No More Cluttered Closets!
The stuff of modern life really is 'stuff.' But having lots of things can be both a blessing and a curse because, if you don't have a place for everything, then everything is probably all over the place. Even if you're one of the lucky homeowners who has lots of closet space, it's a pretty good bet that a lot of it is just space, and you're not making the most of it. Take a moment sometime, and tally up the unused area inside your closets. All that wasted square footage could be put to use as a home for wayward shoes, vagabond winter blankets, and lots of other stray items strewn about the house.

As you'll see in The Complete Custom Closet, all it takes to put your house in order is a bit of sensible planning, some relatively inexpensive materials from your local home supply store, and a few hours in the woodshop. As a woodworker, you have the skills to create exactly the kind of custom closet storage that will serve you best. And it's a great, risk-free way to sharpen your skills and practice new techniques. After all, any screw-ups will live behind a closed door most of the time!

Samples and Examples
Obviously, every closet project is unique and calls for its own particular plan'one that suits the specific space and realm to items to be stored. So how will a book of closet project plans help you with your own home' By example, that's how. In this book, author Chris Gleason takes you through the process of building a variety of successful closet solutions. The examples include a small hall closet, a laundry room closet, several bedroom closets, a 'home office' closet, and even a small spare room that was converted into a 'sports' closet to house lots of skiing and biking equipment.

In each case, Gleason begins with an overview of the design process, explaining how particular solutions were arrived at. You'll find this helpful as you'll no doubt share many of the same challenges with your own closets. He explains the reasons for using the materials chosen, and then goes about showing how a project was built step by step. In every case, a complete materials list is provided to give you dimensional guidelines. Of course you're free to modify the measurements to suit your needs, but there will also times when a section of a unit will serve your space without change.

Easy Does It
As Gleason demonstrates in these pages, you don't have to be a master woodworker to outfit a closet. The construction techniques used for these projects are about as easy as you'll find in woodworking. In most cases, the case and drawer boxes are simply joined with screws and glue. The drawers are hung using easy-to-install commercial drawer slides. Plywood edging is covered with iron-on veneer tape, and false drawer fronts are screwed to the drawer boxes to hide the slides and give the units a finished appearance. If you want to dress things up further, you can add simple trim and paint or stain the work.

You also don't need a whole lot of tools to build these projects. Most of the work involves sawing panels on a tablesaw to make the cases and boxes. Other than that, you'll primarily need a pocket hole jig, a drill, and a jigsaw, in addition to a few clamps and other common woodworking tools. The photos and directions make it easy to build and install closet cabinets of all sorts. So get out of your chair, grab your tools, and get ready to curtail your clutter once and for all.