Large families have to be creative with how they organize their closets because storage solutions in the average home are not big enough. Here’s how we have our closets organized with a family of 10.

No matter the size of our family, we have rarely lived in a home with more than 3 bedrooms. And even though our current home has 4 bedrooms, the 4th bedroom is for guests (or our oldest son when he is home from college) and it doesn’t have a closet.
Read: Small House, Large Family: 7 Organization Tips
Even with 1 less child in the home, I knew I would need to get creative with our closets and clothes storage because the bedrooms, barring the master, are not that big.
Watch our Large Family House Tour!
The girls’ bedroom had a large closet, but not a lot of floor space. (If you watched the video, I originally thought this would be the boys’ room – I changed my mind for reasons I will explain here in a moment…) We decided to buy a bunk bed and use a trundle for the 2-year-old and a toddler bed for the 4-year-old. That left room for their long dresser. That dresser is only for the 2 older girls. The 2 younger girls’ clothes are in one of the 3 closets in the master bedroom.

Curious about the little door? It’s our Narnia room!
Watch the house tour to learn more!
For more ideas on how to arrange bedrooms, see my Large Family Bedrooms post!
In the photo above, one side is the 4-year-old’s hanging clothes and the other side is the 2-year-old’s. I have two plastic 3-drawer organizers (like this one) for their socks, jeans, and pajamas and such. The night diapers are on top of the dresser, and eventually, the baby’s diapers will be on top of her dresser.

Also, in this closet are the boys’ dress shirts. The reason for this is because their closet has shelves (this is the reason I switched this room to the boys’ room as mentioned earlier), and since most of their clothes are not of “hanging” quality (i.e. t-shirts and jeans), I decided to organize their clothes in soft-sided bins (like these). Because of this, I was able to completely get rid of their 2 dressers!

My closet is fairly small, but that’s ok because years ago I pared down my clothing, and now if I don’t love it, I either don’t buy it or don’t keep it. Ty’s closet is also pared down now that he works full-time for the Army (not a lot of wardrobe choices there!).
The tubs of clothes the kids are growing into or out of will eventually go into the attic storage on the other side of the Narnia room. You can see how we organize and store those clothes HERE.
Read: How to Store Hand-Me-Downs
So far, this has all worked really well!
As a side note, I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of a family closet, but it has never been feasible or logistically sound in any home we’ve lived in. To see an example of a really neat family closet, go HERE.
Check out my Large Family Organization page
for more great ideas for the larger-than-average family!
Kimberly Sperry says
Amy,
Great tips! We are a family if 11. We have 7 boys and 2 girls ages 15 -8 mo. We are relocating this summer. Even though the house is older it has amazing closet space. The two upstairs bedrooms have closets that line an entire wall!! The down side is that the ceiling slants. Like yours one of three is shelves. I was looking for something like you use for socks, undies, that will hold up to the test of boys!! I would also like to have different color hangers one for good one for everyday. That a way when they open the closet they know exactly what they can wear. I too want to eliminate dressers.
Thanks for sharing!!!
Kimberly
Amy says
It is so fun to “rethink” everything! Enjoy your new home!!
raschelle says
Your house is absolutely gorgeous! Congratulations!!!
Amy says
Awwww! Thank you!