Let’s see a show of hands: how many of you have a closet packed full of so many clothes, accessories, and shoes you sometimes forget what you even own? If you find yourself relating to that scenario, you’re not alone.
The good news is there is another way to organize your closet!
Recently, Vicki was featured on a More Good Day Oregon segment on Fox 12. She took the crew out to Dream Acres to let everyone in on the secret behind her own unconventional closet.
Once Vicki’s son outgrew his nursery (right next to the master bedroom), Vicki says she had a hard time disassembling this special space – until she reclaimed the room for a FUN purpose!
She decided to turn that convenient space adjacent to the master bedroom into a functional, organized closet.
The first thing you notice walking into Vicki’s closet is how beautiful the room looks – like walking into a chic boutique clothing store. Clothes cascade down the walls instead of hanging from racks, and accessories are arranged in eye-catching displays. Vicki’s closet is organized in an unconventional way, and you can’t help but feel a desire to create outfits because of how everything is displayed!
“I was inspired for this closet based on file cabinets,” explains Vicki. “There are two kinds of filing cabinets: side-loading lateral file cabinets you have to walk around the side of, and front-loading cabinets you pull straight open and access from the front. As I was thinking about my closet one day, I thought, no wonder I don’t like my closet! It’s all jammed in and side-loading. I want to make my closet front-loading!”
If you think about it, most closets are organized like the side-loading filing systems (similar to the ones you often see in a medical office) with clothes jammed in and overflowing. All you can see is the shoulder and arm of the clothing item. Often, in traditional closets, clothes are even hung in a cascading fashion off one another, causing items to get buried. Since so many of us are visual (studies say 85% of us are!), we forget about what we have just don’t wear the majority of our clothes – all because we can’t see them!
To create her closet, Vicki’s husband Trevor hung routered boards along the top of the wall. Vicki added simple hooks from the hardware store from which to hang her clothes. She likes using the hangers her clothes come on from the store (the ones with swiveling metal hooks) so she can easily display them facing forward.
One of her goals in organizing her closet was to use things she already had or could easily (and inexpensively) obtain. For example, the footboard of an old twin bed serves as the perfect place to display all of her belts. The headboard rests against another wall where it holds Vicki’s long scarves. She even took an old baby gate and repurposed it to organize her winter scarves. A final touch Vicki added to her organized closet are clear storage jars to hold items like pins and bracelets that can’t be hung off gates or headboards.
Not everyone has an entire extra room to turn into a closet, but many people DO have extra spaces they aren’t using. Even if you don’t have a whole room, Vicki suggests you could take a wall in your bedroom and utilize that space to help organize your closet. Regardless, one thing all of us can do is follow Vicki’s lead and turn our accessories into artwork. Simply displaying our hats, scarves, and jewelry in a visually appealing way not only allows us to see it, but find inspiration in putting outfits together.
Watch the segment below for a 360 view of this amazing closet-room!
Related:
- For information about organizing services sign-up to receive our free monthly inspirational e-newsletter!
- Learn more about our Professional Organizing Services
- Read Vicki’s book “Restoring Order to Your Home” to learn about making your space work for you!
