Micah Ryan Designs

Closet Makeover (His)

Not long ago, after shoving a pair of my husband’s cleaned and “folded” socks into the cubby he had designated for them in his closet, I was inspired to surprise my husband with a closet makeover!

The timing was serendipitous as he had an event coming up the following weekend that would buy me a few hours to work on this and surprise him, as long as all the new items needed for the organization project would come in on time.

I wanted to keep this a total surprise, so I waited until he was at a friends house to make a plan.

STEP ONE | Inventory and Measurements:

I went into the closet and started to take a mental inventory of what all was inside that would need a “home”.

Starting top to bottom there were backpacks that were exclusively used by my husband, some bags that we use as a family for traveling, and some hats. Inside the bags were shoved some belts, some watches, and other various little “accessories” like a pocket watch he got as a gift at a wedding.

Next in the cubbies were plain white t-shirts that he likes to keep in bulk, long socks and short socks that he keeps separate, swim trunks, parts of costumes from over the years, ties, knee pads and ankle braces. Hanging were his shirts and jackets only, with no real rhyme or reason.

Lastly he had shorts, sweatpants, pajama sets, and jeans folded on shelves under his hanging clothes, and shoes sitting on the floor in lines.

I measured each cubby, every opening that wasn’t the main clothes hanging area, and measured from the top of the shelves to the ceiling.

This is as much as I needed to get done in the immediate. The closet was exactly how he’d left it, and I could do the remainder of my planning elsewhere to keep this a surprise.

STEP TWO | Visualizing, Planning, and Purchasing:

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I had noted the different “categories of items in my phone as well as the measurements of the different areas of the closet. First I wanted to get an idea of what all needed a “home”. The family bags were easy- I knew I just needed to empty them and put the bags in the hall closet with the rest of the suitcases we use as a family. Next was to mentally decide where each other item should go:

At this point, the above was my rough idea of where things would make sense. I wasn’t super up-to-date on different options for belt organizers and things, so I wanted to start searching Amazon and Google Shopping to start to visualize. I also knew I wanted to make best possible use of the cubbies, so I kept that in mind.

The most crucial items to me were the items that should go in a dresser. I knew I had some cubby space (the second tier with hanging rods that currently had no hanging clothes, and only shoes lined up at the bottom). So I started by searching the word “dresser” and the width of the space. After some searching I found a dresser that was 3 drawers and a good width, height, and depth for the cubby. There were 2 identically sized “cubbies” side by side facing the closet door, so it made sense to purchase 2 of these which would give me 6 drawers. I, however, had 7 different items that I had categorized as needing a drawer in a dresser. I decided the item that made the most sense to leave out of a dresser was the socks. My husband likes to sort his socks short, and tall separate. My dressers did not go all the way to the ceiling of the cubbies, so I chose a set of 2 baskets that could sit on top of the dressers, one to hold short socks, and one to hold tall socks.

The dressers were black with silver handles, and the baskets were woven and grey, so it made sense to play off that for the remainder of the closet and create a masculine space with neutral colors. That helped me with the rest of my choices.

There was a space behind the door where the closet shelves ended and the wall was even with the back of the closet, not the front- so it created a little cutout area, that could hold some items without interrupting the opening of the door. The silver in the dresser knobs helped me decide on silver as the metal for the closet. I chose 2 towel hooks (with 2 hooks each) to install in that area and hold all of my husband’s backpacks and drawstring bags.

Next I searched online for “belt organization” and “belt display” and found a hanger that holds multiple belts. I had taken inventory already, so I was able to verify which would hold exactly as many belts as my husband owned. Shoes were easy, I still had 3 cubbies left, one was very wide (this was originally where I planned on putting a dresser, but did not find one the right size), and 2 smaller ones. I decided to put as many layers of stackable shoe shelves as I could find in each of the 2 smaller cubbies, while leaving the top shelf tall enough for boots. I found shoe shelves the perfect width, and chose them in white so they blended seamlessly withe already white closet, making them look like they belonged there all along.

Next I categorized some of the random items he owned: Caps, soft hats like beanies, swim trunks, athletic items (ankle and knee braces), accessories from costumes (Captain America mask, lobster claws, etc), watches, rubber bracelets, chains, etc. The clothes I decided to put into soft baskets that would go inside the top short cubbies that were in the same section as the shoe shelves. I could fit 3 baskets in each cubby, so I put 1 category of items in each basket and 3 baskets in each cubby, which allowed me to organize and put away 6 different types of items. I now only had left to organize watches and “jewelry” type items and caps. For his watches and things I measured the “cubby” that was along the longest wall that currently had nothing in the large “cubby” below. I was able to find some small grey woven baskets that were firm. I could fit 3 in that cubby, so I categorized and organized his jewelry for those 3.

By far I had the hardest time solutioning a place for the caps. I knew that with a big open space from the top of the shelving to the ceiling that would be the best space to use, but I wanted it to look like a display and just couldn’t find what I was picturing. Finally I was inspired during a search and looked for DVD display shelves that I used on their side to display caps and one baseball glove.

Last was the fun part- adding some new items. I decided on a rug to make the closet feel more like part of a home and cozy. I still had the widest cubby open, so I chose a large laundry basket that matched beautifully with the rest of the decor for that area, a large framed poster that used to hang in our previous home, and a tall faux grass plant which filled the space and added some color. Lastly I chose 2 faux plants to fill corners on either side of the cap display to ensure the coziest possible feel.

I waited until I made all my selections before purchasing (because in this process I do alot of changing the plan based on new or different size items), but once I was confident I had a “home” for everything, I purchased my cart. As items came in, I hid them in my closet to keep the surprise.

STEP THREE | Cleaning, Organizing, and Decorating:

Once all of the new items had arrived, I waited until my husband would be out of the house for a few hours. He had a game of Dungeons and Dragons so as soon as he left I took everything out of his closet, put it on our bed, and started cleaning. I moved top to bottom cleaning the top of the shelving, each shelf, baseboards, the floor and even the door.

Once everything was sparkling clean assembled the 2 dressers and secured them to the wall. Since they are lightweight and sitting on a “ledge” I felt it was important to secure them to the wall so that they weren’t shifting out every time they were used. Once built, I filled the drawers with the designated items (jeans, shorts, white t’s, sweatpants, and pajamas). One drawer designated per category.

Next I removed the tags from the 2 sock baskets, put one on top of each dresser, and placed the short socks in one and the long in the other.

I assembled the shoe shelves and stacked an even number in each cubby and placed 2 pairs of shoes on each shelf. This fit exactly all of his shoes. I screwed in the backpack hooks and hung all the backpacks, filled and placed all the baskets with miscellaneous items, assembled and displayed the DVD cases and caps, and set out all the decor (rug, plants, laundry basket).

The final touch, and most tedious task, was categorizing his hanging clothes and counting each category and number of hangers in each color (he had blue, white, and black hangers– we’ve since upgraded to all black). I separated sleeveless shirts, flannels, jackets/hoodies, t-shirts, and long-sleeve shirts. After counting how many there were of each, I figured out which “category” would have which color of hanger based on how many we had, and hung each category up on the correct hanger color, each in separate “cubbies” of hanging. The sleeve-type and hanger color categorization really helped the space feel cohesive and organized.

My husband was SO excited when he came home to his surprise. He has since created other organizations within his own closet and taken ownership of how he likes laundry put away. It is much easier to navigate and now I don’t feel like I always need to closet door shut!

I hope this helps you with tackling your own closet project, it was super fun, not too time-consuming and extremely worthwhile in the end!

Happy Organizing!!

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