On the ever so occasional moment that Holmes on Homes is not on HGTV when I'm in a crash on the couch and watch mindless television kind of mood, I am endlessly irritated by the comments of house hunters on closets.
Here's the typical scenario: The woman, at each house, looks at the closet and mentions "Oh! Look at this closet, this is perfect for MY clothes".
Or the husband says while looking at the guest room, "This will probably be my closet". Ugh, crazy making.
Now, don't get me wrong, our walk-in-closet was definitely a nice feature when we looked at our house. But it didn't make or break the sale of our house. And it definitely wouldn't cross my mind to tell Mr. B to take his clothes to the guest room - in fact, I think if we measured we'd find that he has more space in our closet than I do. While I've always had generous closet space in places I've lived permanently, I lived out of a trunk each summer I was in Maine and out of a small armoire in the sorority house - I'm pretty good at making do with what's available.
So, what's your closet status? Share the space - big or small? Separate but equal? Or is it all about room for your shoes? Is closet space a make-or-break it thing for you when house hunting? Sound off!
I'm in grad school right now and we live in a rented 2 bedroom duplex. The rooms are decently small, but it works for just the two of us. The funny thing is that the bigger bedroom (we use it as the master, but it's not like there is a bathroom attached) has the smaller closet. It's about the width of a regular door. There is no way both of our clothes could fit in there. So I use the computer room's closet (we don't have a guest room), which is almost twice as wide as the other one. My dresser is in our bedroom and my closet and shoes in the other room, which I thought would drive me crazy, but I actually don't mind at all.
ReplyDeletewe share the closet equally. we have a bigger closet in our apt. now though than we did in our house in MN! So we actually did have his clothes in the guest room in our old house! we just didn't fit!!
ReplyDeleteand yes, i look at closets when i house hunt! especially after owning a house where there weren't enough, i will look closer at it next time!
My husband complains about this every time we watch a house hunting show. Without fail there is a closet reference for the girl, and you forgot to mention the obligitory plasma TV reference for the boy.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love predictable stereo types.
Our first house was built in 1948 and the closets in the two bedrooms were each 32 inches by 32 inches--too small for ANY type of organizational system that we could find! You'd better believe that one of us moved our clothes to the guest bedroom. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't remember how I found your blog but I love it. I have tiny closets, too (ours are c. 1938- I wish they had more clothes then!) and have also done the trunk in Maine thing as a counselor so I try to remember that it can be done. But my closet works best the day before laundry, when it's empty...
ReplyDeleteI HATE those comments too. They always drive me INSANE. One thing that we love about our house is the enormous amount of closet space. Our master bedroom has a double walk-in closet. One is bigger than the other but one has more hanging space while the other has more shelf space, and since I hang more of my clothes while Torsten folds more of his, he has the smaller one with the increased shelf space and it works out perfectly. And then we use the bigger high-up shelves in my closet for joint stuff.
ReplyDeleteActually, I posted photos of our closets once: http://duwaxloolu.blogspot.com/2009/06/closet-space.html
Closet space wasn't a deal breaker when we bought our house but it's definitely been a challenge figuring out how to make do with tiny 1950s closets. I ended up taking the entire master closet, my husband uses the 1st guest room (i.e. man cave) closet and my shoes take up the entire 2nd guest room closet ;) Not sure what we're gonna do when we have kids... or guests, for that matter!
ReplyDeleteAnd on another note, I'm a real estate agent and can't tell you how many clients I've had who have walked away from an otherwise perfect house just because of the (lack of) closet space. So frustrating.
separate but equal. our 1940s house has teeny-tiny itsy-bitsy closets, so my stuff is in our bedroom and his is in the office. we also have separate dressers in our respective rooms. the only reason my husband got the other room is because he often gets up earlier than i do and it's more convenient!
ReplyDeleteUGH!!! I totally agree. Really, isn't this what our financial crisis is all about? People overspending, stuffing their closets with barely worn items, people wanting MORE MORE MORE!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd especially when people are looking at older homes... I mean REALLY you KNOW that there will be small closets if you're not buying new.
We have a minuscule closet in the master bedroom. I get the closet, J gets the dresser. He really only has a couple of things that need to be hung. Still, he has also taken over the closet in the spare bedroom, even though all his stuff would fit in my closet.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Hubby and I would share a closet -- that making the man use a closet in a different room was mean and silly.
ReplyDeleteThen we bought our 1950's house with tiny closets. The only thing that would work was for Hubby to build custon organizers for them, and even then, only one person's clothes could fit in our bedroom closet, so I used our closet and Hubby used the office closet. Now that the office is the baby's room, and he get the closet, Hubby get the hall closet, right outside of our bedroom. Hopefully in the next two years we'll do an upstairs reno and share a closet again.
But the size? I like having a small closet because it makes me stay organized, and it helps me limit what I have -- only so much will fit!
Didn't really make a difference but something that I either love or hate while living in the space. As long as things are organized I'm ok.
ReplyDeleteI *hate* that! They always make a closet joke like it is so original. Yes, you are the first person EVER to joke that "this one will be big enough for my shoes." Do these people not watch the show before they go on it???
ReplyDeleteSorry for the rant, you hit on a pet peeve of mine :-P
totally agree with you. although i suppose it helps that i really don't have that many clothes or shoes. besides, i can't imagine making charlie wander into the guestroom to get dressed and what are you supposed to do when you have people stay with you?
ReplyDeleteWe have a large walk through closet between our bedroom and the bathroom. In fact it is big enough that Peachy slept there when she was first born. I probably take up the majority of the space, but M gets plenty of room as well. I agree, a closet or lack thereof is not a deal breaker on a house for me.
ReplyDeleteI did take into account the size of the closets when we were looking for a house. If it was absolutely tiny, there's no way it would ever work! I don't really think it's right to force your husband to use a closet in another room! We are very lucky to now have a big walk-in, so we're able to fit most of our clothes in there. I obviously have way more clothes, so some of mine are stored in dressers. I also keep some of my old clothes and dressy clothes in another bedroom.
ReplyDeleteMy man's clothes and shoes take up 3/4 of the closet. But to be fair he is more fashionable than me. My closet seemed like a big selling point when we bought the house, but it actually a lot of wasted space. Something I hope eventual buyers of our house don't pick up on. Being pregnant and working with 1/4 of a rack worth of clothes options has been enlightening. Makes me realize that for day to day, I may not need that much closet space afterall.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually in the guest bedroom. It would be ideal to have a large enough space to share, but it's not meant to be. I wish I would have thought this through when we were renovating, we could have at least put in a real closet instead of a small "linen closet"-type thingy. Oh well.
ReplyDelete