How To Double Your Closet Space for $51 and One Trip to the Store
Closet too small? Join the club. It’s called “everybody.” But good news! There are two ways to battle a too-small clothes closet: One is to get rid of some of your stuff (in that case, you’ll want to check out this three-part capsule wardrobe series). The other is to get smart about storage.
It doesn’t take a lot of time or money. In fact, all you need is one fifty-dollar bill, some sofa cushion change, and an afternoon at your local superstore.
1. Double Up on Hangers
You can make a lot of room by layering your hanging clothes. Round up some metal tabs from soda cans and use them to distribute your hangers like in the photo above from Pure Wow. If you have plastic hangers that are too big to fit through can tabs, scrounge up some kind of chain to tackle the same idea, like here on Brit + Co.
2. Use Baby Hangers in Compact Spaces
Cost: $5
Materials: A pack of coat hangers from the baby section
Inspiration: Twitchetts
If there’s a corner in your closet, chances are it’s mostly wasted space. Full-size hangers won’t fit in the overlap of your closet shelves, but baby hangers do. Take your lesser-worn garments and hang them on tiny hangers in the corner.
3. Add Space Under Shelves
Cost: $40
Materials: Two under-shelf baskets
Inspiration: ClosetMaid
You can effectively double the shelf space in your closet with under-shelf baskets. Grabbing a pair of these will be the most you spend on this closet-expanding project, but they’re designed to do one thing and they do it well.
4. Make Use of Bare Walls
Cost: $6
Materials: Three shelf brackets
Inspiration: IKEA
Is there any wall space available in or around the closet? If there’s no room for an extra rod, the space doesn’t have to go to waste. Mount shelf brackets upside down (like a few of these $2 EKBY LERBERG brackets from IKEA) and use them to hang spare garments wherever there’s room.
Re-edited from a post originally published 2.22.16-NT