Extra space often lurks in the most unexpected places. You may actually have some unexploited space right inside your front door or in an upstairs hallway. Although halls and foyers are often overlooked as potential storage areas, there is generally a spare closet in the vicinity. With a little imagination you can convert some of that open space into an extension of the closet. For instance, the traditional coat and hat tree, placed in a foyer corner, can be the resting place for outdoor gear that’s used on a daily basis (jackets, scarves, caps). Pegs or a mug rack on the back of the spare closet door can provide even more hanging space. An umbrella stand provides organized storage for dripping umbrellas; an attractive basket on a small table (or tucked in the drawer) will keep gloves together and ready to go.
Many halls will accommodate a narrow bookcase which could hold all of your paperbacks or CDs/DVDs or older videotapes. A shelf along the molding at the top of the wall might also hold paperback books, without interfering with the space in the hall itself. In a back hall way, a pegboard and hook or grid and hook system will accommodate hanging items such as sports equipment or school book bags. You can even hang a bike from hooks on the wall if you are a city apartment dweller. If your hall is really large, you might put an armoire or other newer, freestanding wardrobe in the area. Other possibilities include a pretty chest of drawers, trunk, cabinet, or wall unit system—where just about anything you want to store can be accommodated.
If you have a staircase off the foyer, check the space under the stairs; you may have enough room for a small dresser or trunk or some modular cubes or even a work table for hobbies and crafts. A storage bench with cushions can provide a reading nook for a child if you mount a small lamp on the wall by the bench. Customizing possibilities include building in a wine rack, installing hooks and bins for sports gear (this is a good spot for the bike), or building slots for oversized artwork or for storing suitcases. If you want to enclose the space so that the things stored are hidden, hire a qualified cabinetmaker to design and in stall doors. Conversely, if the area under the stairs is currently closed off, often this wall is easy to knock out and replace with doors, opening up that extra bit of storage space that had been hidden — and wasted.
Hall Closet
Originally meant to hold coats, hall closets can harbor all manner of things, in and out of season. Tennis rackets, slide carrousels, hiking boots, shopping bags, suitcases, holiday deco rations, board games, and the vacuum cleaner all vie for space in many of America’s over stuffed hall closets. Throw in a box of tax records along with some coats, hats, and boots, and suddenly getting the vacuum cleaner out presents the ultimate challenge, since invariably it starts a cascading effect that is more aggravating than the chore at hand.
To cut down on the congestion in the closet and still make use of it for efficient storage, the first step is to eliminate unnecessary clutter. Old papers, outgrown clothes, broken appliances and toys, and all of the other totally useless junk should be tossed or given away. That done, you’ll want to design a closet system that will save the maximum amount of space. For instance, if your front closet is given over mostly to coats and jackets, you might benefit from a combination of double rod and single rod systems which will give you more room for all of your jackets and still accommodate a few long coats. Shelving should (in most cases) be expanded upon by adding another shelf or two at the top of the closet. Hooks on the side walls, at the back of the closet, and on the inside of the closet door can also hold anything hangable. Rolling basket systems (which come in various sizes and heights) can be used to hold everything from boots and mittens to sports gear.
A word of warning: Although the hail closet has tremendous potential for storage, if you’re trying to fit shopping bags, old tax records, games, skis, coats, sports equipment, lug gage, pet equipment, and anything else you can cram into it, you’re asking for trouble. That closet is not in itself a storage miracle, so don’t use it as a dumping ground for any thing and everything. Give careful thought to what you need to organize and store there, and then look to other areas for solutions, such as the basement, garage, laundry, or children’s rooms. Special storage centers in all of those areas can help lighten the hall closet load and keep everything nicely organized and accessible at the same time.
Holiday Decorations and Gift Wrap
Holiday decorations and gift wrap often come to rest in the spare closet, and frequently get squashed beyond recognition and serviceability. Some decorations accumulate year by year until you find yourself with five times more than you’ll ever use — all of it crammed into the hail closet. Face the holiday facts, and give yourself more storage space by getting rid of the stuff you never use. The things that are kept year round in this closet, particularly the gift wrap, should then be stored so that you can retrieve whatever you need when ever you need it.
This over-the-door rack fits easily on either the inside or the outside
of the hall closet door.
Boxes. People tend to save gift boxes thinking they’ll recycle them at a holiday. Inevitably only a few get reused and the rest get pushed and shoved around in the closet. Save a half dozen boxes if you must, but make sure that they all fit into one another to cut down on the shelf space required.
Paper. You can reduce the amount of gift wrap on hand if you buy all occasion paper. Glossy white paper with a pretty ribbon will do just as well at Christmas as it will for a wedding or a birthday; a red-striped paper will cover all of those and Valentine’s Day as well. All occasion paper can be used throughout the year, so store it where it is readily accessible. You can segregate it in the closet (so it won’t get squashed) by storing it in a gift wrap organizer, available from mail order catalogs. These handy organizers are made of heavy cardboard and assemble into an organizer with special compartments to hold rolls of paper, flat paper, and spools of ribbon. Another option is to stand rolls up in a small plastic trash can. Flat paper can be stored in a plastic sweater box and put on a shelf, or if you have drawer space (in a small chest of drawers in the hail, or in a rolling basket system in the closet) you can store the flat paper and ribbon there. Scissors and tape can be hung on a small cup hook in the closet or stored with ribbon in a plastic sweater or shoe box.
Miscellaneous Decorations. Store out- of-season decorations in boxes on the highest shelf in the closet, labeled clearly by holiday. You can also store these boxes under a bed, or, if you must, in the garage or attic, but only if these areas are very clean. Ornaments should be stored in ornament boxes (so they’ll be intact next year when you need them), and lights can be looped around a piece of card board and stored in labeled boxes as well.
Sports Equipment
If your hail closet has turned into a sports center, you can increase the storage space and organize the gear by adding shelves, hooks, and rolling baskets or bins. Bins marked “swim gear,” “camping gear,” or “tennis balls” will keep things together so that getting what you need for any sports activity is simple, and putting the gear away when it needs to be stored — for however long — is equally simple. Hooks can hold things like rackets and mitts, and a plastic trash can makes a good depository for balls of all sizes.
Suitcases
If your suitcases are stored in this closet, stop to review how many you own. If you only use a special few, get rid of excess baggage so you have adequate space to store the bags you do need (or something else that you actually use). These can be stored on a top shelf, and garment bags can be hung on hooks at the back of the closet. If you are squeezed for space in this closet, remember that you can also store luggage under the stairs, under the bed, and on closet shelves in other rooms that are too high up for practical daily use. Or store some of your suitcases inside a trunk or foot locker (the foot locker may fit sideways into the closet, under the stairs, or in a corner of the hail). You can also store soft-sided luggage in side other luggage, so that three suitcases occupy the space of one.
Vacuum Cleaner Parts
Vacuum cleaner parts tend to get separated from the vacuum cleaner, which is usually stored in this closet for lack of any better storage options in the house. Then, when you need that special gizmo to clean some corner or crevice, you can’t find the necessary piece in the closet. To more effectively store these items, use an attachment bag or rack that hangs in the closet or mounts on the closet wall or inside door. Or you can simply throw the parts in a bin (such as a dishpan or kitty litter pan) which is kept on the closet shelf or floor. (A shallow pan with parts can also be stored under a bed if space in the closet is limited.) And, get rid of exotic attachments you know you will never use. Vacuuming is a chore, not an art.
This handy caddy neatly organizes vacuum cleaner accessories and
can be hung on the hail closet rod or on a hook or rock mounted on the
inside of the hall closet door.
These storage units ore designed to be a focal point of the room.
The overhead lighting accents the decorative aspects of the painting
over the fireplace as well as the two surrounding cabinets.