By Erin Fortman

Having a beautiful built-in closet doesn’t automatically mean your closet is organized. The hard part is everything that comes after the installation.

You finally have the closet you always wanted. Drawers, shelving, double hanging rods; the works. And somehow, it is still impossible to keep tidy.

Clothes are piled on the floor. Drawers are stuffed with things that don’t belong there. The shelves are holding random overflow instead of doing anything useful. Sound familiar?

Built-in closets are a significant investment, but the cabinetry alone doesn’t create order. Without a clear purpose assigned to every section, even the most beautiful built-in becomes an expensive place to pile things.

This is a common situation we walk into at  Meat and Potatoes Organizing. Homeowners across Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Edina, and surrounding areas have gorgeous built-ins that simply aren’t being used to their full potential. Here’s how we fixed exactly that in this recent project.

Wire shelving overstuffed, floor covered and nowhere for clean laundry to land.

Before: A Closet Full of Potential

The problem wasn’t the closet itself. It was the lack of intention behind filling it. 

When we arrived, both sides of this walk-in were technically full, but not in a useful way. Hanging sections were packed too tightly with clothes no longer worn. Drawers had become catch-alls. And shelves held overflow that was unreachable. We didn’t capture every corner of the before on this one, but the floor tells the story. 

The first step was a complete edit, everything out and onto the bed.

This is what the edit step actually looks like, it gets worse before it gets better. 

From there we used baskets and bags to sort everything into keep, donate, and discard. This is the step most people skip, and it’s the reason results don’t last, you cannot organize clutter. The edit has to come first. 

Step 1: Give Every Zone a Purpose

Built-ins only work when every section has a clear job.

Once the edit was complete, we looked at the closet as a whole and asked: what does each zone actually need to do?

For this closet, we divided the space clearly. His side needed to house dress shirts, ties, watches, and casual clothes. Her side held everyday wear, work-wear, sweaters and jewelry. 

Step 2: Make the Hanging Sections Actually Work

An uncategorized or packed rod isn’t functional and makes it nearly impossible to see what you own.

Even though this closet has a custom built-in, it doesn’t always work for every category of clothing. Make sure to check lengths of items and if it hangs over drawers or other hanging clothes it is doing more harm than good in the closet ecosystem. 

After the edit, we grouped hanging items by category, pants together, dress shirts together, seasonal clothing that could be stored.

Within each category we placed most worn clothing back into the closet and realized that categories such as winter jackets, travel bags, formal gowns and suits made most sense in the client’s guest bedroom closet. 

This combined with matching hangers immediately reduced visual clutter and allowed much needed breathing room in the closet for everyday wear items.

Sometimes hanging items that you would conventionally fold, or vise versa allows room to see each piece. 

Her side fully rebuilt, hanging items grouped, casual pants with easy access draped over built-in.  

Step 3: Give Every Drawer One Category

A drawer without a clear purpose becomes the closet’s junk drawer.

This closet had a generous amount of drawers on both sides, which is an asset, but only when each one is used intentionally. We designated drawers by category: undergarments, workout clothes, swim, accessories. 

Clear-front drawers are especially useful to see what’s inside without opening everything or displaying your favorite accessories. 

Drawers with assigned categories, no overflow. Room for displaying accessories and sentimental decor. 

Jewelry storage can be easily overlooked and it often ends up on top of dressers and shelves in dishes or cluttered together. This is how important pieces get lost and scattered across surfaces or tangled in a drawer.

For this client, who had an extensive watch and jewelry collection, getting this right was a priority. We turned to the stackers line from the Container Store. The Stackers Medium Expandable Jewelry Storage Tray, the Stackers Grey Watch Roll and the Stackers Ring Roll. All three are modular and stackable, fitting neatly inside existing drawers.

When accessories have a dedicated home like this, not only are they safer but also ready to be worn on any moment’s notice. 

The Result: A Built-In That Finally Earns Its Keep

A beautiful closet and a functional one aren’t always the same thing, until now.

After a full edit and rebuild, the difference was immediate. The floor was clear. Every section had a purpose and every category had a clear home.

This is what a well utilized built-in should feel like, calm, intentional, and easy to maintain without thinking about it.

The finished walk-in, fully rebuilt around how the homeowners actually live. 

How Meat & Potatoes Organizing Can Help

Walk-in closet organizing in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas.

Built-in closets are one of our favorite projects because the bones are already there. We just build the plan around them. What might take a homeowner an entire weekend to tackle alone can often be completed in just a few hours with a small professional organizing team.

If your built-in closet still isn’t working for you, it’s not the closet’s fault. It’s everything that came after the installation. We can help you figure out the rest.