It’s no secret that a walk-in closet is a major selling point guaranteed to increase the resell value of your home. With every couple looking for more and more space to store their ever growing wardrobe of suits, dresses and shoes, a spacious and luxurious closet, according to one source, adds between two to three times the cost to your bottom line. But how do you make yours stand out from the rest? The simple answer is careful planning. Before embarking on creating that storage utopia in the master bedroom, keep these five things in mind in order to maximize both your space –and your profit!
- What are your needs?
Before hiring a contractor, you need to do an inventory of what you plan on storing in your walk-in closet. How many suits and dresses do you have that need to be on hangers or are you more casual and require drawers to store all your sweaters? What about shoes? How many pairs do you have and how many pairs do you see yourself buying in the next five years? Take measurements of how much space your current inventory takes up while budgeting in the extra space you’ll need as your wardrobe grows.
- Get out the measuring tape
In addition to calculating how much space your wardrobe takes up, you’ll also need to measure the size of the actual closet. Get the width of each wall (most walk-ins have a 2-foot-wide access corridor), the height from floor to ceiling and the width and height of the doorway. With this information at your disposal, you will be able to determine whether you’ll need to knock down a wall in order to create more space.
- Learning how to maximize space
Ever notice how some items of clothing fill most of the vertical space in your closet while others go only half way? If this is the case, plan on separating the two so you can fill the void below your shirts with shelves or additional racking.
- Visualize
According to one storage expert, we wear just twenty percent of our entire wardrobe eighty percent of the time. So I’m guessing that it’s probably a good idea to keep those high traffic garments front and center with easy access. But what about other items that will be used but not as much? And how about items that will only be worn on that very rare occasion. Map out a strategy with your contractor so you aren’t having to dig deep to find that shirt you wear every single Saturday.
- Is it just clothes?
Is your walk-in closet a place just to store your shirts, blouses or pants? Do you want additional shelving to house your shoes? What about a belt rack? Or what about laundry or office supplies? Again, make sure you write down a list of everything you want to store in your walk-in closet and make sure your contractor creates a design that can accommodate everything.