Rules For Sharing Closet Space With Your Partner

For couples planning to live together for the first time, it’s common to first rent an apartment together before moving onto a house. Many smaller apartments have just one bedroom closet and one hallway closet, which really isn’t that much space for anyone’s wardrobe — much less sharing closet space with your partner!

Sure, there are solutions such as buying an armoire or storage bins, but those options often don’t address the real struggles of sharing spaces. When both people in the relationship have equal storage needs, it can be difficult to make a compromise when it comes to closet space. For these situations, here are some tips on how to share your closets.

Your needs vs. his/her needs

It’s important to make time to sit down with your partner and plan everything out. For example, one thing to definitely discuss is each other’s needs. Do you have to have more storage for clothes? Or maybe your partner needs to be able to get dressed and walk out the door quickly. Is one partner a huge hat collector and wants to display them all lined up on a shelf? Maybe there needs to be a dedicated place for jewelry like a drawer.

Talk about how all of these needs can work at once or what compromises can be made for one another. You’d be surprised at what solutions you can come up with together if you just take the time to talk.

Actually organize the closet together

This step is incredibly important to ensuring long-term success. If only one person is responsible for creating the closet space for both, the closet will most likely be redone when one person is not satisfied with the overall setup.

Working on creating each person’s closet space at the same time will save an immense amount of time. It’s also a good bonding activity and will help down the line when your partner asks you where “x” is.

Respect the space. Just do it.

If it ends up being that your partner has significantly more closet space than you or vice versa, it’s imperative that neither person invade the other’s space. One no-no is stuffing a shirt into an empty space designated for the other person’s things. Unless you or your partner is comfortable with this “boundary crossing,” respect each other’s area.

Labeling marks closet space

There’s a reason why the idea of putting labels on things is commonly seen in any article involving organization; it works. Putting a label on a storage bin that says “John’s Shoes” instead of shoes marks a territory. Of course it doesn’t have to be so restrictive — some things can easily be shared with a simple “Our” on the label.

A healthy relationship is all about understanding each other and the willingness to sacrifice for one another. Why not start with your closets?

• Transform your closet space with a design that’s been customized around you and your wardrobe. Find out more.

• Keep track of what you wear the most (and those things you almost NEVER wear) with our FREE Personal Closet Inventory Guide!