Closets, Closets Everywhere

I have a few unfinished projects around the house, but onward and upward!  While recovering from the holidays, I realized what a mess my closets had become.  I've never been able to put my finger on it, but they've just not been quite right since I moved in.

I have two 6.5' reach-in closets in the master bedroom that should provide plenty of room to hold all of my clothing.  I wish that were the case currently but I seem to have encountered a case of the Builder Basic again.  They set things up for success, but still managed to be failure!

I told you it was getting bad!

There are full Closetmaid tracks in each closet, but I'm guessing some of the shelves have been either taken or discarded before I purchased the house.  The shelves themselves are in great shape, but I have a confession to make:  I don't like wire shelves.  I would classify it more as a slight hatred, but it's not the wire shelves themselves!  I love being able to move them around, I just don't like the fact that there are holes in the shelves.  It seems counter intuitive to me!

So, the grand plan is to redo both closets.  I can't do this all at once, so this will be a long term project.  I want to revamp both closets with a melamine system with regular shelves and hanging rods.  In the interim, I decided to find a better layout for my wire shelving system.  I scoped out the Closetmaid website and found a lot of their layouts required medium shelves (which I had), long shelves, and short shelves.  The missing pieces were short shelves!  

After a reconnaissance trip to the store, I purchased 2 foot shelves to go with the ones I already had.  After some moving of shelves, I came up with this in closet #1.

Starting to fill it with some of my hanging clothes

I took this time to go through my shoes and some clothes.  Don't forget to purge your wardrobe every season change!  If you haven't worn it in a year or two, donate it.  10 pairs of shoes, 5 shirts and a purse later, I have a nice pile to donate just from an hour worth of work.  

After putting everything back in, I'm quite thrilled with my mini-project!  I'm going to test drive this general layout until I decide on a permanent solution to my closet project dilemma.  Here's the final result:

(A view behind the door where the long hanging items are hidden)

Have any ideas for me?  Have you come up with great ideas or come across a great product for your closet?  Let me know!

Bonus picture of my helper