During the househunting process, one of the very few things that Shannon and I didn't like about what has now become our home is that it pretty much has not a single usable clothes closet. The house is over a century old, and the two upstairs closets are between 13 and 15 inches deep -- not even close to deep enough for a clothes hanger. So we stressed and fretted about how we'd solve it in the weeks before we moved in, and ended up with a series of solutions that we're really happy with.

In terms of the clothes storage problem, we shopped around quite a bit for a closet system that would work in the space we had available in the master bedroom. One idea that I really wanted to work was EasyClosets, a company that provides you with the ability to design wall units online, and then ships you the materials for self-installation. Unfortunately, the place we wanted to put the closets was on an old plaster wall that wasn't exactly plumb and has a door right in the middle of it; after talking to a rep, it turns out that the EasyClosets system requires an uninterrupted back wall on which to mount the main hanging equipment, and it's not easily adaptable to weird situations like ours. We played around with a bunch of other ideas, but found our solution at (of all places!) Ikea, their modular PAX system. Using their 93 inch-tall frames, we ended up with three different levels of hanging space along with shelving and drawers galore, enough space to replicate both of the closets we had back in Brookline and then some. The whole unit sits perfectly against the back wall of the master bedroom, and took about five or six hours in total for Shannon's father and me to build.

Of course, that left us with another dilemma -- what to do with the two pre-existing closets! As shallow as they are, it wasn't hard to decide; we ended up getting 3/4-inch plywood cut down to size as shelves, and I spent the last few days hanging them up. We now have a great space in the bedroom for off-season and decorating storage, and a great linen closet in the hallway, and all it took was a bit of wood, a little circular saw and sander work, some paint, and some screws and anchors. And with one of the remnant bits of wood, I was even able to put a mini-shelf into Shannon's basement knitting area! All in all, we went from closet panic to closet and shelving nirvana, and all it took was patience.