelves down each side of the closet near the front. You can use this space for storing just about anything that will fit.
The main lesson here is to throw your normal closet thinking out the window and really use your creativity to come up with a useful plan. If you still feel like clothes are crowded, use space saving hangers like slimlinehangers to create even more space. When you are done, you could have the custom closet that you’ve always wanted without having to buy a new house!
About the Author: Rick Miller is on the staff of Only Slimline Hangers, a leading online resource for slimlinehangers which are space saving hangers, non slip hangers and slim line hangers. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyslimlinehangers.com.
