Portable closets offer a variety of uses from supplementing a spare bedroom for a guest to giving you and your significant other an extra closet without having to remodel the house. Let’s take a look at common uses and reasons for buying a portable closet for the home.

You’ve run out of room in your pre-existing closets already. This is likely the primary reason most people start looking into getting a portable closet. If you’ve already gone through and tried to organize your closet, and you find there’s still a distinct lack of space for your items, then getting a portable closet is a great add-on for your wardrobe. It can be placed in a your bedroom or a spare room, and hold your items securely and make them easily accessible – like those pink boots you bought last year but haven’t seen since they got lost in the battle for space in your current closet!

The office has turned into a spare bedroom but it’s not got a closet. Many homes are built with an office room, which could easily be a bedroom but there is one distinct part missing – a closet. Adding a portable closet to the room solves this problem. (We will not be adding any portable bathrooms though!)

Giving the guest room a usable closet for guests. Often, the closets in any guest rooms have a way of filling themselves up, seemingly on their own accord, with the owners own clothes and other random items that gravitate towards closet space. Instead of trying to find room for this stuff, it’s easier – and elegant looking – to place a nice portable closet in the room. This way, guests can unpack and hang their clothes, shoes, and other items in the portable closet without ever messing with or needing to see the real closet in the spare bedroom.

The laundry room needs a little organizational assistance. Certain portable closets work great as an item to use in the laundry room. For instance, when taking clothes out of the dryer, where do you hang them? If the closet is far away, it can be easier to simply add an ultra-mobile closet to the laundry room, immediately fold or hang the clothes out of the dryer, and then wheel or move the portable closet to another part of the house.

There are surely other reasons people use a portable closet. What are yours? Feel free to add a comment below and share your suggestions and experience!

One point that anyone who owns a nice portable closet will agree on is that once you have one, you never regret having the extra space to organize, store, and protect your clothing!

Portable closets have come a long way in offering all kinds of features and benefits that seriously rival a real closet. In fact, a portable closet is in some ways superior to a real physical closet! How so? The top of the line models don’t just offer space to hang your clothes but they make use of the space to organize not just your clothes, but also your shoes, ties, laundry, and other closet items! This would be akin to all closets being built in with a closet organizer, which, would be great, but it is not the case!

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the features being offered now in a solid portable closet which make them stand out above the rest.

A convenient way to hang clothes. This one is a no-brainer. Of course a good portable closet will offer an easy way to hang your clothes!

Protection from dust, bugs, allergies. Many portable closets are designed to protect the clothes using a vinyl cover, or similiar material, to keep dust, dirt, bugs and other insects away from your clothes. This is especially important if clothes are being relegated to the portable closet for long term storage.

Breathability. Since portable closets often end up being used to store clothes for months or even longer, it’s important that if they are covered or in a “closed” closet system, that the clothes are able to “breath”, and by this we mean that there is some level of air flow which prevents the clothes from becoming musty or otherwise just gross. Portable closets now offer designs which will protect and cover your clothes but allow them to stay clean and fresh.

The ability to store shoes. Many portable closets now offer a side hanging shoe rack, which allows for shoes to be placed vertically on the side of the closet. So get those Vans men’s shoes off the floor and into a rack!

Room for dirty laundry. Now we are getting into the features that truly make a portable closet like a real closet. The ability to store your (dirty) laundry in a compartment is a great add-on feature, one which guests whom are using the portable closet as a “real closet” will certainly appreciate!

Being truly portable. Lastly, despite the marketing name of “portable closet”, some models are not really all that portable, especially once loaded down with clothing and other items! A great portable closet will be able to easily hold up to the weight of jeans, sweaters, and so on, and be able to move easily through the use wheels or offer hand rails of some sort for easy pick up and transport around the house.

Why would I need a portable closet?

Good question. Mainly for the extra space, don’t you think? We’ve addressed this question here by taking a look at the most common usages and reasons for a portable closet.

How portable are portable closets?

Ironically, this varies with the model. If you need a portable closet that you will, say, take with you traveling, then something small that unfolds and then allows for clothes to hang by adding a bar into the design will be much more portable than a full scale portable closet on wheels that is more suited for a spare guest room. Most portable closets are light and weigh only a few pounds. However, once they are packed with clothes, the weight will make a big difference in the portability. If you are only using the closet around the home, weight isn’t really an issue so long as the closet is equipped with wheels and you need not take it to a different floor of the house.

What is the price rang for portable closets?

Like most products, there is a huge price rang for items sold as portable closets. On the most simplistic low-end, you can purchase a simple portable closet for hanging clothes for $20-30 US. For a full scale portable closet that offers many features of a real closet, expect to look into the $100 range. For portable closets that you’d want to see as a nice piece of furniture, consider the cost to start at $100 and go up from there.

What about my shoes? Also, what about socks and underwear? Dirty laundry?

Nicer portable closets will actually have spots to organize your shoes, create a sock and underwear drawer, and store your old laundry. Lower end models are more likely to just allow you to hang clothes. The best compromise between the two is a portable closet which allows for hanging extra clothes and also storing extra shoes, as these two items – shoes especially – can easily create a mess if there is no place to properly store them.

Where are some good places to purchase a portable closet?

Shopping for one online from Amazon.com is the most popular option. The only problem with this is that you obviously cannot see it in person! Big box stores such as Target carry a few models (and the prices aren’t bad), but for the real deal, try going to a home improvement or interior design shop, talk to the clerks, and take a look at a few models. This will give you a great idea of what’s out there and at what price range. It will also be a lot easier to assess the quality of the closet in person than over the internet.

This FAQ is a living document. Add your questions via the comments section below and we will address it for you!

Have you run out of space in your closet? Seeking a way to organize your things without throwing anything out or installing any closet organizers? If this describes the current state of your closet, enter… the portable closet! Portable closets offer a way to store everything you’d normally store inside a closet in a convenient, attractive closet that is lightweight and portable. If you’re not familiar with these items, let’s take a look at what a portable closet usually offers.

Portable closets are typically pffered in either a smaller square design (one in which you could just grab onto the sides and pick up and move the entire thing) or a bigger design, maybe 5 or 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. The bigger designs are typically equipped with wheels in order to make them easily portable from one spot to another.

On the economic and simple end of the design, a portable closet will just store an extra rack of clothes. These designs will usually just be a closet rod inside a portable box, with or without a cover. The more elegant solutions pretty much recreate everything you’d store in a closet in a simple to use and organized fashion. What sort of items would you store in these types of portable closets? Suits, sweaters, shirts, socks and underwear, bras, ties – but not just this. The nicer closets offer shoe racks for dozens of pairs of shoes, drawers for socks and undergarments, and even a place to store your dirty laundry. At this level of design, the portable closet is truly deserving of the word portable and closet!

The cost of these items varies considerably. It is possible to get a simple one for a very small amount of money – say, $25 to $30 dollars, making for very cheap storage. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, you can get a closet that’s portable like the one mentioned above. In the upper price range of $100 plus, you also start getting into features like true breathability and covers, protection for long term storage, wooden frames, and a stylish design that makes the portable closet not an eyesore at all but rather an intuitive piece of furniture.

Common uses for portable closets tend to sway on the side of needing extra storage more than anything else, and beyond this, to provide a closet in a guest room or to an office that’s been converted into an extra bedroom.

If you’re new to the site – and you probably are, as this site is new! – stick around and take a look at our reviews and commentary on different portable closets. In the future we’ll feature more content based around reviews and tips and benefits of specific models. Always feel free to add your input by using the comment form below each post.

A portable closet offers just about everything a physical closet would offer – racks for hanging clothes, shelves for folded sweaters, hanging shoe racks to place dozens of pairs of shoes, and even a laundry shoot for your dirty clothes. Except in its portable design, the closet is often on wheels and failing that, is ultra portable being very small and/or with easy braces to grab hold of and move. Priced anywhere from $30 to hundreds though, portable closets are gaining exposure for other purposes.

Portable closets offer all sorts of benefit not just for someone who needs a portable or transient space to place their clothes, but just for anyone who needs some space to organize their stuff. (And who doesn’t need that!)  Much as closets have become a spot to store much, much more than just your clothes, items sold as portable closets can be repurposed for your own needs. Here are some creative ideas we’ve seen people use their portable closet space for:

Merchandise Storage – This is something we’ve seen personally used by small record labels and bands who need an easy way to store not their guitars or instruments but instead all the bands hoodies, shirts and records of their label, but in such a way that makes all these items easily organized, accessible, and also, easy to put back into storage. The fact that portable closets are designs to be – well, portable! – is what makes this such a good use of the item. Nice.

Drama Stage Props and Character Clothes Storage – Definitely one of the best uses of a portable closet outside of the home is use by drama studios to store character outfits and accessories. This is when portability truly plays a big role as you can easily wheel outfits in and out of studios, dressing rooms, back stage, and so on, to wherever they need be.

Kitchen Stuff – You can hang a chefs cloth in the rack and store all sorts of utensils inside the built in shelving and whatnot. This repurposing works better with metal framed closets as you wouldn’t want cloth materials that some portable closets are made from to be around food, oil, or otherwise out and about in the kitchen. You can also store dishes, etc on the shelving units for easy access. Covering it all with cloth and sliding it in the corner of the kitchen and you’ve got a portable kitchen gear organizer.

How have you taken a portable closet and used it for your own needs, outside of it just being a closet? Add your own story using the comments section below. We’d be curious to see what our readers have come up with!