If you’re living in a historic DC home, you know just that closet space is woefully tight. Thankfully, there are ways to organize your clothing without a closet. 

With its high ceilings, detailed ornamentation, and row upon row of grand windows, a Georgian style property is a true feast for the eyes. But there is one major drawback to living in such a historic DC home: closet space is woefully tight. You’re lucky to find an 18th Century DC home that has more than just a tiny reach-in closet in the master bedroom. And there’s no way that all 200 pairs of your designer shoes are going to fit inside of that.

If you move into a home with minimal, or worse, no closet space, what can you possibly do with all of your clothes? The answer is simple—you create a brand new space to store them. By following these three tips for organizing your clothes without a closet, you’ll have enough room to store every shoe, sweater, and dress you own. With our custom cabinet designers’ help, you’ll never have to compromise your sense of fashion in the face of limited closet space.

Tip #1: Maximize Your Wall Space

Walls are usually the largest and emptiest areas of any room, which is what makes them the perfect spot to build your new closetless storage space. However, few homeowners make the most out of their extensive wall space. Most of us like to decorate our walls with family photos or flashy artwork. But consider this: would you rather have a wall that’s nice to look at, but that serves no other purpose, or do you want a space that is both beautiful and functional? By maximizing your wall space using a chic custom cabinet set, you can have the best of both worlds.

If you have a small space, then you should build clothes cabinets that are shallow, yet also tall and wide. This allows you to store dresses and other longer pieces of clothing without wasting too much of the room’s limited space. You don’t need to build a massive cabinet in order to have enough room to store your clothes, either. A tall cabinet set that takes up just 15 square feet of floor space could easily provide you with at least 150 square feet of extra storage space for your clothes. With all of this additional space, organizing clothes without a closet is a cinch. Everything is safely hidden away behind custom cabinet doors and drawers. Plus, you can still put your framed vacation photos and your favorite artwork on your new cabinet shelves to liven up the room.

Tip #2: Expand Your Bed Frame

We spend an estimated one-third of our lives in bed. But what do you do with your bed for the remaining two-thirds of the day? One tip for organizing clothes without a closet is to make use of the little-used space under and around your bed by installing a custom bed frame that has built-in clothing storage options. Your bed will become more than just a place for you to rest your head at night.

Here are just a few methods for organizing clothes without a closet by making use of a custom bed frame:

• Custom cabinets built right into your headboard hold extra blankets, books, pajamas, fuzzy robes, or cozy socks—essentials for cold DC winter nights or lazy weekend mornings.

• Tall wardrobes and clothing racks can be installed at either side of the bed frame (like bookends), giving you plenty of space for your long dresses, heavy coats, or wrinkle-prone suits. And to make these items even easier to find in the morning, you can install adjustable valet rods that extend from the wall and then retract when you’ve found what you need.

• Shorter cabinets, shelves, or built-in dresser drawers safely house small folded items like t-shirts, workout clothes, or undergarments.

• Open shelves located close to the headboard leave plenty of room for you to keep an alarm clock, phone charger, or other easy-to-reach nightstand essentials.

• Storage boxes or built-in drawers underneath the bed can hold shoes or out-of-season clothes.

When you use any combination of the storage options above, you’ll transform your bed into a functional, but still extremely comfy, space.

Tip #3: Customize Everything

When it comes to organizing clothes without a closet, customization is key. A one-size-fits-all storage wardrobe probably won’t cut it if you need to store most of your clothes outside of your closet. A pre-made wardrobe cabinet might have a great deal of rack space, but if it has very few places to store your shoes, then it won’t be of much use to you. This is why you need to design a custom cabinet set that is catered specifically to your wardrobe.

A great cabinet set will include cabinetry in various sizes designed for different types of clothes and items. A built-in shoe rack will keep your shoes visible and well-organized, while a lockable cabinet drawer will keep your heirloom jewelry hidden and secure until you’re ready to wear it. Additionally, clear cabinet doors give you the chance to show off the items in your closet or bedroom that you want your guests to see (like signed sports memorabilia or souvenirs from your travels), while solid cabinet drawers help you hide the messier parts of your wardrobe (like stray socks or an unruly hat collection).

You can also build a laundry hamper right into your cabinet set to keep your room looking clean and organized at all times. This means that you won’t have to hide your hamper behind the bedroom door when your in-laws come to visit.

Organizing Clothes Without a Closet is a Simple Process

Organizing clothes without a closet isn’t as impossible as it sounds at first. With custom cabinets that you can install against your bedroom wall or directly into your bed frame, you won’t even miss having a walk-in closet. These cabinets can be just as stylish and functional as any real closet, and in some cases, they might even be more convenient than a traditional reach-in. The bottom line is that you shouldn’t have to settle for subpar storage options or irritatingly small bedroom closets. No matter how little space you have to work with, you can create a custom design that fits in perfectly with your lifestyle and refined taste.

Sign up for a free consultation with Closet America today to find out more about our custom cabinet sets and media center design options. Our designers will walk you through a number of storage features to help you find the right combination of shelves, cabinets, and drawers that best fit your unique wardrobe and space.