Ask Jennifer Adams: Closet organizing basics for moving into fiancé's house

Q:

I just moved into my fiancé's brand-new house. It's a big house, but the master closet is small. I can't even have a quarter of my clothes in there, not to mention my shoes. He needs room, of course, too, so what can we do?

A: Well, if you can share closet space together, you can probably share a life together. The first thing I'll ask: Did you two have a professional closet-organizing system installed? I've seen many new houses with closet space that is less than optimally organized.

In any case, you want to make this work for only the clothes you wear. Talk with a few closet-organizing companies to get some great ideas for what might work for you. Well-planned stacking shoe shelves, drawers, and efficiently laid-out hanging racks will help tremendously. Depending on your budget, visit the closet-organization section in a home-improvement store, and even Ikea, for more ideas. Houzz and Pinterest will also be gold mines for ideas that will work for you.

Many builders seem to install a bunch of randomly placed shelves, but it's not really enough room for real people's clothes. And they certainly don't consider people's special needs. I once designed a huge closet for a woman with a lot of fancy full-length gowns. And then there was the guy who had a big baseball hat collection.

It makes sense to figure out what you two personally need and go from there. Store your day-to-day or most-often-used clothing in the master closet and other types of clothes in an adjacent small room. Can you open up a wall or make a doorway to convert it into your dressing room? Talk with a contractor before attempting this on your own.

Congratulations on your engagement, new house, and shared closet.

Jennifer Adams is a designer, author, and TV personality.

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