January, 1921 
THE 
43 
STORAGE 
WARDROBE 
A Special Room for the Keeping of Off-Season and Extra Clothes 
Adds Greatly to the Household’s Efficiency 
VERNA COOK SALOMONSKY 
W HERE can the summer clothes be 
stored in winter and the furs and 
woolens be kept during the summer 
months ? 
Since efficiency is becoming the house¬ 
hold slogan of today, system in everything 
pertaining to house arrangement is of 
prime importance. 
While the service portion with its many 
mechanical devices has been developed to 
a high degree, the clothes closets of the 
house have ofttimes been choked with to¬ 
day’s and yesterday’s and maybe tomor¬ 
row’s wardrobes. Certainly where cost 
does not prohibit a storage wardrobe 
should be incorporated in the plans for 
the new house. In the old house one 
might fit out very inexpensively a small 
room to take care of last and next season’s 
frocks and hats, surplus comfortables and 
blankets and even a tiny safe tucked away 
behind a secret panel for the keeping of jewels. 
A systemized arrangement of the cabinets 
which will provide separate compartments for 
Shoes are allotted three compartments 
in a series of shelves and drawers at the 
end of the room, above the lingerie 
The plan shows a logical division of closets 
according to the type of clothes to be put 
into them. A jewel safe is under the window 
seat 
the storing of linen and cotton clothes, for 
woolen clothes, for sport wear and for furs will 
prove advantageous. The exclusion of moths 
can be more easily managed if the furs and 
woolens are isolated in cedar-lined cabinets 
and closed behind weather-stripped doors. A 
splendid and less costly substitution for cedar, 
however, as a protection against dust and in¬ 
sects, can be made by completely covering the 
interior of the cabinets with tar paper and by 
gluing the overlapping joints. Any of the com¬ 
position boards now on the market may form 
the door panels, thus bringing the cost of the 
storage cabinets extremely low. 
The cabinet containing the sport clothes 
should be placed against an exterior wall where 
provision can be made for the circulation of 
fresh air by means of small, screen-covered 
ventilators. 
The accompanying illustration will give 
some idea of the possibilities of equipping a 
small room for the storage of clothes. The 
space above the cabinets is reserved for hats 
and bandboxes—what a great amount of space 
is required for the housing of one’s milliner)'! 
—and under the window and between the 
clothes presses is a spacious cedar-lined box 
for blankets and woolen bedding. The lid is 
hinged to swing up and the paneled back of 
the seat conceals the jewel safe which is an¬ 
chored into the wall behind. An electric but¬ 
ton hidden in an obscure inner comer of 
the wardrobe will release the catch of the 
sliding panel. 
A troublesome item in the arrangement 
of the storage wardrobe is that of shoes 
and the position they should occupy. 
Ofttimes an additional shoe strip is placed 
at the bottom of each compartment to ac¬ 
commodate them, but wherever possible it 
is best to provide some space apart and at 
a height sufficient to eliminate stooping. 
Here they are allotted three compartments 
in the series of shelves and drawers at the 
end of the room, and the flaps, which cor¬ 
respond in appearance with the drawers 
below, form additional shelf space when 
open and render the shoes especially ac¬ 
cessible. 
The four moderately deep drawers beneath 
are reserved for lingerie, undergarments and 
embroideries. The subdivision of one drawer 
into smaller compartments will facilitate the 
storing of gaiters, mittens and mufflers, and 
provides space for winter storage of moth balls. 
Beneath one of the windows is a spa- 
ions cedar-lined box for blankets and 
woolen bedding. Behind it is the safe 
The wardrobes are designed to occupy full wall space on either 
side of an entrance door. Furs and evening gowns are hung in 
one side and woolen clothes find accommodation in the other 
On the opposite side are companion wardrobes designed for linen 
and cotton clothes and sport clothes, respectively. The space 
above the cabinets is reserved for millinery and extra storage boxes 
