In looking at all the different options related to closet storage, one comes across many similar terms used to describe both similar and dissimilar items. One area of confusion comes across in the terms describing a portable closet, like the kind discussed on this site, and then what’s formally known as an armoire, or wardrobe closet.

A wardrobe closet is made as very nice, solid items, just as much a piece of furniture with aesthic appeal as they are an item with utiliarian purpose i.e. storing clothes! This is in obvious contrast to the portable closets discussed at Portable Closet Guide, which are light weight, mobile items, and certainly not a big piece of wooden furniture like most antiques armoire furniture can rightly be described as.

So what does it mean when an item for sale is described as “portable wardrobe closet“? Usually, it’s much more of a portable closet than a wardrobe closet. The differentiation can be seen starting with the materials it’s made out of. If it’s solid wood, it gets a few points on the armoire scorecard, but if it’s anything else, it’s more likely to fall in the portable closet family. I think the real kicker though is to look for what makes – it doesn’t make it – actually portable. A solid wood closet described as portable wardrobe closet isn’t very portable if it’s got no wheels, no handles, and weighs 40 or 50 pounds, even if it does stand just about 3 feet high. But that’s probably as close as we can get to a middle ground between the two, and for some people, that’s just the item they were looking for.

This really gets into what it is people need the closet for. If the function needs to be something more useful – i.e. it holds clothes but doesn’t look pretty, or at least, jaw dropping – than a portable closet is a better solution. If the function is to have a solid wooden closet that looks great and holds clothes, a wardrobe closet is the solution.