We like our current wall-hung Elfa system, as opposed to those with individual brackets under each shelf, because of its infinite flexibility. We have some shelving where we've split the shelf along its horizontal distance, creating a space for taller items, or hanging space, on one side and shorter on the other. The new house will have that same wall-hung/track system everywhere. We're doing away with dressers and will use the pullout baskets for folded clothing. One problem for us is the cost. And that's really the only thing that will force us to deviate from that system everywhere. So, in some areas we'll use wood shelving that DH makes and installs. Sometimes these systems aren't the best solution for pantries or for books. I haven't seen really shallow shelving like you might want in a pantry that fits on the track hanging system. And wire doesn't provide a stable surface for books and a few other things. So, you can think of each item and consider if the dimensions, spacing configurations, and surface is suitable for it.

Hi All, After years of drooling over the Elfa stuff, I broke down and bought one closet of this stuff for my new house. In my old place I had purged and purged and got my stuff down to reasonable stuff. I was so proud and it was MUCH easier to find stuff. I also found that I gravitated towards color oraganizing, I think from watching too many episodes of Clean Sweep :) In the new house, I'm starting with just the MB reach-in closet for now. My house is 53 years old and doesn't have near as much closet room as my 33 years old condo did... So, I figure to stay uncluttered, I NEED to have closet organizers systems :) At least that's what I'm telling myself... I'm putting in the MB one this weekend in fact. I put the Top Track and standards and some of the ventilated shelves in yesterday and then I decided that I wanted to "flip" the first and forth "columns" in the plan because of logistics of stuff outside the closet... I.e. I have a night stand that would be in front of drawers that pull out and I thought even though they would clear I didn't want to reach to get to the contents. I thought since this stuff is so "modular" I should be able to flip it and not have to buy anything else. But just to be sure that the system would still be "sound" (as in structural) I decided to take the plan papers back to Container Store and get them to use their CAD software and flip it around on paper for me... Well it was doable. And my goal is to have it all done today and have the rest of my bedroom unpacked!!! I'm sick of living out of boxes and a suitcase. Next is the linens closet and then eventually the Guest Bedroom reach-in closet, which is the same size and everything as the MB closet, since it's on the mirror side back to back. But in that one, I'd probably go for no clothes hanging space... but since I have no real "hall closet" (i.e. for coats and stuff) I might have to put some hanging space in this one for that... But I am hoping that one of the teeny hall closets might work as a coat closet... but I doubt it... better to let the one be a storage closet or a utility closet (vaccuum, mops, etc, plus cleaners and such)... but I do have a garage now (yeah, I've never had one) and much of hang-up stuff like mops, brooms, etc are better for there... but I do want my vacuum real handy since I use it all the time... Oh the planning... you can see I have much more to do... but in the meantime I'm hoping that at least my MB stuff will be set. I'm doing the Birch and White stuff. Some wood trim and basically the white ventitlated stuff. Very open, very visible.. I like that. Also I used so much container type stuff already in my old MB that I'm hoping that some of that will just move into my new MB closet without a problem. This is the purses, travel bags and doohickeys, hats, off-season clothes. Also sweaters.. but now those will fit in the pull-out drawers... In the old one I had put a 2 shelf titatium mesh rack for shoes so it was 3 shelves including the floor. I'm foregoing that in the new closet and going with my shoes being on open shelves... some in clear shoe boxes (dress shoes and occastional wear stuff) and the rest of everyday stuff just set on open shelves with liners... I'll let you guys know if this winds up working. Don't know yet... sounds good in principle but I'll have to see in practice... Cheers, --jans

We purchased the Martha Stewart from Home Depot. It looks great and happy with it, however unless the space is exactly 24 or 36 inches you have to cut the shelves on a table saw to fit. So for the next two sections of the walk in we simply purchased the malamine boards, used the hanging track from Martha Stewart, used one of the Martha boards as a template to cut where they need to hang and made our own for a fraction of the price. LOEWS carried the exact colour of the malamine boards (espresso from Martha - truffle from LOEWS). Now this will only work for straight hanging and shelving. But since we needed to cut all the boards from the Martha kit anyways, we figured we may as well do it all ourselves. One line I found after we did out closets was Easy Closet- looks the same as the Martha line but they cut all the boards to your specifications, you only need to cut the trac. They were about the same price. If anyone is interested I can post some pics of both the Martha and our DIY portion of the closet.

I do not see a correlation on the size of your family or the kid's ages influencing a walk-in closet in the Master Bedroom. If your house is a true original Victorian, then you are certainly aware of, and resigned to living with, a lack of closets from that era. Making a Master ensuite is a necessary purpose, however, I cannot imagine that capturing the turret space in any Victorian would be an appropriate solution for a good ensuite layout, closet functionality, or ROI. Reserved on seeing entire plans of the floor(s), but I would lean towards your alternative solution.