Get it? It’s a pun! “Contain ourselves”?!?! It’s freakin’ hysterical – alright, maybe it’s more groan-worthy, but at least it should get a reaction… oh, wait, crap, I forgot to tell you what this is about… let’s start over…
The Woman and I can hardly contain ourselves over the new closet… nevermind. This idea sucks. Let’s just pretend it never happened and I’ll just skip to the part you care about… wait, what do you guys care about?
The first step in operation “Deal With The Annoyances Of Our House And Prepare For The Baby To Get Here” – or DWTAOOHAPFTBTGH for short – was to fix the closet situation in our bedroom. It was/is a tad odd. The house is not without closet and general storage space – actually it’s got a lot of storage. Unfortunately, not much of it is convenient for clothing. The Woman’s closet has a small door that leads into a short – yet long – dark, unfinished area that nearly gave me tetanus when I realized just how unfinished it was. My closet, on the other hand, is a real closet – albeit one that was designed for a narrower person than myself. Oh, and it’s located in the future home of the aforementioned baby.
While not horrible, this is far from ideal. When I first mentioned this issue over a year ago, a couple people suggested looking at the Elfa system from The Container Store. (Yes! I finally tied in the title appropriately. You may now all collectively groan.) We hesitated too long and missed out on the annual sale – I feel bad for even taking this long to mention them as the sale ends in less than a week. But I still want to put it out there. Why? Because it really is a good system, and the people who work at the store are great.
The idea was to take this horrible mess of a corner in our bedroom:
and turn it into a workable, open closet arrangement.
Our first trip to the store was a tad overwhelming, because it gets really swamped on the weekends. So I decided to send The Woman back on a week day armed with the proper measurements. For starters, they plan out the whole thing for you for free – that’s pretty cool. But what shocked me was that they will actually e-mail you the plans from the store. The Woman called me at work to let me know the cost, and when I asked about how it looked, the designer sent me the layout right then and there!
So after waiting a few days to clean and paint that corner, it took only a couple hours over two nights to build this:
Everybody in the store was super friendly and helpful. In fact, we’ve already gone back once because we decided to add another hanging bar (since I have more pants than long clothes) and are thinking about adding another drawer on the other side. Even their non-closet organizers are appealing to us – this unit would work well on the door to the basement.
We’re totally stoked to have a real closet area and, while the Elfa system can be a tad expensive, it’s also incredibly convenient and much sturdier than what you can pick up for a couple hundred dollars at Home Depot or Lowes. It’s also a system we’ll be able to adapt if we ever get to build that walk-in closet.
Now if I could just convince them to send me some ad money for writing this crummy review…
Oooooh! I’ve been looking for a door rack like that for the back of our closet door in the front hall! Perfect for hats, gloves, scarves, severed hands… etc. Cool system. Did the people help you decide what pieces to buy based on what you needed to store? I’d love to do all of our closets to maximize the space, what little we have. Of course, you still haven’t seen our house, so you don’t know what I’m talking about.
I have an unholy love for The Container Store, but that’s probably obvious from our room-closet. The second half of the basement is getting the Elfa shelf treatment as well, once we replace the flooring and clean out all the crap.
Mrs. Suit – if you bring the measurements of the area you’re using for storage, they will help you decide what would fit best. There are also several large precombined closet options, both walk-in and reach-in, but those might not be right if the dimensions don’t fit what you need.
The easiest way is to go to the store and talk to someone and they’ll help out. I really haven’t ever encountered a bad Container Store employee – even if they don’t know what they’re doing, they’ll find someone who does. Plus, if you get the stuff at the store or have it shipped to the store you save on shipping fees since you’re driving it to your house. We amazed a guy a few weeks ago when he came outside to help us pack the car; he couldn’t believe how much the Beetle held (and I was kind of amazed that he actually wanted to help us put the stuff in the car).
All of their products are adjustable, and the door rack is even more so because the shelves are not dependent upon each other. If you go to the store, they’ll be more than willing to help you out (they are friendly enough to make it feel cultish), but you could probably just grab one of the pre-packaged versions of that rack and then place the shelves where you need them. That’s what we’re thinking about.
And during the Elfa sale, they keep a lot in stock so that they can put together your order right there if you want to take it with you.
I, too, have an unnatural attraction to the Container Store….and the yearly sale is the best time to get organized. Glad to see you’ve joined the cult.