Wardrobe Closets

While at one time the term linen closet was used as an apt description specifically for storing and holding linens, the term is now used to describe the storage closet or storage area where ones stores not necessarily linens specifically, but any and all related items, such as towels and washclothes for the bathrooms, toiletries, and extra blankets and sheets.

Nearly every home is now built in with a linen closet by the bathroom. These are the tall, narrow closets you find in the hallway near the bathroom or sometimes the bedroom.

But what if your home doesn’t have a built in linen closet? This article will address this question by pointing to some helpful products and ideas you can use as linen closet storage.

Options for
Linen Closet Storage

Or “What Do To When You
Have No Built In Linen Closet?

You use a free standing
closet instead, most likely!”

If your home or apartment doesn’t have a built in linen closet, or any closet nearby the bathroom for storing extra blankets, towels, sheets, and so on, short of designing and building a closet into the walls (a topic for another article!), your options basically all revolve around buying a stand alone closet or a combination of closet organizer or closet furniture accessories to hold such items. The amount of storage closets and related accessories that fall under this category is immense, as just about every article on this discusses a different type of closet that fits in with this definition. So let’s separate the wheat from the chaff and recommend some products specifically for linen closet storage.

Since we want to be budget conscious about this, we’ll start with the cheapest items first and move on to progressively more expensive linen closet storage solutions.

1. The ever classy *wink wink* “over the toilet” storage option.

This option works in real life much better than it sounds in print. The term “over the toilet storage” is unlikely to be found on any company’s website as part of their sales pitch. Lucky for us, we’re not selling anything, so we can call it like it is!

Anyhow, an open “closet” storage item like this, with two legs and a metal frame (often wrought iron) consisting of multiple open storage shelves, works very well for holding many of the same items a linen closet is purported to be used for. It also ironically makes them even more accessible for someone who needs them.

For instance, if you realize you need a towel when you’re out of the shower, would you rather walk down the hall and get it from the linen closet or simply reach above the commode and find a fresh towel to dry off with?

By the way, the one featured here costs $89 from Target, is made of wrought iron, and can hold 25 pounds – more than enough for our purposes here. It’s not “really” a linen closet or linen cabinet, but for many people, it’s just as good and will save them money, so I wanted to start it off as the first one on our list!

2. Bath Storage Tower from Ameriwood

You can also buy a free standing storage tower like this one from Ameriwood, designed with bathroom and linen storage needsin mind. As you can see from the picture above, this bathroom storage tower lets you store items both openly and behind closed doors – perfect for keeping extra towels and wash cloths on hand while keeping more private needs nearby, like extra toilet paper.

Available from Target for $89. Assembly required. Note that some reviewers found this bath storage tower’s assembly instructions to be kind of hard to follow and/or flat out noting that assembly was a problem. I’m including this here now just to let others know who may have read this before and thought about buying it.

3. Bathroom Espresso Towel Shelf/Rack from X-Frame

Spending a few more dollars – $130 versus the two items above priced at under $100 – you can really get an awesome looking storage unit from Target for the bathroom.

This is my favorite one on the list – just look at that photo! It looks awesome.

I wish there was just one or two more shelves for storage, but with 4 swuare storage areas boxed in on this shelf, you can definitely hold a respectable number of towels, sheets, and linens.

And while this tower could stand to be taller or equipped with at least one covered shelf or drawer, it makes up for it with it slick looking design.

4. Bathroom Storage / Linen Cabinet from Ameriwood

Ameriwood is making it twice onto the list, and for good reason. Costing $150, for about twice as much as the item featured in number two, you can buy a fantastic wooden bathroom storage cabinet. This solid wood cabinet features both open and closed storage areas and tops it all of in an espresso finish.

Mimmicking the design of a real built in linen closet, it’s tall and narrow and provides enough space for all the things you’d normally hold in a linen closet, except now you will probably have them directly available in the bathroom – exactly where those items are needed the most!

This is a close tie with the previous item in terms of how cool it looks. What this cabinet offers in additional to looking great is twice as much functional storage space!

It’s winter time yet again, isn’t it?

I live in the south, and we’ve recently been hit with our sporadic dose of Carolina winter weather. You never know when it’s going to come – it may be November, it may be January, heck, it may even be February or March. But despite our winter season being quite mild, at some point those winter jackets are coming out of hiding and onto our backs.

Our home has no closet by the door. It’s almost an odd thing to notice – the house itself (not mine, my roommates) is very nice, and there’s ample opportunity as far as storage space to have had a closet built in by the door for us to store our coats.

But nope – no closet.

Which is what led me to look at shopping around for good free standing coat closets. I learned a thing or two about them in the process; important points about coat closets that I thought I’d share here with you, dear reader.

Coat Closets: What to Look for in a Good Coat Closet

1. There are a lot of options. It helps to know first what you are looking for.
What I mean by this is that there isn’t just a single type of closet furniture that you can point to and say “that’s a coat closet” that doesn’t have other uses, and vice versa. Many storage closets are sold to hold a variety of items, from office supplies to a persons wardrobe to coats. Some are wide open, like a wood garment rack, and others have closed doors, like a 3 door wardrobe armoire. Some are meant to be lightweight and basically portable. Others are meant to be heavy duty. The latter we are more interested in, which brings us to the next point.

2. It should hold a lot of weight since winter clothing is heavy.
A coat closet gets the most use when it’s the coldest outdoors, and this is precisely the time when the durability of a coat closet comes into play. When shopping for a coat closet, look for the maximum amount of weight it can hold. The more, the better.

3. You can definitely keep find a coat closet under $300.
The wide range of prices in coat closets reflects how willing we are to pay for a nice piece of furniture. But there come a point in which you don’t really get much more functionality for your money. Now by all means, if the coat closet is intended to add to the room as a piece of furniture in its own way, then feel free to leave the budget out of the picture. But if your main concern is simply having a solid wood coat closet, you can find something like this for about $300 or less that will do the trick. Any more than that and you’re paying for aesthetics, which may or may not be worth it for you.

4. Before you spend all that money, organize any nearby closet first that could function as coat closet.
If you’ve already got a closet by the front door, why not use that as the coats closet? If the reason is that it’s jammed pack full of clothes already, you might be surprised to learn how much space can be leveraged out of a messy closet by first organizing. For some ideas on closet organization, take a look at our articles on closet organizers.

5. High quality, durable hangers belong in a high quality coat closet.
After going to the trouble of buying, shipping, unpacking, and then assembling a coat closet, don’t bring things down a notch by using cheap hangers that will end up being more trouble than they’re worth. Coats are heavy, and if you use light, cheap hangers, they are going to either snap or hold the coat lopsided, or worse yet, let it slip off. It’s better to invest in a good dozen set of quality, strong coat hangers from the start than to buy bad ones and then replace them when they break.

When the name Rubbermaid is mentioned, the thought that immediately comes to mind is the old lady in the commercial that is putting food back into the fridge. For years, Rubbermaid and Tupperware were synonymous with food storage, but this is not your mother’s Rubbermaid anymore. Rubbermaid has a full line of wardrobe storage furniture that offers true value for the dollar.

If you have been reading this blog at all, you know it is quite easy to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on storage closets. Even some of the portable ones that are out there can cost a small fortune. Rubbermaid storage devices are not only quality, but they also offer a lot of value to the consumer.

Rubbermaid has two wardrobe storage closets that are available on Amazon.com that are both available for less than $50. As a matter of fact, you can get both of them for about $60 if you have a lot of clothing to store. The Rubbermaid 3B2803BLTN 60-inch Wardrobe Closet and the Rubbermaid 3B2703BLTN 36-inch are $36.97 and $24.97 respectively. Compare those prices to other items that are available and we know exactly what line you are going to get in.

The value does not stop with their storage closets either. Rubbermaid has a complete line of storage furniture and closets for wardrobe items that is second to none. The Rubbermaid 3H94 Configurations is ideal for shoe storage and the Rubbermaid 85710 Fast Track Free Slide will serve the same purpose as the closet organizers that are selling for close to $1,000. Talk about value!

No, they are not going to look as pretty as some of the other furniture that is out there for storage purposes, but who cares about that when the items are in a room for storage or buried in a closet. Hey, money is tight these days and while there may be a need to organize a closet or store some clothing, there is no need to go broke in the process. Check out what the Rubbermaid closet storage line has to offer and it may just be the solution that you have been looking for.

Whether you need extra storage or are looking to turn a wall in your bedroom into a closet, the John Louis Home Storage Closets are the ideal solution. These sturdy and classy looking shelving systems are perfect to organize walk in storage closets or to literally turn a wall into a closet. They will organize everything from belts to shirts and everything in between. Costing only a few hundred dollars, they are a true bargain for the order that will be restored to your wardrobe.

The Honey Maple John Louis Home Standard 12-Inch depth Closet Shelving System JLH-522
This model is one of the less expensive systems that are offered by JLH. It is 100% wood and will compliment any room. It can fit into a 10 ft closet. It comes in two finishes, maple and mahogany, and offers ample storage space with over 18ft of hanging space. This model can stand alone for extra storage space or can be enclosed to make a true closet. Either way, it is an attractive addition to any home.

The Red Mahogany John Louis Home Premier 12-Inch Deep Closet Shelving System JLH-529
If you need a little more space, this JLH system will only costs about $75 more and looks absolutely incredible. The deep mahogany finish gives it a very rich look that one would think cost hundreds more. You sacrifice a little bit of hanging space for shelving space with this model, but for someone that is loaded with shoes and sweaters, that 2ft of hanging space will not be missed.

The Red Mahogany John Louis Home Deluxe 16-Inch Deep Closet Shelving System JLH-526
This is the granddaddy of them all and lists for about $500 on most sites. It offers plenty of hanging space with multiple shelving units. Two people would have no problem at all fitting their entire business and casual wardrobe within this unit. It is easy to put together and is the perfect first time project for a new DIY enthusiast.

Every single JLH home wardrobe closet system is attractive and affordable. They are all very easy to put together and offer a huge increase in closet storage space to any home. Whether you choose to leave them open and use them as storage for a separate room, install in a deep closet or turn a wall into a closet in a bedroom, there is little doubt that you will be satisfied with your purchase.