Glocally Newark

Last week I shared two of my personal favorite systems for free-standing closet organization.

The space in question? Our study turned walk-in closet -

The room has uneven floors, wavy plaster walls and doors or windows on 3 of the 4 walls.

I liked the PAX system from IKEA for the price but there were a couple issues. First off, the system was essentially a series of boxes. The box shell that make up the system would create, in my opinion, a feeling of a closet within a tiny room {instead of the room being the closet}. I planned to put the majority of our organization along the long door & window-free wall. The depth from the boxes would partially cover the window and interfere with my natural light {not good}. If we ever move, the only way I could see taking the closet organization with us would be to completely disassemble everything {which is too much work} so we’d probably have to leave it behind. And lastly, with everything being so uneven, I worried about how we’d get it level or at least even.

The Container Store’s Elfa system seemed to be the perfect solution for us except 2 things: 1) Price 2) Overwhelming combination of options for the design.

I love that it is completely free-standing and we can easily take it with us should we ever move {not that there’s plans to!}. Even though the shelves are deeper than our windows, they won’t block too much light. Everything will be visible and within easy reach. The feet also twist out to level, so we can make up for the bumps. I played with it in the store while comparison shopping and it seems to be rock solid. Not a sway in the whole thing set-up. The free-standing one only works in 2′ sections. The wall in question is 11′, so a 10′ section would be good. That leaves us about 12″ for my curtains and placement play. Narrowing it down to 5, 2′ sections made the designing a little easier.

I first started by thinking about our needs. Hanging was the biggest priority, since this is the only hanging space we have. Second, we need some of their pull out baskets for the daily necessities like socks & underwear.

Come Monday morning, I don’t want to to be running from the closet where my pants are to the dresser drawer where my socks are, back to the closet for my shoes. I think it’s most efficient if your entire day’s outfit is in one space. Monday mornings especially call for things being simple and organized.

Workout clothes and PJs can be stored in the dressers in our bedroom but everything related to the workday apparel needed a home in our closet.

Here’s what I came up with:

{click to enlarge}

The staff at The Container Store have a special computer program that fits everything together but I didn’t want to feel compelled into making any decisions on the spot. I’m sure they wouldn’t have pressured me but I’m not sure my willpower would have held out if I had something designed and couldn’t take it home right then and there. So I did it myself. Sorta.

I put this rudimentary plan together in Excel and could only make educated guesses about how many baskets I could fit or if I left enough room for long hang. I knew from my visit to the store that the small baskets were called “1-runners” and covered about 3 holes on brackets. The medium baskets are 2-runners & large baskets are 3-runners.

I’ll be honest, it took a whole afternoon to put my original plan together and another hour or so to spiff it up a little with colors and fills. All this was done way back in September and the time spent was worth it. I’ve spent all fall thinking and tweaking.

By planning it all out ahead of time, I was able to go through The Container Store website and price everything out. It added up quick but also meant there would be fewer surprises at the register.

Planning things out ahead did something else rather surprising. It saved us money. A lot of money.

See, we had this Elfa plan back in September but knew that every year in January was the annual 30% off Elfa sale. 30% off is no chump change for a get-up like this. I calculated the system above to total $1,874 before tax!

After Thanksgiving, The Container Store announced something I wasn’t expecting. They ran a gift card promotion; for every $100 worth of gift cards, you got a $25 gift card for yourself. I read all the fine print on their website, thinking there had to be a catch but the only thing I found was that the promotional $25 gift cards expire in Feb. 2010 {their regular gift cards never expire}.

I’m no dummy. That’s FREE money, folks. To the tune of another 20% off!

I’ll be back next week for the big reveal & final budget breakdown. {In the meantime, check out our wicked awesome new curtains! Their theatrical drapes from an old theatre}

Anyone else doing a little organizing to kick off 2010? Nab a great deal by working the discounts? I’d love to hear the nitty-gritty!