Whether you and your significant other have finally moved in together, or you’re still trying to sort out whose clothes go where, there’s one thing we can all agree on while cohabitating—sharing closet space is harder than you might think!
We all hate keeping a closet organized even when it’s just our stuff, but when there’s a whole second person’s worth of clothes in there (even if they’re not the kind to consider themselves a clotheshorse) it can start to feel a little more cramped than usual.
However, with a little imagination and the right closet storage tools, you can make sure everyone’s outfits find a home, from your favorite party dress to the shirts they need to find in the morning for work.
The first step when organizing a new closet is to figure out how you’re going to divide everything up. As the old saying goes, sharing is caring, and if you’re going to be trying to share a closet you’ll need to decide how to use the space. An easy way to do this would be to just split it down the middle (using some paint or masking tape to indicate where the sides stop, like they used to do in old cartoons when two people couldn’t share a room together), or if you’re the sort that can handle fractions you can do it the hard way—someone gets part of a shelf and then some floor space on the opposite side of the closet, and so on.
An easy way to go about divvying up the space might be to just keep ‘like’ with ‘like’. You could keep everyone’s belts on the same shelf and use your shoe racks to organize things like sneakers vs. dress shoes instead of separating everything by owner. Unless the two of you have totally similar taste and keep getting everyone’s clothes mixed up together, this could help compress space a little bit and keep things ‘fair’ as far as room division goes.
Once you’ve figured out how to use the space, the next step will be to make the most of it for storage. Every decision you make at this point needs to reflect the fact that you’re sharing closet space with someone else, with an entire wardrobe of their own. For instance, switching to extra thin hangers will free up a ton of space on your hanging rack and allow more clothes to be hung up than you normally might’ve been able to.
Above and beyond the rack, you’ll really want to make sure you’re using every inch of space you have available. Things like over the door closet storage can help you add extra shelves and space on the back of your door, which can free up room on your racks and shelves. The back of the wall can become home to closet organizer systems to help store smaller items to prevent them from getting lost, while making sure they don’t take up a ton of space elsewhere.
Finally, don’t be afraid to make more space by taking stuff out of the closet. If your room has space for something like a bedroom dresser, you can free up some room by keeping some of your clothes in there instead. Or maybe if you’re finding a lot of stuff you’re never going to wear again, now might be the time to think about donating them. You might not miss them.