This is the blog where we talk about Garment Racks

It’s time for us all to give in and admit that the standard one-rod closet just doesn’t work anymore. 

If it had, we wouldn’t have started inventing closet organizers like hanging shelves and shoe racks.  It has a nice idea and it served a purpose for many years but these days?  Well, there are a couple of issues.  One, we have more stuff.  Not just clothing, but accessories to go with them.  And we have seasonal clothes, formal wear casual wear, the list goes on!  And two, we simply have evolved and organization has become a part of our level of sanity and happiness.

Enter the Simplicity 12′ Closet Shelving System by John Louis Home.  It takes the guesswork out of creating a custom closet.  Everyone wants the look and convenience of a custom closet, but not everyone is clever when it comes to construction and designing.  Here are my favorite features:

*Quality, solid wood construction                              *Modern yet timeless wood finish options
*Adjustable shelf lengths
*AFFORDABLE!
*Mounts anywhere, even outside of a closet

I know it seems intimidating to install a closet shelving system on your own, but the name Simplicity means it’s design to be easy for the average person, not carpenter.

Of course there are more complex versions available if you need something a little more elaborate and have someone to do the installation for you.  Either way, I believe amazing products like this further prove my point that no one is satisfied with the traditional closet.  And why should we be?  Look at all the benefits you get from a custom closet.  Everything is tidy and easy to find, plus you end up actually gaining closet space!  Someday (once we’ve really evolved) this kind of thing will be standard in all homes, even rental apartments.  No complaints here!

Just because you’re going on a trip, doesn’t mean your clothes can’t be as organized away from home as they are at home…

Summer is just about here and most of us are planning at least one vacation.  Whether you’re going camping in the mountains or staying at a beach resort somewhere tropical, there’s a common issue.  We all want a better solution for keeping our clothes organized while traveling.  Sure, hotels have closets with hangers and most come with a dresser.  But is that enough?  It doesn’t seem to be enough at home which is why we have access to so many great closet organizers.

Here are some suggestions for making your closet away from home feel more like the closet at home:

Portable closet shelves perfect if you’re staying at a hotel or family/friend’s house.  Because they’re made of fabric, they folds down nice and flat to fit inside your suitcase.  At home, you would typically use a hanging shelf like this for your sweaters, jeans and shirts.  It’s designed to help you when you don’t have a dresser or have run out of space in the dresser.  Apply the same logic to your vacation.  You might be staying somewhere (like a friend’s house) where they have a place for you to sleep, but no dresser for you to store your clothing.  With a travel closet shelf, you don’t have to keep your clothes in the suitcase the whole time you’re away.

If your vacation involves spending a lot of time in the car (camping or road-tripping), I have a couple suggestions for keeping your clothes organized without a suitcase.  Put a plastic chest of drawers in your trunk area and it’s like having a dresser everywhere you go.  You can even take it out and put it inside your tent and it’ll feel a lot less like you’re “roughing it” out there!  Better yet, use the Auto Clothes Bar – Expandable Garment Rack in your car for hanging clothes.  You wont’ have to worry about nice suits and blouses getting wrinkled in a suitcase while on your road trip!

Remember, for every clothing storage issue there’s a solution – even when it comes to travel.  I hope your summer vacation is fun, safe and memorable!

Running out of closet space is so annoying, right?  Especially when you get new clothes and are so excited to hang them up. They always end up strewn messily across the floor, giving my home the look of a Hazmat site. Sometimes I try to save my floors from the disastrous mess and stuff my clothes into drawers, giving my room a false sense of order. In reality though, the drawers are so stuffed full of socks, shirts, skirts, slips and shorts that I cannot even pull the drawer out to see what is contained within.

One solution for this clothing catastrophe is to purchase loads of bins to place all of your clothes into. The problem with this solution to clothes storage is twofold. For one, bins still take up a ton of space in your closet or bedroom, therefore not really solving the problem at all; two, bins can be hard to organize and make it difficult to find what you are looking for, especially early in the morning when you are all groggy and haven’t had your coffee yet.

The perfect solution to closet and bedroom storage issues is to maximize your closet by using tiered hangers. With tiered hangers, you can place multiple garments in nearly the same amount of space as just one! There are all kinds of tiered hangers, including tiered shirt hangers, tiered slacks hangers or even an Add-On Skirt and Blouse Hanger.

With all the extra closet and bedroom space you will save by using tiered hangers, just think of all the options you have to recreate the space: You could turn part of your closet into a dark room, or a mini recording studio, or better yet, for you ladies you could turn the closet into a vanity room.

No matter where you live, or in what kind of dwelling, a garment rack is a handy thing to have around.  The typical rolling clothing rack can serve a variety of purposes, from storing seasonal clothes in the garage to adding a closet to any room.

The guest room in my home is actually located in a space that was designated as a small office or bonus room, so it did not come with a closet.  I solved this problem by adding a Portable Spare Wardrobe Closet which acts like an instant closet.  It even closes up for a tidy look in the room.

A good garment rack can also help save your laundry room from getting messy, overcrowded and a confusing.  You can use it to hang clothes to dry, which will also save you some money on energy.  If you use a hanging sweater dryer to air dry delicates, you can hang it from your garment rod rather than putting holes in the wall or ceiling.  If you do not have space in your laundry room for a full size rolling garment rack, then there are a number of alternatives.

A wall garment rack saves you space and gives the same benefits of hanging clothes to store or dry.  Use this kind of clothing rack like a usual closet rod, and even hang sweater shelves or a hanging shoe rack.  Best of all, they can also be folded down when not in use.

As I said before, just about anyone can benefit from having a garment rack in the home.  They can do more than just store and dry clothing – think of unique and creative ways to re-purpose a garment rack!

An overstuffed closet can present a number of problems for any person.  When you have too many garments hanging on the rack, they easily get wrinkled and forgotten about.  And it is pretty well known now that household clutter is a stress inducer for most people.  It tends to be a reminder of how out of control things have gotten.  De-cluttering around my house has not only become an activity I enjoy, but the more organized and tidy my home becomes, the more care free I am.

For me, the abundance of clothing I own has always been an issue.  What can I say, I like clothes!  And I have always had crowded, over filled closets with clothes smashed up against each other like sardines in a can.  Which always means more wasted time looking for an article of clothing and having to re-iron it.

My solution to this problem happened when I started storing my seasonal clothing in the garage.  Some items are multi-seasonal, but others really aren’t and you can afford to send them on a little vacation somewhere else in the house.

This Urban Valet by Honey Can Do was a smart choice.  Here’s why:

• It is sturdy, but rolls around easily when I need it to, and it offers around forty eight inches of hanging space!
• You can hang long and short garments on it, and you can store other seasonal items such as winter shoes and accessories on the top, bottom and side shelves.
• The shelves that are incorporated into the frame provide more stability all over, than you would get with regular clothing racks, which tend to be flimsy and tip over easily.

Closet renovation and organization is a great project anytime you have free time.  I find that when I have a well organized closet, I have an easier time getting ready in the morning and I wear all of my clothes, rather than just the few favorite pieces that are easiest to find every day.  One of my common problems with keeping a tidy closet, is that I don’t like to hang everything up.  Some things just do not need to be hung on hangers, or can’t, (such as sweaters and jeans) but I also don’t have a bedroom dresser.  So I don’t even have drawers to put those articles of clothing in.

3-Shelf Closet Organizer

Another problem with my closet has been all the unused space beneath the hanging clothes.  It seemed like there was a much better way use the space.  So, I installed a bottom closet rod beneath the one that was already there.  Then, I added this awesome 3-shelf hanging closet rod organizer to the bottom rod.  The three shelf closet organizer is made of canvas with metal hooks that hang from the clothing rod.  And the hanging canvas shelves have inserts to keep each shelf sturdy.  I placed three in a row and gained nine shelves in my closet, without having to install permanent closet shelving!
Now I have shelves so I can fold up sweaters, sweatshirts, and jeans and keep them in my closet without having to hang each one from a hanger.  It worked so well in my closet, that my husband decided he wanted one too.  We did the same exact thing in his, and it feels like we have fancy custom closets but did it at a fraction of the cost.  The other cool thing about these canvas closet organizers is that they’re portable.  So if we’re going on a trip, we can have the same closet convenience at the hotel that we have at home!

A great way to keep your closets clutter-free is to store your out of season clothing elsewhere.  That means, during the winter your summer clothes go into storage and vice versa during the summer.  Don’t worry if you do not have a garage, there are plenty of places to find storage around the home – you just need to know where to look for it!  When it comes to managing clutter, especially when it comes to clothing, I absolutely treasure garment bags, which come in various styles.  Some garment bags hang over the closet rod to keep long coats and dresses stored, while others are designed for packing up sweaters and keeping them under the bed.

Ideally (if you have a garage) you should keep a garment rack in the garage for hanging items.  That way, all you have to do is transfer the hanging clothes to the garment rack and zip them up in some sort of protective storage bag.  You’ll want that bag to have good strong seams, somewhat rigid to maintain shape, and be transparent so you can see through to what’s inside.  Never go the easy route and use garbage bags, folks, you’ll regret it!  If you do not have a garage for storing seasonal clothes, you will have to be a little more creative.  But it is not difficult – utilize space under the bed, under the sofa, in a hall closet, etc.

Space Bags and other containers which use a vacuum to suck out the air are a dream come true for people with limited storage space.  Use those to hold your sundresses and tanks in the winter and your sweaters and scarves in the summer.  No matter how you go about it, you are sure to find that storing seasonal clothes is the key to having an organized and de-cluttered closet!

The holidays are around the corner, and for a lot of us that means one thing – house guests.  By Christmas day, my house is packed with out of town relatives.  My sister, her husband and their two kids, my mom and dad, and Aunt Henrietta on my husband’s side of the family.  We always wanted a big house with lots of space for guest to stay over and feel welcomed during the holidays.  That was before we realized what an ordeal it can turn out to be, especially when it comes to the laundry mess!  The first year we hosted the whole family at Christmas, it didn’t occur to use to have spare laundry hampers around.  You can imaging the chaos that ensued.

Around day four of our family gathering I walked into the laundry room which looked more like a war zone.  Never mind the piles of dirty clothes – I couldn’t tell what belonged to whom and getting all the socks matched back up was a bigger task than cooking Christmas day dinner!  So the next year, I got smart and decided that every family/couple would have their own laundry basket.  But I didn’t want to have three or four extra clothes hampers around all year, so I needed something that would fold down and store away the rest of the year.  I decided on getting four spiral Pop hampers because they’re made of canvas and fold down flat.  When the gang isn’t in town, I can store them in the garage with other seasonal items.

I am so glad that I solved the holiday laundry problem, and that it was such an easy solution!  Doing laundry when my family is in town for the holidays is easier on everyone, not just myself.  Everyone’s dirty clothes come in and go out in the same laundry hamper and now they can fold their own socks!

Who says a practical item like a clothes hamper can’t make a great gift?  I have a friend who loves practical gifts because she’s very minimalistic and doesn’t like “things”.  Being a single working mom, she also can’t afford to buy herself a lot of those basic necessities.  Chances are you probably have someone in your life like that as well.  So here are some gift ideas for that who could not only benefit from a practical gift, but would love it because they wouldn’t or couldn’t afford themselves the luxury of getting a fancy laundry hamper.

Because she’s a busy mom, my friend could really benefit from a laundry sorter to keep her organized and cut back on laundry time.  With something like this, she can keep everyone’s dirty clothes sorted, and gain some storage:

For someone with a family but limited space, I would recommend something a little more compact.  You can still get the large capacity, without taking over the laundry room with something like this:

Anyone who doesn’t have a washer and dryer in their home and has to travel with their laundry needs an easy way to tote it around.  I suggest either a bag that they can carry over their shoulder, or a rolling cart to bear the load, like this:

If you just need a basic laundry hamper to hold your laundry and maybe one other person’s, go with something stylish like this:

If you need a larger capacity hamper to sort laundry but still want style like the last hamper, then this one gives you the best of both worlds!

If you like these hampers either for yourself or as a practical gift for someone in your life, then I think you have great taste too!

Here’s where you can find them:

1.  Laundry Cart: Bamboo Laundry Center by Neu Home

2. Compact Cart:  Triple Laundry Sorter

3. Portable Hamper:  Collapsible Laundry Hamper Caddy by Caddy Concepts

4. Stylish Hamper:  Nadina Hamper by LaMont

5.  Stylish Sorter:  Woven Seagrass Triple Laundry Sorter by Household Essentials

Just in time for holiday shopping, I have compiled a list of favorite clothes drying racks.  “Why on earth would I buy someone a drying rack as a gift?”, you say.  Because a clothes drying rack is something that every one needs!  Get one for your wife, your sister, a friend, anyone who needs a new solution for hanging clothes to dry.  I have made sure to include something here for everyone, including apartment dwellers, home owners and everyone in between!

This expandable drying rack is perfect for anyone.  It has the ability to expand and contract to meet one’s needs.  It holds a large capacity without taking up too much space:

For someone who doesn’t have a lot of space in their laundry room, or doesn’t have one at all, this countertop rack is ideal.  Best of all, it can be folded down and stored in a tight space when not in use:

Another space saving solution for garment drying racks is something that hangs over the door, like this one:

Someone with a large family and enough space in their laundry room would benefit from a larger, more traditional drying rack.  I recommend this one because it offers A LOT of hanging space:

Last but certainly not least, this over door drying rack is the simplest and smallest solution, to meet the most basic needs.  It also makes the perfect stocking stuffer!

As you can see, drying racks come in all shapes and sizes and there is just about any kind available to meet everyone’s needs.  Show someone you really care about them this holiday season with an unforgettable gift like the ones I’ve listed above.  Happy Holidays folks!

Here’s where you can find these awesome clothes drying racks:

1.  Expandable Clothes Drying Rack by Household Essentials

2. Countertop Drying Rack by Polder

3. Brabantia Door Drying Rack

4. 3 Tier Airer Clothes Drying Rack by Moerman Americas

5. Over the Door Hanger Holder – Set of 2