Closets · Updated Jun 3, 2026
Closet Systems for Small Apartments
Many Canadian apartments built before the 1990s give each bedroom a single reach-in closet roughly 60 to 90 centimetres wide, with one shelf and one rail. That single rail is where most small-space storage problems start: long coats, short tops, boots and luggage end up competing for the same vertical run.
Read the closet before changing it
Before buying any organizer, take three measurements: the interior width, the floor-to-shelf height, and the depth from the back wall to the closed door. Depth matters most in older units, where doors are often only 50 centimetres from the back wall — too shallow for standard front-to-back drawer towers.
Write those numbers down. Every later decision depends on them, and they prevent the common error of ordering a shelving kit that does not physically fit.
Divide the rail into two heights
A single full-height rail wastes the lower half of the closet. By hanging a second rail below the first, you create two short-hang zones for shirts, folded trousers and skirts. Long items — winter coats, dresses — keep one dedicated full-height section at one end.
This double-hang change alone usually recovers enough room that a separate dresser becomes optional in a small bedroom.
In rented apartments, tension-mounted and over-rail hardware avoids drilling into closet walls, which keeps the change reversible at the end of a lease.
Give footwear and seasonal items fixed homes
Boots are the seasonal item that most often spills out of Canadian closets. A low shelf or a shallow boot tray at the closet floor keeps salt and meltwater off the floor and out of the living area.
- Daily footwear: on an open low shelf or tray, within easy reach.
- Off-season footwear: in a labelled lidded bin on the top shelf.
- Bulky winter coats: on the long-hang section, not crowded against shorter items.
Add storage last, sized to the gaps
Only after the rails and shelves are set should you measure the remaining empty pockets and buy bins to match. Stackable bins with a uniform footprint waste less of the irregular space than a mix of shapes.
- Re-measure the empty volumes that remain.
- Choose one bin footprint and buy multiples of it.
- Label each bin by contents and season.
Items leaving the closet should be sorted for donation or recycling rather than general waste. Many Canadian municipalities publish a waste sorting guide for textiles and packaging through their local waste and recycling pages.
- Publicly available references used for general context on Canadian housing and dwellings:
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
- Statistics Canada