Monday, April 21, 2008

What to do with an obscene amount of clothing?

Hi, my name is Mary and I am a clothing addict. My weakness is vintage clothing and thrift store finds. I likely have not seriously shopped in a bonafide department store since I left my job as assistant manager at Elder Beerman (Department Store) some dozen plus years ago. But I can have a field day at an outlet mall. Which has led me to this...we have a magnificent and HUGE new closet (compared to many in old houses + our old house) and I am still trying to devise a system that will accomodate my collection of clothing and shoes (Doc Martens are kinda chunky, ya know?). Eric seems mostly settled on his half (40%?) of the closet...while he technically has less of the space, he's got the "full-size" space with walls and a ceiling that neatly meet at 90 degree angles:
I am working in the eaves on my side. So envision a 16 inch span of flat ceiling, that connects to a wall that is immediately at a 120 degree angle until it meets the floor (it's been a long time since my last geometry class, forgive me if that is totally off). My ingenious mother helped me put in four wood pillars which then attach to angled blocks anchored into studs on the drywall so I've got 4 hanging bars that work for my on season (in front) and off season (in back) shirts and jackets. The right side:
The left side:
And I've got a fabulous old brass fixture from my former clothing-store-owning friend Anne (thanks Annie) that sits amidst the pillars and houses my "long hanging":
Because, yes, I'm still sentimentally attached to my wedding dress (among other things) and my parents kicked it out of the closet at their house. The big hanging picture:
So, most of my tops, jackets and dresses have a home in the closet. What I'm still working on is medium-height hanging for my pants. I thought it would be brilliant to just hang a bar from the ceiling- it's flat, I can fix it into the studs, I can still access my other stuff....but I can't find anyplace that sells ceiling hanging bars (our ceiling is maybe 6' tall, so I could easily reach it). I think this space needs just that:
Not Lowes, not Bed Bath & Beyond, not even my last bastion of hope The Container Store could solve the dilemma and give me a ceiling hanging rack or suitable alternative. And, yes, it's all on an adjustable mobile rack right now, but it's taking up too much space. So if anyone has any brilliant insight, I'm all ears!
Other workable stuff we assembled includes a sweater shelving rack that steps down with the angle of the wall:
A shoe rack that fits in at the bottom of the floor angle for shoes on top and storage below:
And these great armed towel holders that I got from Ikea, but mounted on the side of the sweater shelving that are working fab for handbags:
That's the closet so far! Stay tuned for more organizational accomplishments!

2 comments:

Fine Family said...

I think your closet looks great - and it certainly makes me feel better about the amount of clothes I have (as my husband is not very patient with my collection of clothes when they are 'out of place' which only happens because I don't have the proper amount of room for them)...anyway - looks good. I don't have a ceiling solution for you...yet.

Jennifer said...

You could just make one... you will need to attach it into the ceiling joists.

We hung a pot rack (50 lbs loaded) from the joist in our kitchen with 1/2 bolts (with hooks on the ends)...

or you could do a hanging one... screw in those huge hooks, hang chain down and attach to pole. I'm not sure about whether hanging is good... but it would be EASY. :)