What to do About That Messy Closet

Do you have one of those closets that is the way old-school high shelf and a single bar? There is no place to put your shoes or stack your sweaters, let alone hang belts and accessories? Welcome to the 21st century: Cool organized closets are not just for the rich anymore.

You can get someone to help you and pay them to organize your closet, or you can be a little creative. There are many manufacturers of different kinds of closet organizers: wire shelves, laminate, wood, with or without doors—you name it, you can find it. It truly depends on how much money you'd like to spend.

If you are like most people that own their own home, money is tight. It takes every penny to pay the mortgage, insurance, utilities, yard work, HOA, etc. But if you take the time to make careful measurements of the interior of your closet, you can change the usefulness of not only your closet but every storage room in the house.

Planning Your New Closet

Most local DIY stores carry closet planning grids. You can take pictures of the different sizes that they offer or go to their website to get them. Draw up your closet with carefully taken measurements. Now you can become a little kid again. Using the same scale that you used on the grid create small closet pieces by cutting up another sheet or two of grid paper. Now you can start to fit them into the closet just like putting a puzzle together. It costs nothing, and you can even do it while watching your TV show for the evening.

Let it settle in your mind for a day or two and come back and try again. You might see a different configuration the next time you play with it. When you are satisfied that you have something that works, you can take the time to look at all of the other products available in different stores. There may be some layouts that you like better than others, or they might have different sizes that would work better. Make a note of those sizes and come back home and create more pieces and see what works. You can do this for as long as you like until you are happy with it.

Once you have your final creation, you can buy all of the pieces. Here is the good news, you do not need to be an expert closet installer to put it together. Most of them have incredibly simple instructions to follow. Presto! You are a closet designer, and now you can tackle all of those other rooms that need better organization.

Being organized is some much less frustrating than not, so now you have a perfect closet and less stress in your life.