Here’s how to keep your cupboard under control

When I received a mail titled “You have got to see America’s largest closet” from Issey our designer, I knew for sure: something had gone wrong at home. The largest closet of America belongs to Theresa Roemer, former miss Texas, she does something with charity and companies (and married money). That thing is around 900 square metres and cost about half a million to build. You do get three (!) floors (!) of cupboard space though. Oh and a champagne bar, because that’s handy.

Naturally it’s all ship shape and organized, so as not to lose things all the time. Her fur jackets and oversized hats live on the third floor. The spiral staircase takes you down to the second floor, where her hair and make-up is done and where the Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Louboutin shoes all hang out. The lower floor is for bags and jewellery. The ‘cupboard’ is lovingly referred to as the ‘she-cave’ and bares more resemblance to a shop than a cupboard, with large Birkins in backlit showcases and Hermes belts all neatly hung up according to colour.

They say a person needs order in their lives. Fabsugar tells us how they do this and has handy tips for all, even those with a slightly smaller to normal size cupboard.

1. What you don’t see, you don’t wear

Now this lady makes a good point. Most people are inclined to fold things up neatly on shelves, but you forget about half of your stuff. Try to hang everything, or at least place them in sight. Your cupboard is not for hiding things, rather for displaying them.

2. Tailor the cupboard to your needs

Sounds obvious, but think about it. If you buy a standard cupboard, you can adapt the insides to your needs. Perhaps you prefer loads of hooks and rails instead of ten-thousand shelves. Take a look at your cupboard, are you someone with 10.000 pairs of shoes and fewer items of clothing? Shelves are your friend. If it is the opposite way round, taking point 1 into account, you’ll need more rails.

3. Use empty walls

An empty wall is an unused wall. Install hooks or towel racks to hang your scarves and belts off of. Or knock nails or small hanging pens into the wall for necklaces.

4. Invest in good clothing hangers

Those thin crappy plastic things do the same job in theory, but it looks much better if you use nice wooden hangers. Or all white. I coincidentally bought a package of hangers from the HEMA recently, 7 hangers for 4 euro, so no complaining that they’re too expensive.

5. Sort on colour and type

I do that too. All my shoes and clothes are sorted by colour. A touch obsessive. Sure, but it looks glorious.

Success!