Closets

Reply to: Lots of answers to a very simple question. Here's some design guidelines: Closets: Depth of clothes on hangars and compartmentalized storage units is 2'-0. Aisle space to access the hanging and stored items is 3'-0 minimum for one person. Length depends on desired capacity. Most efficient use of space is a 3'-0 aisle with 2'-0 space on each side. Garage: 24' X 24' is a reasonable planning dimension for a 2-car garage, plus some perimeter storage. Parking stalls in public parking lots tend to be 10' X 20' max, as an example. Additional storage for mowers, etc. can be added to one side or the other of the garage, with external access if desired. Good luck on your project.

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Reply to: I haven't read all of the comments above. When we sold our last house, the closet there was 4'2" x 10' with hanging only along the length of the 10' facing the closet wall. It was wide enough for us. My girlfriend had a walk in closet less than 4'2" and it was too narrow. You felt like you were squished between the clothes and the wall. I have mocked up a lot of different closet styles to see how they feel in real life and here is what I have come up with ... minimum walk in closet width - - more is ok but this is bare min. comfortable width ... hanging clothes with nothing on facing wall 4'2"; our old home hanging clothes facing 12" deep shelves 5'2"; hanging clothes facing 15" deep shelves 5'5"; hanging clothes facing hanging clothes 6'2" wide; note - our current home is 6'3" wide and it is plenty wide enough to feel comfortable in with hanging clothes facing hanging clothes My mom's closet is 7'6" clothes facing shelves (not sure delth of shelves) and it is way too wide (meaning space is wasted). People tend to laugh when they go in her closet. It has so much empty space in the middle that she leaves the ironing board up a lot of the time.

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Reply to: Our garage is 24x24 and should have been bigger. We have a Chevy Traverse and a GMC Sierra crew cab (short bed) and while they both fit, the truck really needed more depth to be comfortable. I can open the rear gate on my car without pulling up to the wall, btw, so it's fine for that size vehicle. We have a 20' wide door and it works fine side to side, but if we wanted to use the garage for storage there would not be room. We have a seperate storage building, and will have a seperate metal carport for my horse truck, so we weren't worried about having extra storage room. We have 2 master closets because I didn't want to share. haha Mine is 9' wide and 6.5' deep and is perfect for me. I have 17 linear feet of hanging space including 2 sets of double racks and 1 single rack for longer items, 2 shoe racks, a full length mirror and a 3' wide 5 shelf unit. Oh, and 8 hooks above one of the shoe racks. I love my closet! Hubby's closet is an L shape, but I only let him have half of it. ;-) He has 14' of hanging space (2 sets of doubles), a chest, 8 hooks, and a shoe rack. I'm not sure what the exact dimensions are. The other half I use as a linen closet and for storing luggage. He too is very happy with his space.

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Reply to: In planning our closet design for our next house, I measured our hanging clothes from the wall to the outside edge of the sleeves to see how much space clothes take up. I measured 28 inches from the wall. I read on Fine Homebuilding that a person needs about 36 inches of space to stand in front of hanging clothes and not feel crowded. So that is 64 inches (5 feet, 4 inches) minimum closet width. Our current closet is a rectangle, with the door on the short end, and has about 5 1/2 feet of what I call double stacked space for hanging on each long side - one side is his and one side is mine. This is where we hang shirts, blouses, skirts and shorts. Also, on each side is a section about 3 feet, for hanging long items like slacks and dresses. Also there are 2 sets of shelves that are about 24 inches, maybe a little less. I am going off memory here. Plus there is a high shelf over the hanging clothes area. All of this fits in a space of 5'-11" x 10'-8" with the entry door on the short end. This is too small for a master closet in this size/quality of house (~ 3400 sq ft w/ fin bst, medium level of finish) I just know it will be an issue when we go to sell. If you are fortunate enough to design your own plan, think about how you use your closet (I like to dress in my closet), how much 'stuff' you have and measure your current hanging space for comparison.

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