Clever Lighting Solutions For Small Closets

Huge closets are mainly a thing of recent decades. Any house that was built before 1970 is very likely to have small closets. Small closets can be a challenge. However, with some reflection and organization you can make the most effective use of your small closet.

A first thing to consider is proper lighting. If the closet has dark corners you will lose things or have a tendency to stick seldom used things into those corners. Both habits are not effective use of small closets. There are a number of different ways to increase the illumination of your closet space in the absence of a pre-existing light.

Battery operated lights have been available for ages. These lights operate much like a flashlight that is affixed to the wall or ceiling of your closet. However, with all things that are battery operated there was a tendency not neglect to switch the batteries. This tendency might have been due to the expense of batteries. Clearly, it is much cheaper to change a light bulb than to change two B batteries.

I have recently seen some advertising for some very clever LED lights. LED lights are very small but very powerful lights. Originally very expensive, LED lights have dropped dramatically in price. The benefits of such lighting is that they cost very little to operate and will outlast most other light sources. I have recently seen LED lights that are activated by the disruption of a magnetic band. The lights are affixed in such a way that the magnetic band is broken as a door opens. Accordingly, the LED light is activated every time a door opens and is deactivated every time a door closes. These particular lights would be a welcome addition to most closets.

As previously mentioned closets can be a challenge. Small closets in older homes can present as even more of a challenge. With some proper small closet organization including adding a light source you can make your closets more effective and efficient to use. Consider adding LED light sources to all of your closets and you will be sure to notice a great difference.

Over the past several years LED lights have burst on the home lighting scene, increasing in quality and brightness, while at the same time cost had continued to decline.  With an excellent light to power usage ratio, LED lights are sure to be the future in all types of lighting applications. With the extremely low power usage and the advent of automatic sensors, low power consuming wireless lighting solutions will soon be a reality where previously they were just an inconvenience.

Small closet organization could be a whole science on its own, in my opinion. I have been faced with this dilemma in most of the homes that I have lived in, so I have become somewhat of an expert in this area. Let me just tell you about some of the best tips I have for maximizing the usable space you can squeeze out of your wretched small closets.

Clear out clutter

First things first - there is only so much you can put in a small closet. Step one of organizing a small closet is making sure you get rid of absolutely all the crap that you really don't need. This will make it easier to deal with the essentials, and you'll probably be relieved to be rid of a lot of your old useless clutter  in any event.

Only store similar items

Step two is to make sure there is some system among all of your closets. You should keep similar things in one closet, so it is easier to find things, but more importantly, you will know exactly which closet you should put things back in when you are done with them. This helps keep your whole house in that  perfectly organized zen state that everyone aspires to.

Maximize storage space with an organizer system

If you don't have any system of shelves or hooks or hangers, you limit the amount of things you can access in your closets. Sure, without shelves you can pile in the same amount of stuff, but if you have to un-pile it every time you want to use something, your small closet will quickly become unusable, ergo unused.  Make sure to install shelves that match the size of items you want to store, and install hooks for odd shaped items that are more easily hung up.

Use normally unused space

This is especially important with small closets. The best example I can give you for this tip is to use a back of the door organizer. You know, one of those shoe bags hanging from top to bottom allows you to store an entire collection of shoes, while leaving the bottom of your closet free for an extra set of bins that can store away precious or seasonal items. Bins are very useful storage tools, but be careful about stacking them so they become cumbersome to access. The other thing to remember about bins is that you quickly forget what is in them, and then it becomes a pain to unpack all your bins to locate that one thing you are looking for. My advice is to only use bins to store things that you don't often use, or alternatively store things that you often need to move all at once (like crafting supplies).  To ensure that you can easily find your stuff that you stored away in bins, make sure to well label the front of your bins, either with pictures or lists of the items inside, or better yet, buy clear bins. This lets you get a sense of what's inside without going through everything.

If you add something, take something away

This is my final tip, and one that most people procrastinate terribly on. It is just common sense though. If you've spent any amount of time perfectly optimizing the storage space in your small closets, then adding a bunch more stuff without getting rid of something will quickly throw your whole system out of whack. It is just easier to take a hard look at your closet at the time you put something new in, and take away something that you really probably will never use again. If you can't throw it out, then sell it on Craigs List, or find someone or some charity to donate it to.