IKEA Closet Storage solutions： A tip to make the most of depth & height
Hello!
I’m Emi, a Japanese Professional Organizer based in the Netherlands.
Have you ever felt that your closet is too deep and the space between the shelves too wide? Does that make it a bit challenging to organise?
With just a few simple items, you can make your IKEA closet more accessible and you can get to the clothes you need without messing up a tidy stack of folded ones! ……. In this blog, I’m going to talk about a tip to make the most of depth & height.
The hidden challenge of IKEA closets: a structure that isn’t divided into smaller sections
This is our closet. It is a 10-year-old IKEA MORVIK.
While it’s large capacity allows for lots of storage, the shelving section is actually not very useful as is.
- Its depth is a bit too deep: 60cm
- The height of both shelves is a bit too high: 35–40cm
Maybe that’s why stacks of neatly folded clothes tend to collapse? Drawers are certainly convenient for storing small items such as socks and underwear, but even without them, you can solve the problem with this tip.
For small items, use boxes for zoning: (1) front, (2) back, (3) top
In the red circled area, I used two IKEA SKUBBs to store socks and underwear…
As you can see, the socks are piled up quite high. It’s only a matter of time before the stack collapses (laughs)
SKUBB ① Back: trainer socks
SKUBB ② Front: underwear & dress socks
Although I sorted them roughly like this, the socks and underwear are now all mixed up. That shows that this solution isn’t user-friendly for my husband! So, now for a great tip!
Using cardboard boxes, I made a two-story ‘sock and underwear zone’ in the back.
(1) Front: dress socks in a SKUBB
(2) Back: (inside the cardboard frame): underwear in a SKUBB
(3) Top :(on top of the cardboard frame): trainer socks in a small cardboard box
It’s been a week since I rezoned it this way and my tall husband has been able to keep the closet neat and tidy.
I always keep a few empty cardboard boxes at hand, because it’s hard to find storage organisers that only have frames. When I come across one in the size I want, I use it as a storage organiser.
The great thing is, when I no longer need them, I can pop them in the paper recycling bin, so I never have a pile of unused storage boxes!
How to make “frames” using cardboard boxes
Living in a Dutch house with very few drawers for storage, we started thinking: “Can’t we make drawers out of things we have at hand?”
As a result, we came up with this idea for a cardboard frame. The “frame” we used here was made by simply folding the top and bottom of the cardboard box to the inside!
In the photo, the bottom of the box is the front of the storage frame.
The back side can be closed or left open.
Position the completed frame in the closet.
② (2) Now, insert the SKUBB with the underwear.
Perfect fit!
The point is that the height of the SKUBB should not be the same as the height of the frame. Make sure that there’s plenty of clearance for your hands so that you can easily reach in and out! Also, make sure that you can see all the way to the back and can get to whatever you’ve stored in the SKUBB without difficulty.
Next, place the (1) SKUBB containing the dress socks in front of it.
Finally, place (3) the small cardboard box with the trainer socks on top of the frame in the back.
At first glance it may look like it would be difficult to get the underwear out of the SKUBB in the back, but if you bend down a little, you can see all the way to the back, and there is plenty of clearance for your hand; so, even my 2-meter-tall husband can easily see and get to the items stored in the back box.
If you use empty boxes that are all the same size, they’ll look more tidy when they’re stacked.
If you want to make it even nicer, have fun covering the cardboard frame with your favourite wrapping paper or an attractive fabric.
If you don’t have any storage organisers, this is a good way to keep your closets in proper order and reuse cardboard boxes.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog🌞
Until next time, Tot ziens!