I always thought I had a pretty large home: four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, two ‘living room’ areas, a dining room, eat-in kitchen, and a large patio with a pool. (Yes, as I write this, I realize it IS a big house.)

But when the pandemic made the family shelter-in-place a necessity, Matt and I soon realized we had space issues. With four of us remote working or at school, we needed to reconfigure the space we had to accommodate the ‘new normal.’  Each of us needed a desk and some privacy to do our work.

With a little reconfiguration, the girls had what they needed to succeed in school. And I started using the spare bedroom as my office. That left Matt, who had previously had a tiny, pull-out desk for occasional work in our bedroom.

It was obvious he needed a private space to make phone calls and attend video meetings. But we really didn’t have the room anywhere for a quiet space and a bigger desk.  We had bedroom furniture, a Cali-king bed, and large (and very heavy) custom dresser samples. (They were prototypes of a line that never saw the light of day, so I got them for a steal.)

The only way we could create more space was to get rid of those dressers.  We had a large-ish master closet, but it was so underutilized. When we moved into the home, we just piled our clothes on the garage-style wire shelving and hung what we would off those shelves. (There were no closet poles for hanging ANYTHING!)

A closet makeover to the rescue.

I’m the first to admit, although I am handy, I can’t cut straight. And Matt isn’t handy at all. It was in the best interest of the closet’s integrity (and less frustration and stress) to use a professional to install our new closet.

But first, we needed to do some work as well. These were our steps, which can work for you, too.

Step one: Empty the closet

It sounds like a huge undertaking. However, the only way to really determine what you need is to know what you have. That begins by emptying your closet.

It’s also a great time to purge items you never use and put other items in storage. Consider first creating four piles: keep, sell, donate, and toss. Then sort your keep pile by purpose.

For example, you may have a pile of belts, a pile of fitness clothing, casual clothing, and business attire.

Step two: Assess your needs

Now that you know what you have, you can start determining what you need. For example, if you have belts and no place to put them, you may want to add a belt rack to your closet. If you have an abundance of sweaters, you may benefit by creating separate sweater boxes or shelving. If you like to hang everything up, then you may want to add tiered racks to your closet, so you have space to hang up everything.

We immediately saw that many of our ‘professional’ attire was not getting much use since we were working remotely.  We decided to put most of those items in storage boxes in our attic until we need for them again.

Step three: Find the solution

There are so many beautiful storage solutions for closets. Hiring someone to install was the right thing for us, but I will warn you it cost several thousand dollars. The good news is that simple solutions can still give you the closet you want and need. For example, you can find shelving systems at your local hardware or home store. They cost significantly less than a custom closet solution. Of course, the tradeoff is the time it will take you to install it.

When coming up with your closet solution, start by envisioning your closet as an empty space. It’s easy to take a look at it and see restrictions. You see a shelf. You see a closet rod. However, when you eliminate the existing fixtures from your imagination, it’s easier to see the possibilities.

Make the most of the space you have. List the possibilities. Instead of going with the first plan that comes to mind, list all of the potential solutions. Then hit your closet with a tape measure and a notebook. Have fun with this process, and you’ll likely come up with some innovative solutions.

I spoke with our closet installer about our needs. That was important, as once he realized we wanted to eliminate all dressers, he came up with a plan to maximize the closet space to do exactly that. (Apparently, most people don’t want as many drawers in a closet configuration as we did.)

Some ideas to remember when creating your closet

Uniformity creates visual appeal. One of the reasons the custom closets look so wonderful is that they embrace uniform lines, textures, and colors.

You can achieve the same visual appeal. Use the same color shelving, storage boxes, racks, and rods. Use fixtures to create clean lines. And upgrading the storage materials also upgrades the look of your closet. For example, after looking at various options, we opted for solid dresser drawers instead of wire ones and used fabric storage boxes, which are more visually appealing than plastic.

The result? In five months of use, I can tell you we love our closet. We not only have more room in our bedroom so Matt can work effectively, but we also found a couple of additional perks:

• We have more room in our closet than we have stuff for the closet. (That means when we go back to offices to work, we  can easily add our professional wardrobes without any compromises.)
• Our closet isn’t a big cluttered mess of ‘stuff’.  I spent a ton of time each morning looking for ‘that one sweater’ I wanted to wear. Not anymore. Everything is easy to see and within reach. Heck, I’ve even ‘found’ certain pieces of clothing that I forgot about because they were hidden in that mess.

I’ve owned three homes: my grandparents’ foursquare built in the early 1900s, an 1853 Victorian row house in Albany, NY, and now our mid-century home in the San Francisco Bay area.

I’ve loved each home for different reasons, but it seems they all have one thing in common: not enough storage space. It’s no wonder, we have more stuff than generations before. A TV in every bedroom? Computers? A ‘chef’s’ kitchen? All were unheard of. And now that many of us are at home full-time due to the pandemic, it feels even more cramped.

Yet owning three homes with a lack of storage has allowed me to get creative while still being functional, comfortable, and attractive spaces. The key is maximizing what you have got!

Get It Off the Floor

One of the easiest ways to make the most of a room that is short on square footage is to go up. Use the walls to create storage, height, and visual appeal.

For example, in my girls’ remodeled bathroom in the Victorian home, there was no room to have a traditional space for towel storage. I used a wine rack on the wall to hold towels. It looked amazing and certainly got the job done!  I also used antique crystal door knobs to hang wet towels and hand towels. It was so pretty, yet functional.

In our current mid-century home, there were (to our disgust) no bookshelves.  Yet, there really wasn’t a place to put some freestanding ones without losing valuable floor space. So we created one. By hanging a mid-century modern style bookcase over the desk, we’ve got the needed place to share our love of books and plants. And – a bonus –  it helps anchor the space in a way we didn’t expect.

Create Stations

Identify how you want to use the room and then create stations that represent your habits and needs.

For example, if you generally sit in one corner of the room to read, you might organize the room to house books in that corner. If you use the room to study as well, you might create a small office space in one corner of the room.

Once COVID-19 hit and all of us were at home all day, my space I used to work from getting too much foot traffic.  It was too noisy for meetings and I was interrupted a lot. I moved my ‘office’ to our very tiny guest room (which at the time could only fit a queen bed and a small side table). By switching out the bed to a lovely modern futon, I was able to add enough space for a desk. One area is meant for guests to relax and sleep, the other area focuses on a place for me to think and work. And it works perfectly together, thanks to great pieces of furniture and a unified theme in the room.

Think Inside the Box

You read that right! Sometimes places for organization are right in front of you if you are creative.

If there are items that don’t need to be at the ready, you can hide them in plain sight. For example, my grandmother’s hope chest, which I would never part with, now serves double duty in our foyer.  It stores a ton of heavier winter items that we don’t often need in California except on some very cold days. But I also added a cushion and pillow for a very clever seating area to get shoes on and off by the door.

I also snagged some old mid-century pieces of matching luggage for a steal.  They now sit next to a desk in the piano room, chock full of digital gadgets, including chargers, webcams and headphones. No one sees those items as they admire the vintage set as simple home decor.

I’m currently planning a rehab of our fireplace, which will include some cabinetry to store board games, throw blankets, and other occasionally needed supplies.  The goal is to have a place to access these items without adding more clutter.

There are many options to find extra space. Look for end tables, coffee tables, and couches with hidden storage options.

Another way is to simply revamp a storage space you already have for more room. Our master closet was big enough, but the garage-style wire shelves everywhere made it difficult to hang things, let alone use the shelves for clothes. We also needed more space in our bedroom, since it was now also being used as a workspace for Matt during the pandemic. The choice we made was to rehab the closet to get rid of the dressers in the room. Today, we have a lovely closet space that fits everything, and still has space for more. We also utilized the space under the bed for things we needed to access for the room, including sheets and blankets.

Put It on Wheels

Carts with wheels can make storage in a small space much easier. For example, a small entertainment center on wheels can be rolled into a different space if you need or want to entertain. In small bathrooms and kitchens, carts can be used to store basic items and be wheeled out when you need them.

Sophia’s room has storage cubes on wheels, which double as a table to draw or play games on.

Functional Pieces

In addition to purchasing furniture that doubles as storage, you can find functional pieces that serve a multitude of purposes.

For example, in a small space, a shelving unit can function as an entertainment center and a room divider. A kitchen table can also be a kitchen prep center or island.

Remember my grandmother’s hope chest? At one point, I used it as seating to my dining room table, where I had all my table linens stored as well.

My office’s TV does double duty as a TV for guests and as my second monitor. (A simple HDMI cable between the laptop and the TV does the trick!)

Finding pieces that serve dual purposes helps you make the most of your space, no matter what the size.