I Took the Doors Off My Closet, and It Was the Best Design Decision I Ever Made — Here’s Why

Finding an apartment in New York City is an exercise in compromise; the perfect location might not have the amenities you want, and an amazing space with laundry in-unit might be a sixth-floor walkup.

My new apartment has almost everything I could ask for: my ideal location, cats allowed without a fee, a large living room, and easy access to public transportation. Where I had to compromise was on taking the smallest room I’ve ever lived in before. Which is why the first thing I did when I moved in—even before I started cleaning—was remove my closet doors.

Here’s why I did it, and how it transformed my space.

Why I Removed My Closet Doors

Because my room is so small, the closet takes up an entire wall, and I only have one, pretty small window on the opposite wall. Without a ton of natural light in the space, it felt like the renter-white walls were closing in.

Not only this, but I moved my two dressers into the room and immediately realized that one definitely wasn’t going to fit at all, and the second would take up all of the free space that my queen bed wasn’t already eating up.

The closet had two sliding doors that made the space difficult to use from a functional standpoint. By taking them off, not only would it be easier to simply use the closet, but I could also fit my second dresser inside. Like this, it wouldn’t take up unnecessary floorspace, and the closet was instantly easier to use.

Because they were sliding doors, it was super easy to just unscrew the brackets keeping them in place, slip them off the tracks, and slot behind the fridge where they will live until the end of my lease.

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The Effect

Simply having nothing there instantly opened up the room. I don’t mean to seem dramatic, but it felt like it brightened up the room, too.

I was able to easily fit my dresser inside, which is now functional and tucked away in its right place. All of my clothes are together in their designated area without taking up any more space in my room than I’d like.

The hanging bar obviously goes above the dresser—and without my second dresser (which I generously and humbly gifted to my roommate)—I have more clothes to fit onto it and stuff into my remaining dresser.

This isn’t an issue, though, because I can simply hang shirts and pants above the dresser without them touching the top of it. Anything longer—blazers, jumpsuits, and the few dresses I own—easily fits on the end of the hanging bar and settles in nicely alongside the dresser since it doesn’t take up the entire width.

How I Styled It

Now, don’t go around believing my closet and all of its inherent chaos are just part of my room decor. As a means of separating it from the rest of the room, I hung up two blackout linen curtains that keep it tucked away without the permanence of doors. This also allows me to use the dresser with ease.

To wrap the whole thing up in an amateur interior decorator’s bow, I got a matching light-filtering linen curtain for my window. I decided not to get blackout for the window as well for two reasons: For one, I didn’t want it to be too matchy-matchy, and because there’s such little natural light already, I definitely didn’t want to be blocking any more out. (Hot take, but I sleep with the curtains and shades open every day anyway.)

This was, in my opinion, the best possible choice I could have made for my room. It doesn’t feel nearly as small as it did when I first moved in, and now it’s even more put-together design-wise.