The Issue of Closets

Closets present two problems: either there are never enough or they are over stuffed.  Our last house had amazing closet space with built-ins.  There was a tremendous amount of storage space tucked in areas that would otherwise be wasted space.  The previous owner was a hoarder, exactly like what you see on television so when they bought the house about twenty years before we bought it, she had all of these closets custom made.  She likely was not near the hoarder back then.  Anyway, I'm missing my closets!  In perspective though, closets cost both time and money.  They take up valuable real estate that you pay for through mortgage payments and property taxes.  The cost in terms of valuable time especially when they are not organized.  In general, it really is best to reduce the amount of closet space in your home while increasing the functionality.

I grew up in a small house with virtually no closets.  My Mom hung a metal pole between the two walls at the top of the stairs where our good clothes hung and those were put into storage according to the season.  We had a cedar chest in each bedroom for blankets and dressers for clothes.  That's it.  Our second house was a Victorian.  We never knew exactly how old it was as it was built before the town was established but it came on their books in 1904.  Originally there were no closets but a previous owner had created on over the top of the stairs when they converted that space from the landing sitting area to a bedroom.  We had dressers and clothes chests including an old restored trunk.  I stored things like mops and brooms much the same as my Mom did, behind a door.

This house has closets but considering the size of the house I'm surprised at the lack of closet space.  Each bedroom has a closet, there is a very small linen closet, a small closet on the entrance landing, larger closet in the master bedroom and a larger storage closet in the utility room.  I'm back to getting creative at finding closet space.  Surprising the closet I miss the most from our old house is the broom closet. 

Less closet space is not a bad thing so I'm using it to my advantage.  We have more actual living space with less dedicated to storage.  It is helping me on my quest of decluttering while curbing accumulating unnecessary items.  My Mom used to rotate clothing twice a year, spring and fall so I have gone back to that method.  I used it for years but with the last house didn't need to.  Our clothes are stored based on the season with heavy winter coats and sweaters out now but in the spring all but a few sweaters will go into storage as the summer clothes come out of storage.  The same goes for shoes and boots.  This really a more practical way of dealing with clothes anyway and it gives the opportunity to do a bit of decluttering each time. 

Garden Gnome
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