Why Small Custom Closets Can Feel Larger

Chad Maag • Sep 16, 2022

You’ve probably heard that customizing your closet can create more closet space, but you may not be sure that you believe it. After all, you’re not talking about knocking out a wall or anything – the space is what it is. Why would a small custom closet feel larger than it did before the customization?

There are a few good reasons:

Use of Wasted Space
Keeping Things Separated
Accessories for Specific Items

Take a look at some of the biggest reasons why customization makes a small closet feel like a bigger closet.

Use of Wasted Space

The closet is indeed the same size before and after closet customization, but that doesn’t mean you have exactly the same storage space in the closet both before and after customization. Customizing a closet helps you find the wasted space and put that to use. Think about an ordinary small reach-in closet. It probably has one hanging rod and one shelf right above it, right? No matter how much area the closet has, the only storage space is what’s offered by that one rod, one shelf, and whatever you can stack on the floor. That’s not a lot of space – and just stacking things on the bare floor is a recipe for a mess.

When the closet is customized, however, the design is meant to take advantage of some of the space the basic closet design ignores. What if you had a second rod allowing you to double hang clothes? What if the empty expanses of wall space held more shelves or hooks? What if you added racks? What if an over-the-door organizer was added to the door, turning the empty back of the door into storage space? What if organizers like stackable containers, bins, shoe organizers, and baskets were added to the closet floor to keep items organized and separate? You would be able to store many more things without the closet seeming crowded or messy. No wonder it feels larger.

Keeping Things Separated

When shirts, pants, shoes, and accessories are all mixed, it’s easy for things to become disorganized. You can’t help but move items around as you go into your closet to choose your clothing. When the closet is small and crowded everything can get jumbled.

However, when items are separated by type, it’s harder for it to devolve into chaos. You can’t end up with shirts and jeans all tangled together when they’re each in a different place and don't come in contact with each other. Divided shelves and drawers are important in custom closets – they prevent messes from occurring, and a clean space is always going to feel larger than an untidy space.

The same thing is true for the closet floor. Without any organizers, everything you put on the floor has the potential to get mixed up. This is a particular problem for shoes – not only is it easy to lose one of the pair, but when shoes wind up underneath a pile of other shoes or other things, they could end up scuffed or damaged. Total Image Consultants explains the importance of shoe organizing and how shoe shelves are an important tool in preventing those lost and damaged shoes.

Accessories for Specific Items

Sometimes, having an accessory that’s made to store a specific type of item is what you need to prevent clutter and open up space in a closet. Items like belts, ties, and scarves are great examples of this. It’s pretty difficult to effectively store these items, even though none of them are that big. These aren’t items that stay folded easily, and the slightest touch is enough to uncoil that belt or cause ties on the top of the pile to slip off. Plus, this will take up a bunch of drawer space that you now can’t use. Putting them on dresser or shelf surfaces causes both problems – they’ll slip, uncoil, or fall onto the floor very easily. In a small closet, you may end up knocking down scarves and belts every time you step inside.

However, what if you had a belt, tie, or scarf rack? This keeps your drawer, shelf, and surface spaces free and keeps these items off the floor. They’ll stay right where you put them, the rack stays out of the way, and you have more room to store other things. When you want a tie, scarf, or belt, they’ll be right where you left them. Naturally, your closet will feel more spacious with this type of system in place. Accessories like jewelry organizers and lingerie drawers serve the same purpose.

Conclusion

While it’s true that your closet only has so much space, it’s really how you use that space that matters the most. With a custom closet system, wasted space is put to good use and the space is used in smart ways, like keeping different kinds of items separated and using accessories meant to keep specific types of items corralled.