5 DIY Closet Upgrades That Make the Most of Even the Tiniest Storage Spaces

With very little to do last year other than stay home and watch things accumulate, you’re likely not the only one whose tiny closet is overflowing with items at the moment. As we roll into spring, it’s the perfect opportunity to up your organization — and there are plenty of DIY closet fixes that can help you do it.

From a double closet rod, to sliding shelving and a hidden hamper, to a hack that only requires the leftovers from your online orders, here are five smart storage-doubling upgrades you’ll be turning to all year long.

Department stores have long been hip to this solution, and there’s no reason you can’t implement it in your home closet as well: just take a page out of Jill Nystul’s book. The One Good Thing By Jillee blogger suspended a second rod from the one already in use, easily doubling her sweater storage in a snap.

You can easily DIY this in your own closet — in a renter-friendly way, no less! — by suspending a second rod from the top one with strong cord. Use a running bowline knot for this task, which is the same you’d use for hanging a swing.

Kelly of The View Along the Way blog came up with her own unique storage solution for scarves and belts: a slide-out organizer with a panel of rods or hooks where she can store everything from silk scarves to jewelry. The slides — same thing you’d buy for drawers — help make these hooks easy to reach when she needs something, but easy to tuck away when she doesn’t.

Sure, you could shell out for a bamboo shoe organizer, or you could put some leftover cardboard to work in crafting your own, like Ananda from A Piece of Rainbow. Taking inspiration from geometric designs, she taped together a series of triangular tubes designed to hold two shoes each, one behind the other. Not only is the finished project attractive to look at, but you probably already have all the materials you need to tackle it, making this a $0 hack.

It’s great to store your hamper out of sight in your closet, but not as great that it takes up valuable floor space. So follow the lead of Abby at Just a Girl and Her Blog and install a hidden hamper that can tilt out when you need to toss clothing in, and back in when you’re not using it.

Another way to DIY this? Repurpose slide-out kitchen trash cans for your closet. To prevent mildew, you’ll need to swap in an appropriately sized laundry basket or use a drill to add holes to the can so that your clothes can get some airflow.

Shelves are great, but drawers are better. Jen of I Heart Organizing made her clothes more accessible by moving her most-used items lower, where she keeps them in sliding drawers. Here, they’re much less likely to get lost than they would be if they were piled on shelves. If you can, swap your shelves for drawers.

To make your upper shelves more functional, you can also install pull-out shelves to make even the tucked-away items in your life easier to access (and allow you to take full advantage of often unused space).