Why Bedroom Closets?

November 27th, 2021
house
Bedrooms, at least in the US, are nearly always constructed with built-in closets, but I don't see why? What's the appeal?

Personally, I don't like them. I want the flexibility to arrange furniture however currently best suits my needs, and a built-in closet permanently reserves a portion of the floor area. Stand-alone wardrobes also offer flexibility when occupants vary in how much stuff they have that is a good fit for a closet.

When we were adding dormers to our house four years ago we needed to decide whether to include closets in each of the rooms. Here's what the three new/expanded bedrooms looked like with and without closets:

Anna's bedroom

What will be Nora's bedroom once she's out of our room. Currently my office and where I sleep for the second half of the night.

Lily's bedroom

We decided to construct all three without closets, and in retrospect we're both very happy with that decision: each of the three has the bed in a position that wouldn't be possible if we had kept the closets.

(Sometimes people will say that it doesn't matter whether you like closets, building code requires them. This is a myth: the International Residential Code (IRC) says nothing about bedroom closets. And our building inspector had no issues with our closetless bedrooms.)

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Where I Donated In 2024

All Grants Fund, Rethink, EA Funds Animal Welfare Fund

via Thing of Things January 17, 2025

2024-25 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, travel, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Overall this was a pretty good year. Highlights …

via Victoria Krakovna January 15, 2025

The ugly sides of two approaches to charity

What's neglected by "magnificent" philanthropy, and by Singerian global poverty focus The post The ugly sides of two approaches to charity appeared first on Otherwise.

via Otherwise January 13, 2025

more     (via openring)