Monday, November 25, 2013

Cleaning My Kid's Closet

Last week I cleaned out and totally overhauled my son's closet. He's five and so his closet does quadruple duty as storage for me, clothing for him, dress-up gear stash and of course toys. He has a big walk-in closet, rare for a home built in the early 70's. The weird thing about his closet is that it's tucked in an alcove behind his bedroom door. So to open the closet door, I have to shut his bedroom door and then do a little side step.




To be clear, I love the size of the closet and I'm so happy to have the space. I'll certainly be able to make good use of it as he grows. And it's hard-to-get-to nature makes it the perfect place for my son's hide out or a club house when friends are over.



But everyday, I find myself squeezing through the awkward door layout and catching my shoulder on the corners of the doorjamb. I've thought about all sorts of ways to reorient the closet structurally, going so far as to even have a contractor come over and take a look. Now I'm thinking about someday getting a ready-made closet for his far wall. Something like one of the slide wardrobes seen below:


Ascot Slide Wardrobe

Just an idea.
For now, it's livable... I'm just tired of the continual shuffling.

4 comments:

Rachel Anderson said...

Seriously...what are builders thinking sometimes. Like, take the extra 4 hours and do it right! If I would have designed a space in design school where doors clanked into each other, I'd have received a big fat F.

Wendy said...

As a temporary fix, you could just remove the closet door. Even hanging a curtain in the doorway would make it easier to use than the current set up. It's so nice to have a big walk-in closet, especially in a child's room, I think.

Connie said...

That closet is a pain. A closet on the far wall, makes good sense. Two feet off that room would still leave a pretty good space.

Betsy said...

Hmmm - is there a pocket door option? Probably not 'cause the wall backs up to the tiled bathroom shower. I'd probably take the door off and put some kind of curtain on big rings that make it easy to shove to one side.