apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

OMG - You have a cedar-lined closet!
Do you know how many people would kill for a cedar-lined closet???

You shouls never paint, wallpaper, polish, etc this closet - otherwise you'll ruin it and eliminate the protection the wood is providing for your clothing. If anything, you sand the wood to bring out more of the oils that prevent moths and other six-legged types.

I'd take really good measurements, draw a diagram and take it to the Container Store and get a salesperson to help you plan shelves, etc.

I've found so many holes in wool and cashmere sweaters...and you can avoid that with your fabulous cedar-lined closet. Color me jealous, but please don't paint it!

It looks like the closet goes up to the ceiling. You've got a lot of unused space there - I bet a place like california closets, or the elfa products at the container store can make it work well.

good luck!

i concur, please do NOT touch that lovely wood!

i revamped my closet by painting its crappy walls and floor a light pink. beautiful and fresh!

i also installed little shelves along the side of one wall. such a huge difference!

as a happy, satisfied, and willing to recommend California Closets customer, in this case I might opt for elfa which will leave more of the cedar exposed and therefore useful.

Take a photo of each pair of shoes you have and paste it to the end of the shoe box---easy to do if you have a digital camera and a computer. Shoes kept in a cardboard box dry out faster then in plastic---unless you have those dryer packs in each plastic box.
Seems like you have a lot of space on the floor for shoes to be placed on some type of shelfs.

Elfa was too expensive for me. I went with Metro shelving - the chrome look would go great with that wood. [The Metro shelving I got used from a kitchen supply store.] With the open shelving you could hang whatever you want with S-hooks- like a fancy shoe rack- and store items behind in your storage boxes.

You are so lucky to get that closet!

I have a similar closet just a bit bigger and I have about 80 shoes. What I did was to put a rack on the door for shoes and I have boxes for shoes, but they shouldn't be like the ones that I see on the photo with an opening on the top. They have to have the opening in the front or have drawer. A cheap option are these from IKEA.

http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/10118155

or these in acrylic from the container store

http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=154&PRODID=59729

My last advice is to put another clothes rail above the existing one and then buy a reach pole

http://www.hangers.com/accessories_hangers/57/accessories_hanger_accessories/18-840616/reach_pole/

Good luck! The cedar lined closet looks fab!

I see unused space to the right and left on the floor. Put your shoes in a roll a way bin or drawers. Put more than one pair in a drawer and pictures on the front of the drawer. I've found that if I group my shoes by color, even if they are in out of way place (my black shoes are currently in a bin under my bed) I "remember" my shoes since we normally dress by color. As for using the height in there, there are clothes rods that actually pull down. (http://storage.organizeit.com/organize/pull%20down%20closet%20rod)

My old closet was very similar to yours. I got rid of the long clothes rail and hung three, two on one side for short clothes and one on the other for long stuff. I put shelves above the rails and pegs on the back wall, in between the clothes rails for my handbags.

It tripled the amount of space I had and it seems like you could do the same and even better, because from the picture it seems like you would have enough room in between the rails to hang more shelves instead of pegs.

Hang your best tops or bottoms on one hanger.
If you suffer from a small closet and need more space and want to stay organized than check out the HankyTankyHanger.

Thanks