In historic homes around downtown Southport, historic downtown Wilmington, Sunset Park and Forest Hills, one of the most common closet design challenges is maximizing space in reach-in closets. Decades back, luxurious walk-in closets weren’t a top-notch priority in home design, hence gorgeous homes with mini closets.
When it comes to making the most of your reach-in, professional organization and state-of-the-art closet systems can make all the difference. A large part of our design process at Strickland’s Home is deciding how to store your unique inventory of clothes and accessories. This leads us to one of our most common closet design challenges: to hang or fold? While hanging is ideal for easy-to-access, no-wrinkle clothing, some items can be relegated to the shelves and storage bins. Here’s our advice.
What to Hang
While hangers have a number of uses in closet organization, it helps to start with items you know will definitely require a hanger. Here are some must-hang items:
- Slippery fabrics like silks and satins don’t fold well — allocate padded hangers for them.
- Delicate fabrics like taffeta, chiffon, and velvet crush too easily for folding — hang them.
- Work wear and dresses are difficult to fold — hang them! Use curved suit hangers for overcoats, suit jackets, and blazers to maintain their shape.
- Dress skirts and trousers can be hung on hangers with movable clips and clamps or over rods of wooden hangers to minimize wrinkling.
- Accessories like ties and belts can be hung from space-saving extendable valet rods.
- Go-to everyday items. Naturally, you’ll want easy access to your favorite outfits. For the clothes you wear often, frequent folding and re-folding can become frustrating, unnecessary extra work. Hang them instead!
If your closet has a wealth of must-fold items, ask your designer about double-hanging rods and divided hanging spaces. You’ll be amazed at just how much hanging space expert designers can find in a reach-in.
What to Fold
Of course, reach-ins benefit from more than just hanging systems. Custom-designed space-saving systems with drawers, open shelving, and even full-size dressers are ideal for reach-in closet design. They’re especially helpful for easy organization in (otherwise chaotic) children’s closets! Here’s what you’ll want to fold:
- Basics like t-shirts, sweatshirts, and sweaters are easy to fold, stack, and organize in separate shelving sections. Cubbies, bins, and baskets can also be useful for containing bulkier items.
- Casual pants and shorts like jeans, khakis, corduroys, and leggings are fold-friendly.
- Socks and underwear can be folded and put inside a drawer.
- Embellished evening gowns should be folded and put away in a box. While hanging may seem like the right choice for your finest gown, folding will allow it to better keep its shape. Make sure to avoid snagging from beading by loosely lining it with tissue paper.
Hanging and Folding
When you have access to professional designers for your custom closet design, there’s no need to choose between hanging and folding — you can have lots of both! If you’re interested in making the most of your closet space no matter the size, give us a call or come see us at Strickland’s Home. Our expert team will help you get started today.