Almost three years ago, I pulled out our basic builder closet and installed an elfa closet. At the time we didn’t have The Container Store in Salt Lake City so I personally designed the space using their online tool, which is specifically for reach-in closets. We have a walk-in closet, while admittedly smaller, definitely had more space to be maximized but I went with what I had created and was over the moon with the results.

After a year or two, it kind of bothered me that I was only using one wall of the walk-in closet. I felt like the space had so much more potential. The bookcase holding my shoes made the closet seem closed off and cramped. Every few months I moved things in and out of the closet trying to better use the space but it never quite seemed to work perfectly.

Then, The Container Store came to town last Fall and after spending many many many hours there, specifically among the beautiful closets they have set up in the store, I decided to have one of the elfa experts help me re-work the closet to add a little more space and make it an actual walk-in closet again. My designer, Amelie, was able to take what I already had, subtract it from the new design and sell me only what I needed. And it was all during the elfa sale, so I got everything at a discount.

Chad and I went through all of our clothes, shoes, and everything else we kept in the closet and were able to weed out a few more things effectively tackling an item on our The Big Move List. Then I installed the new parts of the closet in about two hours (since I had done it once before it was waaaaaaaay easier this time). I was able to get everything back in and organized within another hour.

Despite being an exceptionally better organized space than the previous two designs, it still isn’t very well lit so taking photographs is difficult. I still find myself walking by the closet and standing in it just to admire everything quite often.

I LOVE the shoe organizers and the drawers. The drawers definitely solve the problem we had with Chad’s sweaters – never knowing quite where they belonged because he doesn’t like to hang them and we were out of drawer space for them. It also freed up another drawer because Chad’s jeans fit in the top drawer. It’s so crazy how much more fits into the closet when we basically just added one more 24-inch space.