Easy and inexpensive built in closet organization system

When we built our home, we insisted they left out the wire closet racks and I’m so glad that we did.

If there’s anything that drives me crazy, it’s wire racks in closets. To save myself, and the construction crew, time I asked that they skip adding wire racks to the bedroom closets so I could install my own easy and inexpensive built in closet organization system.

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After I measured all the closets, I did a little internet search and found this system on Wayfair.

open closet with gray towers of organizing systems separated by two hanging bars.

There are plenty of professional closet design companies out there that can give you a custom built in closet organization system, but the price tag is a wee bit ouchy. The average cost of a custom closet can range from $3,000 to $5,000 per closet depending on size. We had four closets to organize which meant we would be paying $12,000 – $20,000, and that was just not happening.

I liked this closet organization system so much that I ordered two for our primary bedroom closet and one for each of the girls bedroom closets as well. The total price for this order was $2,125.36 for all four systems.

Delivery and assembly

Since we had such a big order, it came by freight and was delivered on a pallet. Wow did that take a lot of muscle to move into the house. Whew!

Stack of closetmaid boxes in a garage with various items behind the boxes. — Delivery day meant lots of lifting.

We figured the easiest thing to do was assemble each of the pieces and place the finished pieces in their respective rooms. This process was very time consuming and took an entire weekend. Legit the whole weekend. It definitely went faster having two people do the assembly.

man on the right of the picture is holding a piece of cardboard standing in a living room. on the floor to his left is a woman sitting on a floor holding a hammer assembly one of the closet systems. — Building 16 shelving units took a full weekend.

The instructions were super easy to follow and the overall construction was very good.

Flexibility

What I absolutely loved about this closet organization system from Wayfair is the flexibility and options.

When I did Kennedy’s closet organization in the last house, I learned a lot that I applied to this closet organization project. I purchased the Wayfair closet set with the idea we would construct the organize the closets just like the picture. HOWEVER, once we go the closet organization pieces in their respective places, light bulbs were flashing like Times Square and I moved EVERY single one of them to a different place.

closet with a wall down the middle and on either side of the wall is a tower of shelving holding folded clothes and shoes. on either side of the tower are two rows of hanging clothes, one row directly above the other. on top of the top row of hanging clothes is a shelf and gray fabric covered storage boxes as wel as a woven basket and a black bag — Courtney and I have plenty of space to share this closet.

Ask Courtney, we tried out a million (million might be a “slight” exaggeration) different configurations. What we settled on made the most sense for our family and I’m thrilled.

another angle of the closet as described aboved

large mirror in the middle of the wall to the right of the mirror is hanging clothes. to the left of the mirror is a small white dresser and next to that is a woven hamper with a floral box on top. above the hamper and dresser is a small decorative flower plate and jewelry holder hanging on the wall. above are two shelves, but only one is visible completely. the shelf you can see has two dark pink boxes, one with a stack of hats on it and in between is a colorful piece of art. — Storage for days!

Making the closet system custom

In our primary closet I wanted the closet organization systems to sit more flush up against the wall. We removed some of the baseboards and trim and cut them down to size to fit around the closet organization systems. I also opted for a different system for the clothes that needed hung up.

close up of the bottom of the separator wall showing how the closet system is sitting flush with the wall and the baseboard is surrounding it to give the closet system a built in look. — We modified the baseboards to give a more custom look.

We also opted to turn the closet organizing systems to use up the side spaces in the girls closet. This made those awkward side spaces more usable. I did let the girls have a say in how they wanted their hanging clothes which is why one closet looks a little higher than normal. She wanted her closet to have a walk in feel.

Open closet with two rows of hanging clothes, one row directly above the other. to the right of the hanging clothes is a tower or organizational shelving with various items inside. — Turning the closet organizers to fill the side spaces freed up so much space in the girls closets.

Changing how we would organize the hanging clothes was an additional $200, bringing the total spent on this project to $2325.36. Breaking this down by room, our primary bedroom closet was $1162.68 and each girls closet $581.34 which is a lot less than $3,000 per closet for a custom system.

Same closet with a view to the left very similar to the one mentioned above

Final thoughts: what I should have done and plans for the future.

I ended up not using the hanging system that came with this set and I should have just purchased the base pieces, then decide if I needed something more. Other than that, I’m glad I ordered this set from Wayfair and I may end up adding additional closet storage in the future.

Also, I have plans to one day actually decorate these spaces. Before any of that could happen, I had to establish a good foundation for closet organization. The girls already decided all they want are those plug in LED lights that change colors. Now their closets look like a club, but whatever you do you girlfriend. 😉

Closet with one row of hanging clothes to the right is a tower of organizational shelving and there is nothing on the floor under the clothes. there is a dark blue/purple hue in the closet from lights. — Letting the girls add LED strip lights made a fun addition to their closets.

Overall I highly recommend the system from Wayfair if you want an easy and inexpensive built in closet organization system. There are so many different products in this line and plenty of configurations that will give you that custom closet look to fit your needs.