Here's a peek at the start of our new closet! I'm already in love with the look and ease of our new system. Who knew a simple rolling garment rack and the perfect hangers could rock my world — and make getting ready in the morning so much easier and more fun (I feel like I'm shopping in my own closet!). This new closet system is so far my favorite part of the apartment. J'adore my yellow hangers!
There's no magic closet system that works for all homes— I've learned that after organizing many closets. We were working with a blank slate, which was nice. There's a small room in our loft that's perfect for a walk-in closet (there are no closets otherwise in the apartment.) Since we're renters, built-in solutions— like California Closets — were ruled out. I do love the Elfa system from the Container Store, but it gets pricey and it's not a great solution for a rental, where you have to take out what you put in the walls. We really just needed a system for organizing our hangable clothes, since a dresser and some bins contain all the foldable clothes.
We went with a rolling garment rack. I got a great tip from a friend who works in fashion on the exact garment racks they use at work and headed down to the Garment District to pick up my rolling, collapsible garment rack. All-in-One Suppliers also sells their industrial garment racks online — here's my garment rack. Its many fantastic features: super sturdy, two bars at the bottom hold bins or containers off the floor for extra storage, and the extendable rod adds more hanging space.
The right garment rack was key, but honestly our old plastic hangers would have never fit on one rack. The plastic hangers were too chunky. A mish-mash of different hangers wouldn't have worked either (remember this closet?). I went with these Joy Mangano hangers that are space-saving, but they don't stretch and pucker the fabric of your clothes, like wire hangers do. And the flocked texture looks luxe and keeps my camisoles and strappy dresses on the hanger. I'm so happy with my bright yellow hangers with their brass hooks. Shiny, happy hangers. My clothes went on the basic shirt hanger and Dan's oxfords and pants went on the suit hanger. I can't believe everything fit on the one garment rack! I guess we don't have as many clothes as I thought.
The extendable bar is great for prepping our clothes (buttoning buttons and straightening shoulders) before hanging them up. Being able to truly see and slide our hanging clothes (rather than wardrobe squished inside a teeny closet like we had before) makes it so much easier to find what we have. I never realized Dan has 9 identical white oxfords! And I rediscovered some favorite tops in making over our closet. That's got to be one of the more satisfying makeovers I've done in a while. Dan loves it, too.
