Closet organization in a 100 year old house.

well you are describing my house. My room has two closets, (one actually belongs to the next bedroom) When we moved in there was one rod running from side to side. We installed one on either side going from front to back. The big shelf was there already, my husband installed a lower shelf and rod so short things like tops, could hang there. I hang slack on the right side of closet and dresses on the left. There is no denying old houses and modern styles of clothes acquisitions just don't mix. When our daughter still lived at home we turned a small space at the end of a hall into a closet. We also used this same space for a tiny child's bedroom and then a computer room. That is one thing that is nice about an old house. Lots of nooks and crannies.

I grew up with this style of closet! As a kid I'd have loved it if my parents would have torn open the wall and put in sliding doors, but now I'd want to preserve the style to fit the old house. What we used to do was (and this is obvious of course) put the less-used items on the sides that are harder to get to. Consider an armoire in the room for more hanging space.

If you guys are handy, you could consider removing the old doors, making the opening wider for easier access and installing new bifold doors....or even rolling barn doors for an updated look.

One option is to carefully open up the doorway to give better access to the space that you do have and use either one large barn door or overlapping barn doors to access. on one side do upper and lower clothes rods to hang shirts, skirts and pants (folded over hanger). make sure the top rod is as high as it can go. On the other side place the rod as high as it will go for long hanging storage and put shoe storage or a laundry basket in the space underneath. Try a 12 inch deep storage like the one from Closet Maid that has 9 square cubbyholes.. you an buy cloth bins that fit these (Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart all carry similar styles) Use cubbie-bins to hold socks, undies, sweaters, jeans, t-shirts... stuff that folds. I rotate the bins in mine seasonally, keeping the current stuff in the middle ones. Stack units as tall as you can (and still be able to pull out bins) use different colors or label bins to denote contents... I use turquoise, cream and green in mine and darker more manly colors for my husband

Consider having a professional closet co. help you. I had California Closets redo most of my closets about 30+ yrs. ago. It was done in stages as I could afford it, and it was the best investment I ever made.