Of all the home spaces that tend to get the styling shaft, closets often find themselves at the forefront of neglect. But they also have the potential to provide a sense of tranquility when given some extra attention. Plus when you know what’s in your wardrobe, you’re less likely to spend money on things you don’t need or have a meltdown when you can’t find the outfit you’ve been saving for a special occasion. How can you overhaul your closet without a fully custom build-out? Fake it till you make it. Check out these IKEA closet hacks that spark joy in the pursuit of streamlining even the most jumbled spaces. 

For a Bit of Reflection

In designer Chloé Mason Gray’s experience, three-and-a-half months was a bit too long to wait for a replacement front for a mirrored Pax wardrobe in this Mexico home. She thought it would be a breeze to have the fronts custom-made elsewhere, so she purchased the unit sans mirrors and began her search for glass. “It turned out that hardly anyone makes ones with the particular thickness needed for this closet,” says Gray. But the time it took to find a fabricator was worth the wait: When her client wakes up each morning, he’s greeted by the reflection of the unique Cerami plaster walls. 

If You’re Starting From Scratch 

Domino’s own Julia Stevens and her roommates finally found the perfect NYC apartment. The only problem? Not a closet in sight. They converted the hallway by the entryway into their affectionately termed “walk-in closet” with IKEA’s Mulig clothes bars at $7 each. Six in total for the project only set them back $36. The racks stretch from 23 to 35 inches, so they expanded the top row to fit longer dresses and the bottom row for shirts and pants. Each roommate has her own section, with the option to share.

To Add Extra Room for Activities

Instead of a dresser that would take up valuable real estate, Judith Achumba-Wöllenstein’s IKEA closet hack meant installing a wall-mounted Boaxel system in her preteen brother-in-law’s room. (Bonus: More room for TikTok dances!) The showstopping red frame was another practical choice. “Because the wardrobe doesn’t have doors, all we needed to do was screw the MDF wood frame to the ceiling and to the side of the walls,” she explains. 

For a Complete Overhaul

When you have the luxury of a walk-in closet, make sure that every square inch lives up to its reputation. Erin Kestenbaum did just that with the help of IKEA’s Pax wardrobe system, which she outfitted with recessed lighting, crown molding, blue paint, and gold hardware. Sure, it’s a big to-do, but the results will be worth it. 

To Incorporate Extra Drawers

Sometimes your closet simply doesn’t have the room for your collection of knickknacks. And when that happens, you should slide in this chest of drawers from Full Time Fiesta. This idea takes an Alex drawer unit and paints it in an ombré design for a fun finish that’ll stand out among the rest of your possessions. Use it to store scarves, jewelry, and other accessories all in one place. 

Shop More Closet Savers Here

Pax Wardrobe Frames, IKEA ($250)

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MULIG Clothes Bar, Ikea ($7)

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Alex Drawer Unit, Ikea ($89)

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Pax Hinged Doors, IKEA ($75)

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The most surprising thing about the 120-year-old carriage house that my husband and I rent in Brooklyn is not its bundle of quirks—spanning from the more charming layout and windows with comically large molding to the more taxing absent dishwasher and barely there bathroom. No, the biggest revelation is a true New York rarity: bedroom closets that afford an unusual amount of storage space.

Although I am grateful for this unique bonus, with extra square footage comes a need for organizational discipline, something I don’t have a knack for when it comes to closets. Our previous setup consisted of one metal bar and a long shelf—the result, as you can see, below, was lacking big-time. After three years, a global pandemic, and no will to invest in more bins that I wouldn’t maintain, I was excited to hear that Pottery Barn was rereleasing its classic ’90s Hold Everything Essential Closet. Before Marie Kondo took the world by storm, there was Hold Everything—a brand of organizational solutions launched by Williams Sonoma back in 1983 and later picked up by Pottery Barn in 1993. For the two decades that the line was around, its products were a favorite among home organizers. 

While other systems exist, Hold Everything appealed to me as an ideal in-between of off-the-shelf and custom. (I also own a Vitsoe 606 Universal Shelving System, but that’s for display, not hiding away.) Plus, after the product line’s return, it became a favorite among Domino readers, topping our best-seller list for February. When the opportunity to review the legendary Essential Closet presented itself, I committed to installing it without hesitation. To find out whether or not it helped our closet—and me—reach peak storage potential, read on.

Pottery Barn Hold Everything Essential Closet

The System

Finding the right Hold Everything system begins with a choose-your-own-adventure move: Are you looking to outfit a reach-in or walk-in closet? The main difference is in the posts—for reach-ins, you get a single post that connects to the wall in two locations at top and bottom. For a walk-in, it’s a double post that connects to the wall only at the top. 

Modular in design, there is just enough customization for either style without catapulting things into “I am paralyzed by the choices” territory. The post height is just over 7 feet tall, and widths vary between 4 feet and 8 feet. Optional components include basic shelves, shelves with rods, shoe racks, dresser drawers, cabinets, and cabinets with glass fronts. 

If you are looking for color or darker wood, this is not the system for you. If you’re hoping to keep your closet light, bright, and devoid of anything that borders on industrial, you’re in the right place. Everything is made either from white powder-coated steel (brackets, posts, rods) or MDF finished in white (shelves, drawers, cabinets). 

Essential Reach-In Closet by Hold Everything, 8′ Hanging System with 4 Drawers​, Pottery Barn ($3,061)

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To maximize the large size of our bedroom closet—and to avoid putting a dresser in the room, an already tight space—we opted for an 8-foot-wide reach-in style featuring several regular shelves, shelves with rods, and two 4-drawer dressers. Note: Measuring ahead of ordering is advised again and again by Pottery Barn, and being precise in this step is necessary for the system to fit properly (more on that later).

The Price

The systems are constructed from solid, coated MDF and metal frames, which helps justify the cost (the walk-in versions range from $1,123 to $4,305; the reach-in styles are anywhere between $763 and $3,061). These numbers are comparable to many full-priced options you’ll find at the Container Store, and the look is leaps beyond anything from Rubbermaid or what you’d see on Wayfair. We’re not talking custom California Closets, but there’s definitely a finished look at the end, which feels decidedly upscale.

The Installation 

Pottery Barn recommends hiring professionals to install the Hold Everything system. In an effort to get as close a look as possible at the entire process, my husband and I decided to do it ourselves. 

We collected the products at our doorstep since our building has a difficult entry, but white-glove delivery is available for an additional fee. At present, if you order today, you will likely wait no longer than a few weeks to get your entire closet. Boxes began arriving within a week, but the whole apparatus was not in our apartment until closer to the end of two. I am not lying that the amount of packaging took up three-quarters of our second bedroom; our set came with 31 boxes to manage. (Editor’s note: Within each box of brackets, there were 10 pairs packaged in their own boxes, which added up to quite a lot more.)  While I appreciated how carefully wrapped and packed everything was, as well as the fact that the system is certified nontoxic, this part would be my main complaint—breaking down all the cardboard, wood braces, foam, and plastic felt like it took as long as installing the unit itself. I couldn’t help but feel wasteful, even with a good portion of the packaging constructed from cardboard.

First, we had to deinstall the makeshift system from our closet—a bit of an ordeal, but we made it happen. After everything for the Hold Everything setup was out of boxes (which took, in total, approximately 1.5 to 2 hours), we were ready to go. Each box comes with the hardware and anchors you need, which is nice reassurance, but we thought the excess of small Allen wrenches to be overboard. We had a drill and drill bits handy, which we found necessary in the few instances that the drillable anchors weren’t sharp enough to get through wall material.

Now’s the time for another reminder: Measuring and ensuring your closet walls are free of obstacles top to bottom is not something to take lightly. Ditto goes for reading the instructions a few times through. This is particularly true with the reach-in style. It connects at the top of the post and also at the bottom, about 8 inches above the ground. 

Our closet width measurement was slightly off (we’re only human), so we had to use three bays instead of four. And thanks to our building being a century old, there are small pipes running through our closet along with molding at the bottom—right at the exact spot we needed to attach the posts. Because of this, we had to raise the floor up with wood from the hardware store to make the attachment possible. Securing the posts and drawers was definitely the most time-consuming part; it took us approximately three painstaking hours, considering we wanted each component to be level and secure. The drawers are supported by brackets but also secured to the wall; we had to install ours slightly higher due to the aforementioned pipes. Once those were up, we decided to call it a night. The following day, everything else went in pretty smoothly. Shelves screwed in easily, and rods were added quickly. Once it was 100% in, the system felt extremely durable—and I haven’t noticed anything to suggest otherwise in the weeks we’ve had it. 

The Final Word 

After going through installation firsthand, my final opinion: If you have the bandwidth in your budget and/or your home has tricky edges or some extra character, hiring a pro is worth it. If your home is on the newer side with perfectly smooth, squared-off closets, two able-bodied people could absolutely install the Hold Everything system—but it is definitely a weekend project. 

Even after all of this, I would still recommend the Hold Everything system, particularly for new construction or a gut reno or someone who wants to get as much out of hidden storage as possible. I could even see the system being used in a linen closet or craft closet, too—not just for clothes and shoes. The posts are well constructed, and the MDF feels hefty and stable. The hardware and anchors are pretty dummy-proof once you get the hang of it, and I like the ease of being able to move shelves around. The biggest perk? I’m actually inspired to put my clothes away instead of tossing them on our dog’s crate at the end of the day. 

Editor’s note: In a previous version of this article, the number of boxes noted included additional packaging that was sent erroneously, as well as boxes included within boxes. According to Pottery Barn, the average number of boxes across all closet configurations is 19.

The post I Didn’t Think I Needed a Closet System to Get Organized Until I Tried Pottery Barn’s Version appeared first on domino.

Meet our Organization Heroes, holy grail products and strategies for getting—and staying—tidy.

My affinity for headscarves started as an early-aughts style statement and evolved into a necessity as I started embracing my natural hair. These pieces have also become my favorite souvenirs because they’re easy to pack and I know they’ll actually be used. And yet: All these years of collecting have left me with an unruly pile that never seems to find a real home in my place. 

From classic Western bandanas and silky designer scarves to vintage wraps and athletic headbands, I lost count at 60-something, and it feels like it’s taken that many years to figure out a smart way to store them. In one very optimistic attempt, I Marie Kondo’ed them into little squares that I lined up in my dresser. That didn’t last 24 hours. I also tried those circular scarf hangers, which worked with the longer pieces for a while, but my smaller, silkier options would never stay put. I had all but given up until a window-measuring mishap led me to a game-changing closet hack. 

I needed a quick fix for my high-water drapes, so I turned to Amazon, hoping an order of clip-on curtain rings could make up for the length. It was there, in the reviews, that I stumbled upon a treasure trove of tactics for hanging awkwardly sized headgear. From DIY hat racks to rows of baby shoes, I instantly knew this was the solution to my scarf problem. I put one order in my cart for my windows and another for the closet trick I was about to try. As fate would have it, I was also in the process of reworking my walk-in shelving with an L-shaped garment rack, and instead of filling both sides with clothes, I reserved a rod just for the rings. Once I slid them on and screwed the pole back into place, I started clipping scarves by their corners, one by one (then two by two when I ran out of empty clips), and I couldn’t help but grin at the end result. Finally, all my wraps were in one spot, easily visible, and best of all, so much simpler to actually keep organized. 

The beauty of this trick is that it can work almost anywhere you’re able to install a bar—as long as you can remove it with enough room to slide on your choice of rings. The clips allow you to quickly hang and remove whatever you decide to use them for. In the depths of more than 9,000 positive ratings, I found stacks of baseball caps, tangles of suspenders, and a bounty of bows, neatly mounted on walls, over doors, or in closets like mine. If only I could give these reviews a 5-star rating. 

The post This $15 Amazon Find Helped Me Finally Organize My Closet appeared first on domino.

My beloved Brooklyn brownstone apartment is home to sweepingly high ceilings, potentially original picture frame molding, a fully renovated kitchen—and the smallest closets you’ve ever seen. And when I say small, I mean it: just two 3-by-3-foot enclosures with doors that barely swing open the entire way. Each has one rod for hanging clothing. 

In my dream world, I’d be a human with wood hangers that hold clothes with at least an inch or two between them so that they’d rest wrinkle-free. But in reality, my closet is so stuffed that sometimes I even wonder if hangers are necessary—if I just shoved a dress between two other garments, it would probably stay upright on its own. 

Obviously slim hangers are a must. But after snapping countless velvet ones made by you-know-who (rhymes with boy), I had to find a solution that would let me hold onto my overflowing collection of brightly colored dresses, but also not take up too much precious real estate. When a box of Neat Method’s Everyday Hangers came to my door for testing, I was instantly soothed by their minimalist design (a white hanger with a black hook) and impressed with just how slim they are. 

Neat Method Everyday Hangers 

Since slowly turning over my closet with Neat’s hangers—I’ve been leaving my old ones on my stoop for neighbors to take—I’ve noticed the biggest benefit: They appear to be indestructible. Even in my overstuffed closet, they’ve never broken while I’ve tried to shimmy a garment from the rod, and they hold heavier skirts and pants without buckling. (I just fold them over the horizontal bar, but Neat Method sells these clips, too.)

That said, they’re not perfect: Even though they have a rubberized coating, one of my heavier camisole-style dresses tends to slip off. Plus the hook doesn’t swivel, so I can’t hang things over a door (though maybe this will force me to actually put things back in my closet and not leave them out while I decide what to wear). But these are easy exchanges for their durability and the way they look lined up in my closet. 

Real talk: I would never suggest that you immediately toss all the hangers in your current wardrobe and replace them (that’s just wasteful). But I would argue that if you are looking to refresh your closet or have just moved, it’s worth investing in something that will last—and is already constructed of 70% recycled landfill plastic. And as I slowly edit down and replace my own hangers, these are the only ones I’ll use from now on. 

Shop Neat Method Hangers

Everyday Hangers in Matte White/Black, Neat Method ($38)

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Everyday Hangers in Matte Black/Brass, Neat Method ($38)

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Everyday Hangers in Matte Black/Black, Neat Method ($38)

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Everyday Hangers in Matte White/Brass, Neat Method ($38)

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The post These Hangers Are the Antidote to Teeny-Tiny Closets (Including Mine) appeared first on domino.

Maybe your closet is looking a little sad, or maybe you’ve decided that this is the year you finally do something with that awkward, empty nook in the corner of your bedroom. Going the custom route could set you back thousands of dollars—but there’s a smarter solution hiding out at IKEA. Have you heard about the Pax system? 

Pax Wardrobe Frame, Ikea ($40)

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Pax Wardrobe with Shelves, Ikea ($255)

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Chances are you’ve seen it—you just might not know it by name. The modular organization piece is incredibly easy to personalize, making it a favorite among bloggers and decor aficionados. It comes in dozens of silhouettes, ranging from tall and narrow to fully built out with shelves. Everything is finished in white (literally the perfect blank canvas), and thanks to its low price, it fits most budgets. All you need to get started on your dream wardrobe is a plan; that’s where we come in. Here are 12 of the most genius IKEA Pax hacks we’ve seen.

The Ever-Inspiring Walk-In

Chris and Julia Marcum’s viral IKEA Pax hack has inspired countless other DIYers. The seasoned renovators proved you can build a tricked-out walk-in closet for only $3,000 (even after a contractor quoted them a cool $30,000 to do the job). The couple still incorporated plenty of customization: On her side, Julia opted for lots of hanging space and a “denim bar,” while Chris chose mostly closed storage for all his T-shirts. 

The Dressed-Up Dresser

To create the look of a built-in dresser in their Pax-filled closet, Jarod Sabatino and his partner, Tim, smooshed two individual open-drawer units together and, through a combination of drilling and gluing, attached fronts to hide the gaps. The final arrangement left an empty space above to display art. “Taking something generic (cost-effective particleboard wardrobes) and turning them into something great-looking was so satisfying,” says Sabatino. 

The Molding-Covered Marvel

For $150, Mallory Fletchall, the creator behind the popular design-focused Instagram account @reserve_home, transformed her famously affordable wardrobe with picture frame molding (it can be cut with simple miter shears!) and Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster. 

The Alcove

Farwa Moledina knew she had to do something about her bedroom’s awkward nook and roofline. Enter two Pax systems and an angle cutter. Moledina trimmed the closet’s edge to mirror the sloped ceiling, before adding wood pieces cut to fill any gaps at the top. She finished it off with two coats of navy paint, a perfect match for the wainscoting you can see in the door’s reflection.

The Historic Hack

When Sarah and Kevin Reid-Morris bought an 1880s Victorian house with no closet in the main bedroom, they turned to IKEA’s largest Pax system. The pair purchased molding online, built a frame out of 2-by-4s, and added oversize gold handles to make the modern cabinets feel right at home in the storied space.

The Storage Saver

DIY expert Jenny Komenda has a secret when it comes to transforming her Pax: more IKEA products. After successfully painting the wardrobe to match the rest of her room (she used Zinsser’s shellac-based primer to combat the furniture’s slick, paint-resistant surface), she added a few inches of trim to elevate the frame. Then she installed IKEA shelves and drawers inside to create a dream organization system, all with just one trip to the store.

The Extra Elevation

If you’re low on space, elevate your Pax frame with a wood base to store bulkier items (like a suitcase) underneath. Just measure the base to match your specific measurements and…voilà! Everything has a rightful, and stylish, place.

The Nursery Storage

In this designer’s nursery, a floor-to-ceiling Pax is ideal for housing her daughter’s art supplies and homework. The only thing she brought in to mix up the Shaker-style front was a few simple leather pulls—it’s a small touch that makes the storage feel way more custom. 

The Mirrored Wall

If you’ve got a small bedroom, go for some visual trickery. Swapping out the doors for mirrors creates one large reflective surface that adds depth to the space (and makes those outfit checks exponentially easier). 

The Statement Piece

If you’re in a pinch and want a DIY that’s less of a lift, head to Superfront: The Stockholm-based brand has ready-made cabinet fronts for a number of IKEA furniture items, and many of the Pax options come with a textured pattern. There’s nothing pared back about this saturated teal dresser, and that’s fine by us.

The Tight Squeeze

For anyone dealing with an attic space, look to this DIY for inspiration. This blogger custom-cut their Pax (get the how-to here) to fit the slanted ceilings (and frame the fireplace!), then painted it the same deep gray as the walls for a monochrome look. 

The Long and Moody Walk-In

If you are not afraid to spend a little more time (and have some crafting skills that go beyond beginner status), take inspiration from this bold blue closet. It requires some elbow grease—okay, a lot of elbow grease—but once it’s built, you’ll have bragging rights forever. Bonus points for the contrasting striped wallpaper on the ceiling. 

The post 12 IKEA Pax Hacks That Give Our Nonfunctional Closets Hope appeared first on domino.

Meet our Organization Heroes, holy grail products and strategies for getting—and staying—tidy.

Every fall and spring without fail, I grab all my seasonal closet overflow and throw it in a suitcase without much thought. Come winter, stringy sandals and Birkenstocks get tangled up with bikini straps, floral skirts, and cutoff denim shorts. In early summer, bulky snow boots and puffy parkas are squished together and zipped out of sight. It’s a time-efficient method, sure, but far from a practical one. The contents usually end up scattered on the floor before a big trip, and some items lose their shape after being stashed away for months.  

After watching Get Organized With The Home Edit on Netflix, I knew that something had to change. Surely there was a better way to organize my cramped New York City closets without having to store away half my wardrobe. One tip that stuck with me: the idea of back stock. Typically reserved for pantries, this constitutes the excess or double-up items that can live elsewhere in the house (or on seldom touched higher shelves) until they’re ready to be used. What if my closet could have back stock, too, for seasonal items I’m not wearing at the moment? I turned to pro organizer Ese Crossett, founder of Tidylosophy, to help. Here’s what I learned. 

Categorize Your Closet

“Start by making piles on the bed or rug and categorizing them,” says Crossett. Once I created these clusters—one for summer skirts, one for winter knits, another for loungewear—it was a lot easier to identify how much closet space (in my bedroom and elsewhere) I’d have to dedicate for each and how accessible they needed to be, depending on the time of year.

Be Ruthless About What You Keep

Purging is an important step to closet organizing. Marie Kondo advises to only keep what brings you joy. While that’s a good starting point, I wanted to go a step further. After discarding any torn or damaged clothes on Crossett’s recommendation, I moved on to her next suggestion: creating a donate pile for anything I hadn’t worn at least once during the season. In the end I had a sizable amount of items I was happy to part with, which I dropped off at a nearby Salvation Army. 

File Everything Away (Also by Category!)

Working with the areas I had identified for each category of clothes, I filled my bedroom closet (organized by color, then favorites) until it was full. This made room for 10 pairs of jeans, seven chunky sweaters (or about double that for thin ones), and 26 pairs of shoes (plus the small selection I allow myself to keep by the front door).

I also cleaned out a few underused, hard-to-reach areas of other closets in my apartment, pulling out winter bedding and throws on higher shelves to store skirts, shorts, and T-shirts, and creating a new dedicated workout spot to keep things like wrist weights and resistance bands. Everything leftover went into a “maybe” pile.

Bundle Off-Season Items

In the end, very few items in my maybe pile were things I still considered keeping, but Crossett has a solution for excess clothing, too, and it doesn’t involve luggage: fabric storage bags. “I like the ones that have transparent front windows so I always know what’s inside,” she notes. I used a variety of stackable and hanging ones for summer dresses and skirts and another for eveningwear, which I tucked at the back of my closet, keeping my current winter wardrobe front and center.

As for the extra pairs of shoes I didn’t want to part with just yet, Crossett recommended labeled under-bed storage. The shallowness of the containers means I can keep each pair neatly ordered and not piled on top of one another.

Lifewit 4-Pack Clothes Storage Bags, Amazon ($26)

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3-Pack of 50″ Garment Bags, Amazon ($19)

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2-Pack Amazon Basics Under Bed Fabric Storage Bags, Amazon ($19)

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Label Everything

I’m not one to pull out a label maker very often, but Crossett urged me to clearly identify each section of my closets so I wouldn’t be tempted to create chaos in my newfound order. (This tiny Bluetooth one comes recommended by Domino’s style editor, Julia Stevens.) So how many days till spring?

The post This Home Edit Hack Forever Changed How I Switch Over My Closet Each Season appeared first on domino.

Meet our Organization Heroes, holy grail products and strategies for getting—and staying—tidy.

As a professional organizer, I’ve helped to declutter and tidy hundreds if not thousands of spaces over the past five years. Naturally, along the way, I’ve experimented with many buzzy storage and organization products, usually in my own home first before suggesting them for a client. One of those items that I’ve used for years has been the trusty velvet hanger. I’m not exaggerating when I say they’ve been holding up my clothes since they burst onto the scene via Joy Mangano on HSN in the year 2000. So it might come as a shock to learn I abandoned them in 2022. I mean, 22 years is a long relationship, but I got over it quickly by replacing them with a smarter, sturdier alternative. Before I get into the swap, let’s chat about why I held onto the velvet hangers for more than two decades.

As I tell my clients, using thin hangers saves an immense amount of room in a closet as opposed to the thicker tubular or wood kind. Whether you share a closet with a significant other or, like me, live in a city where square footage is at a premium, they are one of the simplest ways to maximize an area. I have witnessed people gain an extra 12 inches of hanging space just by switching to a matching set of slim velvet hangers. Not only are they relatively inexpensive (with most major brands selling them from 50 cents to a dollar per hanger), but the clingy material helps slippery clothing stay put no matter how much rummaging you do when getting an outfit together.

So what was the reason for the breakup? There were a few actually: I’m on the shorter side (5-feet-2), and when I’d try to grab an article of clothing off a hanger on the top rod, I’d ultimately wind up yanking it. This kept resulting in me snapping the metal neck. I tend to wear a lot of light-colored items, and when I had dark velvet hangers, I would occasionally notice little fuzzies on my clothes. Draping anything damp on them was a big no-no as they would sometimes even stain the fabric. I did invest in a white set at one point, but after a while they morphed into a dingy yellow color.

Enter my new love: rubber hangers. They’re as thin as the standard velvet ones, grip silk blouses and strappy tanks just as well, and, surprisingly, cost about the same but are sans fuzz and much more durable (I no longer find an array of busted metal hooks and velvety arms scattered on the floor of my closet). The adhesive material allows me to hang-dry items right out of the washer without fearing the color will transfer. All in all, I spent less than $90 to (re)organize my entire closet (the ones I bought are currently out of stock, but this $35 set from Amazon is super-similar). 

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Rubber Coated Plastic Hangers (Pack of 50), Amazon ($35)

Another perk that might steer you away from buying a bunch of brand-new velvet hangers? Rubber, ABS plastic, and metal versions are significantly easier to recycle. In fact, velvet hangers cannot be recycled at all. Luckily, my old ones didn’t have to go to waste—I found a local charity to take them off my hands. Another option is to give your old set to anyone you know going off to college or moving into their first apartment. 

I’ve been living with the new hangers for just about a year and have zero complaints. They’re mixed in with metal pant-clip and open-ended hangers for items such as jeans, shorts, skirts, and off-the-shoulder tops and dresses. Everything else (minus my sweaters, which get folded and placed in a bin on a shelf) is hung on the rubber set by season, by style (dressy versus casual), and then by color. It might seem overboard, but this change allows my clothes to breathe and makes it a delight to put things away properly. I may be organized, but I don’t like doing chores, so I’ll embrace anything that motivates me.

Disclaimer: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with owning and using (and loving) velvet hangers. Personally, I wanted a change, and I also like to let it be known that other options are available to you. Getting organized is never a one-and-done process but something you can tweak over time as your tastes, habits, lifestyle, space, and stuff changes. 

The post I’m a Professional Organizer—Here’s Why I Stopped Using Velvet Hangers in My Closet appeared first on domino.

Rashida Banks didn’t want to spend a second longer than necessary in her dim, cramped entryway. So much so, she had resorted to dropping her shoes and bag anywhere other than the 4-by-4-foot space. “My husband jokes that he can always tell where I am in the house based on where I’ve left my purse,” the Washington, D.C.–based content creator says. Consisting of only a small coat closet, the Bankses’ front foyer lacked any sort of functionality anyway (the couple primarily keep footwear and jackets in their bedroom wardrobe). But earlier this year, Rashida set out to change that.

Turning the heavily trafficked area into somewhere pleasant required not just more storage but a design that blended in with the rest of her thoughtfully curated home. Ahead, Rashida walks us through the project—including how she eked out room for the couple’s two furry friends. 

Box Yourself In

Who said kitchen cabinets can be only used in kitchens? To make the existing closet appear to be a built-in piece of furniture, Rashida slid a standard 30-inch-wide cupboard into the entryway alcove, an almost seamless fit with the 32-inch doorway (she filled in the gaps with extra molding). But to keep it from seeming out of place—read: not an extension of the actual kitchen—the couple opted for a butcher block shelf instead of tile or stone.

There’s still plenty of room to stow coats up top, and “the space we lost on the closet ends we gained in the center,” she explains. “Now we have storage in the lower half of the closet that we didn’t have before.” Scarves and other grab-and-go gear have a home either in the top two drawers or on the row of wall hooks.

Trick the Eye

Rashida let us in on a secret: The vintage-looking closet door isn’t glass. “It’s actually corrugated plastic roofing that we cut down to size,” she reveals. Originally meant for greenhouse construction, the material evokes ribbed glass for a fraction of the cost—at Home Depot, a sheet will run you about $20. By picking up the material from her local hardware store, she also avoided any lengthy lead times. A coat of Benjamin Moore’s Heather Gray paint on everything from the walls to the drawers completes the custom look.

Follow Your Routine

Redesigning the foyer was also a chance to halt the hassle of carting bags of dog kibble from the kitchen and back again. Surprisingly, the entrance had ended up being where Rashida fed their two pups, Jax and Chase. “That’s why it’s important to live in a space for a while before you make changes,” she notes.

Now the baseboard drawer hides two dog bowls, and the larger one above holds containers of food and treats. Despite the additions, the Bankses didn’t lose an inch of storage. “Everything went back into the closet that was already there, but now it’s actually a functional place,” says Rashida. “We have a junk drawer now!”

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In Marie Kondo’s new book, Kurashi at Home, the organizing pro takes readers beyond the joy-sparking practice of tidying up and into the Japanese way of life on a more holistic level. Now she invites you to visualize not just your ideal home, but your ideal life—from the moment you wake up to the end of each day. For her, it all starts with one daily habit. (As a bonus, this trick will also prevent you from tracking messes throughout the rest of your home.) In this excerpt, Kondo explains how her simple closet-cleaning ritual keeps her mind clear and her energy grounded, one step at a time:

Shoes have a strange appeal. While on the one hand, they’re consumables, on the other, they’re like accessories or even works of art. Some people’s passion for shoes results in collections so vast they could not possibly wear them all. Even those who don’t collect them have experienced love at first sight with at least one pair they bought on impulse.

I happen to love shoes myself—so much so that one day I sat down and gazed at mine intently. I took them all out of the cabinet, lined them up in the entranceway, knelt on the floor, and stared at them for about an hour. It’s hard to explain why. I just had a sudden urge to listen to their troubles. They had shone so brilliantly in the store, but now, shut away in the cabinet, they seemed to have lost their confidence. 

I know! I’ll clean them, I thought. 

I took out my shoeshine kit and began polishing them one by one until they gleamed. When I was done and had laid them all out on a sheet of newspaper, I thought I heard them speak. “Wipe our soles, too,” they seemed to say. 

Open your shoe closet and take a look. Do you feel repulsed? Or captivated? The difference has nothing to do with the quality or price of your shoes.

During a lesson with one of my clients, I noticed something odd when we came to her shoes. She had gathered them all together and was picking them up one by one to ask if they sparked joy, but something seemed wrong. For one thing, they were laid out on crumpled sheets of old newspaper. And she held each one gingerly at arm’s length, dangling it between her thumb and forefinger—even those shoes that looked like they might spark joy. I remembered her expression when I had asked her to take them all out. Hadn’t she grimaced? Yes. She was treating her shoes as if they were disgusting, even though they had once been displayed like jewels in the store. 

No item in our wardrobe is treated as differently as our shoes before and after we purchase them. The reason, of course, is that once we start wearing them, they collect a lot of dirt. But that’s because they spend all day confronting the dirt in our lives. Without a doubt, shoes have the hardest job of all. 

Perhaps your shoes converse with their neighbors, your socks or stockings, while you are wearing them. “It sure is hot today,” your shoes might say. 

“Yes, positively steamy. Hang in there,” the socks might respond. 

But privately, your shoes must be thinking, “At least you get to freshen up by being washed every time you’re worn.” 

There’s also a vast difference between the tops and the soles of our shoes. The tops are often kept well polished, drawing admiring glances, whereas the soles are rarely so lucky. This seems heartless when it’s the soles that take on the thankless job of tramping through the muck. They’re the ones that should be given special treatment. We should really give them the respect they deserve. 

That’s why I adopted the habit of wiping the soles of my shoes before bed or first thing in the morning when I wipe down my entranceway. And as I do, I thank my shoes for supporting me all day. 

Of course, sometimes I’m too busy, but when I can follow this routine, I find that it increases my clarity of mind more than cleaning anything else. I also feel like I can go places that suit clean shoes. There’s a saying, “Good shoes take you to good places,” but it’s really the soles of our shoes that get us there. After all, it’s the soles that connect us to the ground. 

Reprinted with permission from Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home: How to Organize Your Space and Achieve Your Ideal Life by Marie Kondo. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Copyright © 2022 by KonMari Media, Inc. English translation copyright © 2022 by Cathy Hirano.
Author and lifestyle photographs copyright © 2022 by Nastassia Brückin.
Still-life photographs copyright © 2022 by Tess Comrie.

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At J.Crew’s just-opened men’s store on the Bowery in New York City, there’s vintage treasures, a not-so-subtle boathouse theme, and for-sale records and books that add to the space’s warm, vintage-y vibe. That’s all thanks to the Dream Awake’s Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, who designed the concept shop in a way that highlights the brand’s first men’s collection by her husband, Brendon Babenzien, J.Crew men’s creative director and Noah cofounder.

“My overall inspiration was to pay homage to Brendon’s first collection, combined with the New York lifestyle of the J.Crew customer,” Bailey-Babenzien says. “It was really important to nail down the aesthetic for the store to match the brand’s well-known classic yet current vibe.”

That meant unlacquered brass, warm woods, worn rugs, nutty brown leathers, and heavy doses of “J.Crew green,” a deep foresty shade that appears on the tile lining the coffee bar walls. And one unexpected benefit of the highly curated space? Tons of closet inspiration. Here, Bailey-Babenzien explains three ways to update your dressing room into a creative space that’s as functional as it is fun.  

Either Oar 

In some nautical-themed spaces, paddles are purely decorative, but in the store, Bailey-Babenzien wanted them to serve a purpose, too. “It’s always helpful to have hooks and places to hang garments,” she says. “So we made a rack of sorts.” She suggests mimicking the look by lining up oars in an entryway or mudroom. 

Go Vertical

Traditional closet rods usually live inside an enclosed space, but these, rigged by a sailboat captain with climbing rope, can go anywhere you choose. “Use a rope that suits your personal style,” Bailey-Babenzien says, adding, “I think black rope would look slick.”

Forward Thinking

Simple hooks or knobs (the ones here are made from brass) turn clothing forward, which Bailey-Babenzien says is helpful for putting together outfits. Plus hooks are always handy for accessories. 

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