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Getting the most out of your wardrobe.

When building a new wardrobe or fitting an existing one we spend so much energy wondering if the doors should be sliding or mirrored. Do we have timber, veneer or laminate? Do we have baskets or full drawers?

When in fact designing the wardrobe is all about the internals. The best wardrobes are designed around you and your needs and not just a system to fill.

The first and most important step is inventory, followed by culling (yes, be brave) and leaving room for future purchases (looking better already hey?)
As laborious and boring as it sounds you will be tearing your hair out if your clothing ends up hanging into your shoes and you find yourself overstuffing your drawers.

Double hanging systems have ‘doubled’ our wardrobe space but they don’t accommodate trousers hung at full length and dresses and coats of all differing lengths. If these differences aren’t taken into account you may leave valuable space wasted. Three quarter length dresses may leave room for shelving above or shoe racks underneath.

Once you have the hanging checked off you need to know how many jumpers, t-shirts and tops that need to be on shelves or allocated to drawers.

Then there is your lingerie, underwear and socks. Many times I have heard people say ‘oh we only need a drawer each’, when in fact she needed one each for underwear, lingerie and socks and her partner needed one for underwear, one for sports socks as well as one for suit/dress socks.

For some the most important feature is the area delegated for the shoes. Having them displayed lovingly like a shoe shop is glamorous but if you are short on space this cuts into valuable hanging or shelf space.

A solution could be to rotate your shoes seasonally as you would winter jumpers and summer dresses. Shoes can be stored in boxes up high in clear storage shoe-boxes with a photo on the front for easy access. These can be ordered online at www.imagequest.com.au

The wardrobe is also a place for your accessories. Your bags can be neatly arranged on shelving, scarves folded on a pullout shelf, belts rolled individually in drawers and jewellery drawers can be built in with a shelf and a mirror above.

IKEA have a great range of accessories to put in your wardrobe at a great price without compromising the look and function. For those with a large area do you need a mirror for dressing and properly positioned lighting to see you at your best?

Once these mechanics are noted it lays the foundation for the best possible functioning wardrobe so you can access your clothes quickly and easily. Which leads you back to the first point. Sliding drawers or hinged?

by Shaynna Blaze-Vaughan
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