Unless you have an actual dressing room, I think “pretty” is a waste of money. First and foremost, a closet has to keep clothes organised! I tend to dislike bedroom furniture, so apart from the bed, night tables and a standing mirror I didn’t want any furniture to clutter my room. I decided to use the space under the eave (it’s an attic bedroom) but even though I had some 16 feet in length to play with, I barely had the end wall height to accommodate a rod for shirts/pants! I wanted drawers alongside the rod space but with a tiny budget I had to think long and hard.

I ended up using the Algot system from Ikea, with freestanding units, fine mesh pull out baskets and short stretches of rods between the units. The baskets really work more like drawers since they slide forward for easy access, keep the clothes contained and the fine mesh version of the Algot baskets don’t mark the clothes like open mesh can.

I’ve had closets with open shelving in the past but always found them a real pain as things get jumbled as you pull clothes in and out. With shallow baskets my clothes stay organised and because there is so many of them I have been able to really separate my clothes logically into dedicated baskets. I’ve also had closet furniture with deep drawers and they were a mess too… I crammed too many things in there and it got jumbled every time I took something out.

I hang only shirts, skirts, dress pants and heavy sweaters as they are too bulky when folded. The baskets I’ve organised as follows:

– underwear (just tossed in) & socks (balled up)
– pantyhose
– lingerie sets
– night wear
– tshirts (one each for light and darks)
– turtlenecks
– lightweight sweaters (one each for light and darks)
– scarves (folded/rolled) (one each for thin and thick – I have a lot of scarves) (I would store ties that way too, folded in half, then rolled and put flat in the drawer so they don’t distort)
– jeans and casual pants
– gym wear

Because of the lack of height I have to store the few dresses I own in the guest room closet, but it doesn’t bother me…. There’s still plenty space left for guests’ clothes and all my dresses are in one spot.

I’m lucky I have enough space for all my clothes in there, but because the Algot system is so customisable I could easily change things around if I stored my clothes according to season. I’m now building sliding doors to keep the clothes out of sight, but even in its present exposed state it still looks tidy.

I don’t have a laundry basket ’cause my laundry room is right next door so the basket is there, as is the ironing board. I wear slippers in the house so my sandals/shoes/boots are all in pretty storage units in the downstairs hallway where I put them on / take them off. Purses also live there. Coats are in the hallway coat closet. Costume jewelry is stored in the bathroom in a funky medecine cabinet I re-purposed and they few “good” pieces I have are in a jewelry box on the bottom shelf of my night table.

All that to say you really need to look at what you own, how much of each, how you like to store it and what else you want in your closet. If you know how many running feet of rod space (short and tall) and how much (roughly) will be folded then you can make the correct decisions for your situation. A friend of mine likes to hang most everything (even tshirts) and luckily her ceiling is high enough that she was able to put 3 rods in her closet and just a small dresser in her bedroom for underwear, etc. Treat your closet space as prime real estate, use it all the way to the ceiling and if you’re short on space then it’s time to think outside the box and figure out if you can store the lesser used items somewhere else. I found it best to keep the storage generic (loose hangers instead of pant racks), adjustable/removable drawer/basket dividers (if you need them) etc. Make sure everything has a dedicated spot and is easily accessible so you don’t create a mess every time you pull something out.

I’m no help – my “master” closet is a 3′ wide reach in in my quaint and charming older house. The things I miss most from my old walk in closet are a tall stack of open shelves for sweaters, hats, etc., and some shallow drawers for socks and so on. I also had the really high shelf that isn’t practical for anything you use regularly but was great for storing blankets and such. When I had the option, I hung almost everything anyway – now it’s mostly in a dresser in the room itself. I’m not really a shoe person, so shoe storage was never an issue.

I like different levels of rods but also cubby space for sweaters and accessories. I STILL can’t seem to find the best way to organize Ryan’s ties. It may forever drive me nuts, but I am always on the look out to improve their organization. When both spouses are sharing a closet, you gotta have some rules about keeping it organized. When we have separate closets, Ryan can do whatever he wants with his.

Just a comment about pull out pants racks…when we designed our closet at Container Store using the Elfa system, the designer pointed out that with their gliding pant rail, you have a set number of rods to hang exactly 10 pairs of pants, while on hangers, you have more flexibility and my husband can hang all his dress pants and jeans in the same space (~15 hangers).