Out of the Closet
One of the few things I dislike about our house is the closets. Our apartment in Decatur had walk-in closets, and boy, did those spoil me. Now all we have are reach-ins with bi-fold doors, and the flimsiest, klugiest design you've ever seen. The closets in the master bedroom are one single long space, open in the middle, but with a bit of wall in front of the space in between, making it all but inaccessible. There are shelves back there, but getting to them requires a certain amount of flexibility. Worse, whoever installed all that white wire shelving wasn't too finicky about where the wall studs are, so some of them are already coming down.
So I succumbed to the seductive call of the Elfa sale. You measure all your space and stuff, take your numbers into the Container Store, and they design the closet of your dreams. (Assuming you dream about closets. Generally, I don't. I'm more likely to dream about Frankenstein's monster driving a pink Volkswagen through Times Square on New Year's Eve. Yes, I actually dreamt this once. But I digress.)
Does anyone have any experience with the Elfa stuff? How sturdy is it, really? The only thing attached to the wall is a single strip at the top; everything else hooks into it and hangs off of it. The Container Store elves assure me it's good and strong, but that just seems to defy logic. I have a LOT of clothes. The combined weight is not inconsiderable.
I did find one good review here. I'm thinking there must surely be some no-name knock of brand of the same or same-ish thing out there, but part of what I'm after is the design help. I'm no good at that stuff. I did take a look at the EasyClosets.com site referenced in the review, but reading the review convinced me that I wouldn't necessariliy be better off that way. And the Elfa stuff is 30% off til the end of January, so now's a good time to look into this.
UPDATE: Other reviews rave about Elfa; the main complaint I'm seeing is the price. But the 30% off sale may mitigate that. The other recommendation I've seen is to check out Ikea. Based on what I've heard from skellington and partytrick, this is in the nature of a holy pilgrimmage crossed with a decathalon.
So I succumbed to the seductive call of the Elfa sale. You measure all your space and stuff, take your numbers into the Container Store, and they design the closet of your dreams. (Assuming you dream about closets. Generally, I don't. I'm more likely to dream about Frankenstein's monster driving a pink Volkswagen through Times Square on New Year's Eve. Yes, I actually dreamt this once. But I digress.)
Does anyone have any experience with the Elfa stuff? How sturdy is it, really? The only thing attached to the wall is a single strip at the top; everything else hooks into it and hangs off of it. The Container Store elves assure me it's good and strong, but that just seems to defy logic. I have a LOT of clothes. The combined weight is not inconsiderable.
I did find one good review here. I'm thinking there must surely be some no-name knock of brand of the same or same-ish thing out there, but part of what I'm after is the design help. I'm no good at that stuff. I did take a look at the EasyClosets.com site referenced in the review, but reading the review convinced me that I wouldn't necessariliy be better off that way. And the Elfa stuff is 30% off til the end of January, so now's a good time to look into this.
UPDATE: Other reviews rave about Elfa; the main complaint I'm seeing is the price. But the 30% off sale may mitigate that. The other recommendation I've seen is to check out Ikea. Based on what I've heard from skellington and partytrick, this is in the nature of a holy pilgrimmage crossed with a decathalon.