A unit is one section of a closet organizer design. Each unit is made up of individual component parts (ie. gables, fixed and adjustable shelves). The standard depth for closet organizer units is 14”. This is because when a folded clothing article (eg. sweater) is placed on a shelf it requires approximately 12” of shelving space in width and 13” – 14” in length (depending on the size of the person). Most standard closet shelving is 12” deep (common wire shelving installations) but when 12” deep shelving is used clothing has a tendency to hang over the front edge of the shelving which doesn’t look very neat.
These are the most commonly used units when designing a closet organizer for a regular ceiling height (ie. 8 ft ceilings). The top shelf on these regular sections are 86.4” (2195mm) off the floor.
A. Long Hang (LH) – Usually only women require a long hang unit for evening gowns or long dresses and on average only 20% of the wardrobe is made up of these types of items. Since these types of items are usually used infrequently most closets will be designed with these units in a corner or harder to access area. These units use 2 ft gables, 2 fixed shelves and one adjustable shelf.
B. Medium Hang (MH)- This unit is used when the customer hangs pants from the cuff or owns long skirts. It doesn’t waste as much space as a long hang and allows for more shelving. These units use 3 ft gables, 2 fixed shelves and 2 adjustable shelves.
C. Short Hang (SH)- This style of unit is sometimes called Shelf Hang and is great when both hanging and shelving are required. It uses 4 ft gables and the hanging wardrobe tube is the same distance off the ground as the double hang unit. It uses 4 ft gables, 2 fixed shelves and 3 adjustable shelves.
D. Double Hang (DH) – These units have the hanging wardrobe tube approximately 43” and 85” off the floor. These units use 4 ft gables and 2 fixed shelves. The unit space in the top and bottom of a Double Hang (DH) unit is 42.1” (1069mm) and will allow enough room for most short hang clothing.
E. Tower – Towers use 86.4” (2195mm) gables and sit on the floor. Either small (2.5”), medium (3.75”) or large (6.25”) kicks can be used. For installations with tall baseboards often a large kick space will be left without installing the kick. This allows room under the shelf or drawer to place items such as shoes and helps eliminate wasted space. Towers can also be designed to hang (or suspend) off the floor using 6 ft or 6.5 ft gables. When installing a suspended tower a cleat should always be used under the unit to provide additional support. There are two types of towers commonly used:
F-1. Drawer Tower – A drawer tower has 3 fixed shelves; one at the top, one above the top drawer and one below the bottom drawer. They can be designed with any combination of drawers and drawer heights but the most common is 4 medium or 1 extra small and 4 medium drawers (TWR-4M or TWR-XS-4M). Whatever combination used make sure the top drawer is not too high for the customer to access. Drawer towers have standard widths of 18”, 24”, 30” and 36” but keep in mind it is always better to go up in one foot increments as this works better when placing folded clothing on the shelf.
F-2. Shelf Tower – This tower uses 86.4” (2195mm) gables and sits on the floor. There is a fixed shelf at the top, bottom and in the middle. There are usually 4 adjustable shelves but the designer can add as many as the customer requires. A 6 ft shelf tower unit can be installed using 6 ft gables and suspending it from the wall. If a 6 ft suspended tower unit is used for a pantry, cleats must be used under the unit to provide more support.
