In Which I am Impressed by the Resalvage Community and Depressed by a Closet
The house I’m living in has no closets. This is common in New Orleans. In “the old days,” (vague time before now) houses in New Orleans were taxed based on the number of rooms they had, and rooms were determined by number of closets. Thus, my three-room house has no rooms. Tricky, tricky builder from “the olden days.”
My boyfriend and I have made ample use of bookshelves and dressers for storage, but the bedroom has become an unsightly sea of clothes that we are drowning in. We’ve looked into armoires, but they are costly and we’d have to get a huge one to store our stuff. I read a few posts on Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy that encouraged me that my boyfriend and I could build something on our own.
I was eager to find closet-solution materials at one of the organizations that formed post-Katrina to sell salvaged materials. In fact, 23 of these groups have formed an organization called The Reuse District, which promotes the awareness and accessibility of reused materials. Most are located in the 7th Ward, Bywater, St. Roch and St. Claude neighborhoods–areas that were heavily affect by Katrina.
The Green Project
The Green Project operates a warehouse store and lumberyard to sell building materials that otherwise would go into New Orleans Area landfills. They also solicit materials from the public, businesses, agencies and individuals. I was both impressed and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of STUFF at The Green Project. I wish I knew what to do with any of it. Fortunately, the Green Project does offer workshops where they teach you how to build various things–a friend showed us a bookshelf he made out of salvaged closet doors (oh the irony– we need both bookshelves and actual closets.)
Look at all of this stuff.
I wish I knew what to do with it.
How clever is this re-use?! Jealous of their creativity.
I stayed out. I did not want to get eaten.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any upcoming closet-building classes, but when I told one of the employees about the closet project, she suggested we buy brackets and a metal pole to lay within them. Easy enough, right?
Habitat for Humanity Restore
We also visited the Habitat for Humanity Restore. It was a bit smaller and cleaner than The Green Project. In addition to home goods it had the kind of items you’d find at a Goodwill: VHS tapes, books, etc. I was a little less intimidated by the space, simply because there were cute, hand-painted signs and ideas about what you could make with the materials.
“These murals are dedicated to all the citizens of New Orleans who are working to rebuild this great city and to everyone who has the courage to be the change they want to see in the world.” –sign by the murals.
Uncloseted
The closet rod project took a few day and a few errands:
We borrowed a hacksaw and (my boyfriend) cut the metal pole.
We painted the brackets and pole.
We tried mounting the brackets, only to learn that we needed things called molly/toggle bolts.
We bought these things.
We mounted the closet rod!
It was glorious hanging up the overflowing boxes of dresses and shirts! When I was nearly done, I called my boyfriend in to bask in the cleanliness of our room and to exchange high fives. We even had space under the clothes to store things. LIKE WE WOULD IF WE HAD AN ACTUAL CLOSET.
“Do you think thing will actually hold up?” I asked.
“Yeah! The bolts are supposed to support up to 150 pounds of weight,” said my boyfriend, giving the rod a slight tap.
The bedroom, as of this blog post. Notice the holes in the walls.
A few more dresses later and the project collapsed into my hands. The brackets bent. The rod clattered to the floor.
I tell you, I was actually kind of depressed. One week and one visit to a visit to a Craigslisted armoire later, this is how our room looks.
We are currently considering one of these DIY solutions.
DIYRolling Rack
Hanging Closet
Hanging Closet 2
Hanging Branch Closet
Suggestions welcome.
Suggestions BEGGED.
Kind of New Orleanian 
As a house museum employee and tour giver, must correct your closet tax information. Per extensive research by Colonial Williamsburg, there are no records of there being closet taxes in the US. People didn’t have big closets cause they didn’t have much stuff.
Did you tie the rack to the wall studs?? Anything like that needs to be fixed to the studs.
One recommendation for non hanging things would be to get those bed lifts which will make your bed high enough you can get plastic tubs under it. I used those for ages in my efficiency and other tiny apartments. If I think of anything else, will let ya know!!
Hmmm… Miss J, I was doing research and I too read the closet tax thing was a myth. But then I also read that although it was a myth in Colonial New England etc etc it WAS the truth here in New Orleans. I will have to do additional research!