Portable Closet Guide

What are your options when it comes to needing extra storage at home, but also wanting to keep that storage something you can move around and use in different parts of the house? Any local home store, such as Target or Home Depot, has a myriad of products when it comes to home storage options. In this article, let’s take a look at a few of those options and highlight what we think works and doesn’t work with each one.

1. Storage Ottamans. We love clever storage items here, and a nice storage ottoman definitely tops the list for functional, clever, and decorative storage all at once. You can easily move an ottaman about the house with no problem, and inside it, you’ll find a decent amount of storage capacity. A favored use of such items is for storing toys and games in the living room. It’s a great way to have these fun items on hand without them cluttering up any living space when not in use.

And of course you can also put your feet up on them too and relax!

2. Portable Closets. Portable closets are products that basically function as a closet, allowing you to hang clothes and store folded items into smaller shelves, but the trick is that the whole unit is on wheels and can easily be moved about the home. A nicer portable closet will be equipped with a built in shoe rack and even a bin for your dirty clothes. Very cool. These are great for adding extra closet storage in any room, be it your master bedroom or the guest room.

3. Laundry Sorter. Most laundry sorters are also equipped with wheels, like a portable closet. They give you a good way to sort and organize the laundry while doing the laundry, as opposed to having to do it in a simple laundry basket or on your bed. This is another item that could be repurposed into other things as well. What ways can you think of to use a laundry sorter?

4. Wicker Storage Baskets. Storage baskets are by definition a good item for storing your belongings and are portable at the same time. The problem is many storage baskets are plain looking and while certainly capable of holding items, they’re more suited to storing under the bed than out in the open. The wicker storage basket looks really nice though and is going to add to your homes decor, not detract from, it while also providing storage space. Another perk is that you can use more than one of these around the home and they’d all match, especially if you have wicker furniture elsewhere in the home.

5. Coat Racks. These items are easily portable, as they weigh just a few pounds, but most likely you’ll find they work best by the door and that’s where you’ll want to leave them. Having a coat rack will immediate give you additional space back in your closet, as it won’t need to store all your coats any longer. A coat rack also just makes it more convenient to come and go from the home with your coat, and also gives guest an obvious area to place their coats when coming into their home without having to deal with going into the hallway closet.

You don’t have to just use a portable closet for the same reasons that everyone else does! Here we’ll take a look at 5 creatives uses for portable closets outside of what most people think of using them for.

1. Add A Portable Closet to the Dorm Room.
The student in your life will appreciate this. A portable closet can provide some desperately needed space for someone living in a cramped dorm room, sharing a closet with someone else. The dorm room portable closet is a no brainer! Added benefit: a keg can easily be placed on top of the portable closet for easy access and serving. (Kidding!)

2. Use a Portable Closet in the Vacation Home.
A couple I know bought a small mountain cabin outside of Boone, North Carolina. The place was fantastic and they love it, but one problem that quickly became evident was the lack of closet space and storage space in general throughout the cabin. The couple ended up purchasing not just one but two types of stand alone portable closets – one, a small portable wooden closet for the main living room for holding books and DVD’s, and the other, a portable closet system for the bedroom for clothes.

3. Use a Portable Closet for Pool.
If you’ve got a pool you must address the issue of storing towels for visitors and guests coming over to hit up the waters. A good solid, metal framed portable closet works great in this regard, being resistant to reasonable outdoor weather conditions and allowing you to easily store both the clean towels and designate a section for throwing used towels to get washed later.

4. Using a Portable Closet for The Hot Tub Room.
Same thing goes for having a hot tub. Everyone wants to visit and everyone needs a towel. Installing a portable closet rack in the room for towel storage makes it easy to keep towels on hand for the hot tub.

5. Use a Metal Portable Closet for Storing Work Equipment.
This example relates specifically to storing tools that need a sturdy home. A metal portable closet can hold tools easily in this regard. Now, something like this is going to get heavy if you put heavy tools in it, but if you get a metal portable closet with wheels you not only solved the problem of where to store the tools but also just made it very easy to transport them.

6. Use it as a Portable Kitchen Closet
Some kitchens just do not come equipped with the proper storage space for holding what you need in a modern day kitchen. A small portable closet can easily become a portable kitchen closet – all you have to do to is buy it and place it in the kitchen.

If you’ve got a portable closet that you’re using in a creative way such as these, let us know by adding a comment with your story!

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.

One of the most interesting experiences for a freshmen college student is the upheaval of leaving home and suddenly sharing a dorm room with a stranger. It’s not nearly as common in todays generation for siblings to share a room as it was for their parents generation, and for many people, this is likely the first time they’ve had to share their personal space with someone else.

Not only are they suddenly living out of what very well may be a smaller room than what they had at home, but someone else is living there too! An unfortunate side effect to this can be a serious lack of closet space for both roommates.

An easy and economical solution to this closet storage space issue is to buy a portable closet for the dorm room. Now, obviously, this means it’s going to take up some amount of space that’s there, but in order to make more space, you’ve got to leverage the space that you’ve got to work with. And this is exactly what a portable closet will do!

A portable closet in this setting will provide the student with additional storage space for their wardrobe, including shirts, sweaters, pants, dresses, and depending on the design of the portable, room for socks, underwear, bras, and even dirty clothes (think of it as a built in hamper or laundry bin).

Portable closets are lightweight and designed to be – you guessed it – portable! This means they’re perfect for a college student who is living in a dorm now but likely will be moving into a apartment with some friends or fellow students in a year or two. This portable closet will not be wasted – it will easily be moved into the new apartment, and function exactly in the same way giving the student more room for clothes!

For the years between 18 and 25, students tend to move. And they tend to move a lot. This means the portable closet will get a lot of use in these children’s bedroom, no matter if they’re in a dorm, renting a whole apartment, sharing a bedroom, or renting just a room in someones house or a small studio apartment.

If there’s someone in your life whom you’re trying to think of a gift for and they fall into this age range, a portable closet is a great gift that will benefit them for many years, no matter where they’re living!

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!

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!