I absolutely hate closets with a passion and have essentially NOT used any of the closets in the three units I have lived in since getting OFF the street more than six years ago. Yes, I REALIZE that in the Third World Country of America, most jurisdictions REQUIRE you to have a CLOSET to call it a "bedroom."
In Germany, many units have few or no closets and good quality furniture gets used for storage instead. This seems to be probably true in some other European countries as well given the existence of Elfa storage units.
My understanding is closets get TAXED as a separate room in Germany, so MOST residences have few or no closets. My landlord had a NOOK in the kitchen with shelving provided by furniture instead of built-in shelving and a CURTAIN and I was told that this was to get around the tax which got applied to any space with a DOOR.
In Germany and probably other European countries, long expanses of unbroken wall are common even in SMALL residential units because they lack closets and limit windows to try to keep you from freezing to death. In practice, this means small residential units in Germany have a great deal more living space than similar sized rentals in the US.
I strongly suspect that one of the two closets in the master suite of the largest home I ever lived in was used to grow marijuana and I'm allergic to marijuana, which likely contributed to how sick I was in that home. (This was government quarters on a US Military Installation!)
Closets tend to be dark, damp and people toss stuff into them and forget it exists, so it may never get cleaned. If you are in the US and CANNOT legally build small spaces without imposing the horror that is CLOSETS on your residents: I'm sorry.
If you live someplace civilized, a lack of closets gives RESIDENTS more floor space and more control over their lives. I highly recommend skipping them (and I apologize for including them in a previous post due to living in the US and writing for a presumably American audience).
If you live in the US and can convince zoning to let you do a hotel-style closet with a bar and shelf and NO DOOR near the front door (or something similar to Elfa on a wall in a nook with NO door -- there are cheaper wire closet shelving units in the US you could potentially use), please do. It's not perfect but it's better than the unclean horror that is dark, damp closets.
Also: The need for DOORS on closets subtracts useful floor space due to the need for clearance for the door. So if you did build a closet in a nook similar to the above linked floor plan but left off the DOORS, that leaves more usable floor space for furniture and such in the exact same square footage. (If all else fails, I would BEG them to let me use floor-to-ceiling CURTAINS in place of doors to cover the closet nook.)
Elfa is a Swedish company. In the US, they sell products through The Container Store.
Yes, I have owned some of their stand-alone storage units, not stuff attached to the wall, because we were a military family and moved regularly.
I was able to choose drawer depths, what kind of "top" I wanted for the piece and maybe other details. This was some of my favorite furniture EVER though it doesn't really fit with an American aesthetic and I was on a budget and didn't choose some of the more high-end details available at that time, like a real wood top, so they looked very industrial.
Also also: Floor-to-ceiling curtains do NOT have to be hugely expensive. I once bought a bunch of (maybe six?) king-sized flat sheets and one twin-sized flat sheet in the same color off the clearance rack and took them to a tailor and had them sew a "sleeve" into it to slip over a curtain rod and created floor-to-ceiling curtains to curtain off the dining room of my apartment along two sides where it was open to the kitchen and living area to create a semi-private space for me while getting divorced.
I used copper pipe in place of curtain rods and closet rod supports plus ONE hook in the middle on the longest section because the bar was sagging in the middle. I think I spent in the neighborhood of $100 for EVERYTHING, including a tool to cut the pipe, though I may be misremembering that.
I also had a curtain for the window and a curtain (the twin sheet) between the hallway and living area AND curtains for the shared wall between the master bedroom and kid's room for sound proofing and because I had been bedridden for months and was sick to death of staring at the wall, so covering it with curtains helped save my sanity.
AND because they were made from sheets, they were WASHABLE which curtains frequently are not. This was important to me because of my health issues.
In Germany, many units have few or no closets and good quality furniture gets used for storage instead. This seems to be probably true in some other European countries as well given the existence of Elfa storage units.
My understanding is closets get TAXED as a separate room in Germany, so MOST residences have few or no closets. My landlord had a NOOK in the kitchen with shelving provided by furniture instead of built-in shelving and a CURTAIN and I was told that this was to get around the tax which got applied to any space with a DOOR.
In Germany and probably other European countries, long expanses of unbroken wall are common even in SMALL residential units because they lack closets and limit windows to try to keep you from freezing to death. In practice, this means small residential units in Germany have a great deal more living space than similar sized rentals in the US.
I strongly suspect that one of the two closets in the master suite of the largest home I ever lived in was used to grow marijuana and I'm allergic to marijuana, which likely contributed to how sick I was in that home. (This was government quarters on a US Military Installation!)
Closets tend to be dark, damp and people toss stuff into them and forget it exists, so it may never get cleaned. If you are in the US and CANNOT legally build small spaces without imposing the horror that is CLOSETS on your residents: I'm sorry.
If you live someplace civilized, a lack of closets gives RESIDENTS more floor space and more control over their lives. I highly recommend skipping them (and I apologize for including them in a previous post due to living in the US and writing for a presumably American audience).
If you live in the US and can convince zoning to let you do a hotel-style closet with a bar and shelf and NO DOOR near the front door (or something similar to Elfa on a wall in a nook with NO door -- there are cheaper wire closet shelving units in the US you could potentially use), please do. It's not perfect but it's better than the unclean horror that is dark, damp closets.
Also: The need for DOORS on closets subtracts useful floor space due to the need for clearance for the door. So if you did build a closet in a nook similar to the above linked floor plan but left off the DOORS, that leaves more usable floor space for furniture and such in the exact same square footage. (If all else fails, I would BEG them to let me use floor-to-ceiling CURTAINS in place of doors to cover the closet nook.)
Footnotes
The bathroom I described from an apartment in Germany was in American military quarters and was a weird hybrid of German and American norms. You could do open storage instead of cabinets for towels and such.Elfa is a Swedish company. In the US, they sell products through The Container Store.
Yes, I have owned some of their stand-alone storage units, not stuff attached to the wall, because we were a military family and moved regularly.
I was able to choose drawer depths, what kind of "top" I wanted for the piece and maybe other details. This was some of my favorite furniture EVER though it doesn't really fit with an American aesthetic and I was on a budget and didn't choose some of the more high-end details available at that time, like a real wood top, so they looked very industrial.
Also also: Floor-to-ceiling curtains do NOT have to be hugely expensive. I once bought a bunch of (maybe six?) king-sized flat sheets and one twin-sized flat sheet in the same color off the clearance rack and took them to a tailor and had them sew a "sleeve" into it to slip over a curtain rod and created floor-to-ceiling curtains to curtain off the dining room of my apartment along two sides where it was open to the kitchen and living area to create a semi-private space for me while getting divorced.
I used copper pipe in place of curtain rods and closet rod supports plus ONE hook in the middle on the longest section because the bar was sagging in the middle. I think I spent in the neighborhood of $100 for EVERYTHING, including a tool to cut the pipe, though I may be misremembering that.
I also had a curtain for the window and a curtain (the twin sheet) between the hallway and living area AND curtains for the shared wall between the master bedroom and kid's room for sound proofing and because I had been bedridden for months and was sick to death of staring at the wall, so covering it with curtains helped save my sanity.
AND because they were made from sheets, they were WASHABLE which curtains frequently are not. This was important to me because of my health issues.