What age are your kiddos? Boys/girls? I would have more shelves than you are thinking for non clothing items.
Books, toys, blankets, extra set of sheets/mattress protector, shoes, etc.
I like to think of a closet as the best way to organize a Kiddo's room, not just hang shirts :)

boy-7, girl-4. I want built in bookshelves around windows so that will house all the books. Toys will be in a toy room (except for what escapes:) Extra linens in linen closet in the hallway. All shoes for entire family in the mudroom/entrance closet. I really dislike shoes in the rooms and have been working really hard to find an efficient way to store them all in mudroom area (would love to see pics if someone has one). Trying to make a house as efficient/functional as possible for how we live. Then in the kitchen area a wall of cabinets for crayons, markers, glue, playdough, art supplies, crafts, etc...I have that in our current house and it is the absolute best--cabinets are top to bottom shelves with a light that comes on. Everything labeled in bins on the shelves. My house is still destroyed almost daily but I like everything to have a "spot" so when we do clean up we know just where it goes.

Have you thought about designing the laundry room to house kiddo clothes? Sounds like that may work better for your goals. You could recess the closet area and put a bench/cushions for reading, but leave the space available for a closet if you resale? Clothes could get hung up in the laundry room directly after washing, and outfits could easily be picked out for both kids daily, Duggar style :)

That is an interesting thought but I would like to keep closets with the clothes in them--just don't know if a walk-in or reach in makes more sense in terms of functionality/efficient use of space.

A reach is called more efficient because it doesn't waste space as in requires a walking area that can't be used for anything else when not using the closet. If you do reach in and have taller ceilings than 8ft, then consider putting doors above as well so you can get an extra shelf at the top to be able to get to everything easily.

My daughter has reach in closets with double doors in her home and the problem she has is the space it takes up on the wall and the clearance to open the doors. I have 2 reach in closets with sliding doors and if they had doors that opened it would really limit furniture placement in the room. I'm not wild about the sliding doors but they work in the space. We have one bedroom with a walk in closet and it is our favorite room. We all agree in our family that given the choice we would have walk in closets. I agree that the reach in uses space efficiently but also consider the room space if you have double doors that open into the room.

I think a walk in would be nicer, since the kids can actually go in there and put away their clothes. Reach in have a tendency to fall out and into the room, which makes closing the closet doors rather difficult. If you have the space I would do a walk-in and as the kids get older it will give them more flexibility. Just an idea :)

I think the most efficient use is building in the closet... Dresser storage mixed with hanging storage something custom built or ikea.

You can have plenty of hanging storage along with roll out shelves/drawers. And even a built in hamper if you wish. It frees up floor space as well as a dresser isn't needed. Or you could put a desk in between the closets depending on how big your space is or even a bench or daybed....

Not my photo it was saved from the blog linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Great ikea wall system

Dreambuilder,

I spent some time this weekend wondering the same thing. I looked on houzz.com photos and searched "kids closets". The majority that I saw were reach in closets that had both handing space and drawers (mostly built in, all perfectly organized of course). There was a mix of two doors, two folding doors, some with no doors, curtains, etc. There were walk ins also. You may try searching that to get inspiration.

The design i have been playing with has 1 room with walk in, 1 room with reach in. The rooms are the same size. It may be helpful to think about life style (loving fashion, sports jerseys, climate requires more/thick clothing).

Hope this helps,

J

My 17 y.o. DD has a WIC and my 15 y.o. DS has a reach in with bifold doors. I dearly wish we had room for a WIC for DS. His closet was set up with an Elfa system about 5 years ago, and we set up the rods and shelves to fit his hanging shirts, sweatshirts, and pants, and drawers for socks etc.

Well, I recently took out and rehung everything, because he's now 6'5" (and growing) and none of the hanging clothes fit any more. Luckily, the Elfa components are easy to shift around. The bifold doors are a pain and regular doors would take up too much room. His closet is always spilling over into his room.

DD is not an organized person, but at least she can throw stuff into her closet and her room stays neat. All her clothes are in the WIC so we don't need a dresser in her room. DS has one dresser and I'm going to order another one because he just doesn't have enough space for his stuff. And we're good about clearing out and donating things he has outgrown or doesn't want anymore; it's just that they get big and their clothes get bigger and they need more clothes. (On game days in middle school and high school the players wear button down shirts, dress pants and ties, so they need a fair amount of nice stuff in addition to their everyday stuff.)

I applaud your planning efforts! I feel overrun with shoes. There are only the 3 of us (DH passed away last year) but we're a multi-sport family and if you counted our shoes you'd think there were 20 of us! Don't know your climate but when you do your planning take into account the size and height of rain and snow boots, as well as sports shoes.

We have had soccer, football, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, hiking and running shoes all in the mudroom at the same time, along with the shoes we actually wear just for regular use and the pads for football and other sports equipment. I can't imagine keeping all my work/dressy shoes in the mudroom as well. There are some shoes you may only wear infrequently - think dress shoes that your kids only wear for holidays, graduation, highschool dances or other fancy occassions, and your dressy shoes. Are you sure you want all of those in your mudroom?

dreambuilder, here's what we did for shoe storage. We keep all except very seldom-worn shoes in our lower entry/mudroom (I don't exactly think of it as a mudroom, because it is completely open to the family room, so we try to keep it as neat as possible), so we needed to keep things as organized as possible. I hung Ikea upper kitchen cabinets on the wall at a credenza-ish height and added extra shelves. I also added an Ikea wardrobe for coats. We each (there are three of us) get a shoe cabinet, which helps keep things organized. Here it is with the doors closed:

and here is one of the cabinets with the doors open:

I should add that if anyone in your house has super large feet, it may not work as neatly. My husband's size 12 shoes have to go in at an angle so that the doors close neatly, but anything smaller would be fine. And Ikea kitchen cabinets are, of course, not the only kitchen cabinets out there - you could get deeper ones if necessary.

Love all the feedback...I'll try to post my "inspiration" pictures of what I'm hoping for the shoe area to look like and what I would like the mudroom closet to look like--in my opinion this is one of the hardest working parts of a house and I have spent a lot of time analyzing what will work best as far as efficiency and functionality. We do need snow boots so that is a consideration. Love all the pictures! Keep them coming!

I agree with lavender lass that if you have room, walk in much better. I personally think the upper shelves on reach in are inefficient use of space. You have things tumble onto your head if the shelves are maxed out.

And please - think ahead to the teen years and beyond. When our kids were teens we moved into a custom built house that someone else had designed when their kids were teens. I loved the WIC closet that each kid had. Gave so much flexibility for all their *stuff* (said lovingly, of course). During the college years things stored were completely out of sight.