Closet Organization - Measure and Planning the New Space

Scott Roewer: Hi! I am Scott Roewer of solutionsbyscott.

com. I am a Certified Professional Organizer and in this segment, I am teaching you how to organize your closet like a pro. Our next step is to plan ahead. We are going to measure and plan for our new closet space because as you can see, this is not working. So the first thing we are going to do is we are going to take everything out of the closet. Now at home, it's not really fun to do this by yourself. So invite a friend over or have a family member help you. Today, my sister, Nina, is going to be helping us, so Nina come on over. As you take things out of your closet, plan to keep the like items together. We are going to keep all of the clothes together, all of the bed linens together, and whatsoever in this bottom of the closet, we are going to keep that together as well. We are going to sort and downsize later. So the first thing is just get everything out. Nina, grab some clothes. Now that we have everything out of the closet, we need to plan and measure so that we can figure out exactly what's going to work best. This closet, with one shelf and one pole was definitely ill-equipped to handle this gentleman's wardrobe and everything else. So, when planning ahead, you need to measure your clothes, so you can actually figure out how much space you need in between as well as know how many linear feet you need for running your hanging clothes. So I am going to measure a few of his items here. You want to measure from the top-down. So the top of the pole with the hangar to the bottom of the clothes. So for this shirt, shirt is average about 35 inches. And then suit coats, average about 40. We are going to be storing the suitcase in the closet as well. So we need to know the height, the width, and the depth. We have got 11 x 21 x 28, so we have room for the handle. Additionally, we have some belts and men's belts are about 50 inches long. As you can see in this diagram, you need to plan ahead with some of your additional things. Women's blouses and skirts, average 35 inches in length. If you are going to be storing shoes on shelves, plan on 12 inches deep with 6 inches in between each shelf. Long hanging items and coats require about 65 inches. If you are putting handbags on shelves, they average around 9 but be sure to measure your collection. Hats require about 11 inches width and also plan for spacing in between your items; about 1 inches for shirts, jackets require about 2-2.

5 inches for each item. So the next step is for us to actually to measure the interior of the closet. I am going to move these things aside and it's always helpful to have someone jot these adjustments down, so Nina is going to assist me here. Nina, the back of the closet is 83 inches, and the side is 22. Be sure to measure both sides of your closet because sometimes, they are different. Also 22, we left out this time. Measure the inside left and right wall, I have 18 inches and that does include the door frame. And on the right side, I also have 18 inches. You want to measure the door height, and door height's standard, 80 inches, so we have a standard door. Also, measure the back of your doors because this is great storage area. So we have 24 inches here on the back of this door. A lot of closets have baseboards, so be sure to measure your baseboard, that's 8 inches. Inside the closet, I am going to go all the way up to the roof, 102 inches tall. So we have measured the back of the closet, the sides, the door jamb, the height, the ceiling height, and the width of our doors. One last measurement you need is the opening of the closet, so we have 48 inches. Don't forget any obstructions that you may have in your closet. Now, I have done some planning for this segment and we are going to be tearing out this shelf and this pole because it was ill-equipped to handle this gentleman's wardrobe. Instead, you are going to have double hanging closet space and we are going to do shelves along the side and it's going to be much better for him. So stay tuned for the next segment.