Sales prospects should continue to improve for closet and home storage businesses this year. While a generally
expanding economy will bring more consumers to home storage and organization solutions providers, a broader social trend of maximizing space usage and home re-organizing also seems to be taking hold.

The pervasiveness of this trend is reflected in large-scale initiatives, such as closet-planning programs launched at Lowe’s and Home Depot this year. Home Depot included closet planning for do-it-yourselfers within its broad agreement with Martha Stewart for paints and other retail lines. Lowe’s established a supply relationship with Masco to provide its do-it-yourself closet organization systems at the hardware retailers’ outlets.

Upbeat outlook


Upbeat is the outlook for 2010, based on results of “CLOSETS Magazine 2010 Consumer Market Trends & Opportunities Study.” Of more than 1,000 respondents to the study, carried out in February, 25% completed a master bedroom closet project last year, with an average expenditure of $3,011. Closets for other bedrooms were completed by 20% of respondents, with an average project expenditure of $2,544. In both cases, 2009 was a year of growth, with a rise of around
10% in numbers of respondents doing closet projects last year and increases in dollars expended for both master and other bedroom closets.

Garages were also high priority projects last year: 23% of respondents said they completed a garage organization project, spending an average of $2,907. Home offices took a hit with the downturn. The fall in employment lead to a 10% drop in the number who said they completed a home office project in 2009 — 20%. With fewer employed, there fewer home office
programs purchased.

Results of the study, which were presented by CLOSETS magazine Publisher Laurel Didier at the February 2010 Closets Expo (closets-expo.com) in Long Beach, CA, also tracked another change reflecting the economy — more time at home meant more attention to domestic accommodations, with laundry room projects and pantries both registering gains. Twenty percent said they had completed laundry room projects, up from 18% in 2008. The average expenditure reported was $2,895, up significantly from $2,604 spent in 2008.

Sourcing closets Awareness of closet and garage organizational supply sources remains strong; over 60% of consumers surveyed stated they were familiar with home organization system providers. Awareness of garage organizing services are not as pervasive: 44% said they were familiar with this service offering in 2010.

There is definitely a strong connection between retail closet product presentations and consumer awareness: 61% said they saw displays at retail outlets (closet stores, Container Store, hardware stores, home centers and the like).


Interestingly, model homes are a significant factor in organizing awareness of organizing products. Most consumers (48%) buy bedroom closet systems at retail outlets — e.g., Home Depot, Container Store and other home improvement and mass-market retailers. Still 28% source their systems from professional home organization operations, with 10% turning to professional designers to specify and buy the closet system.

For garage organization systems, the tendency to rely on retailers is even stronger — 66% go to retail outlets for garage organization systems. Just 16% turn to professional home organization systems for such purchases. It may be that garage organization systems and tools and garden equipment purchases are closely allied, with home improvement centers a likely source for both. It will be interesting to see if a deeper analysis of the data from the 2010 Closet and Home Organization Study reveals a corresponding connection.

Planning ahead
Over this year and next, 12% of respondents plan bedroom closet projects, expecting to spend over $2,500 for each effort. Another 11% plan to do pantry projects, also projecting expenditures of over $2,500. Laundry rooms are also planned by 11% of consumers responding to the survey, but with a slightly higher average expenditure of $2,777 expected.

Despite the fact that more consumers, 48%, source home closet systems from retailers than through other channels,
fully 40% expect to hire a professional to install the system; 60% plan to do it themselves. Again, a cross analysis
of data might support the assumptions of some industry observers — that consumers often buy systems with every
intention of installing it themselves, then faced with the complexity of the task, seek out professional help for the execution.
With garages, a higher percentage, 71%, plan to do the project themselves, with just 29% anticipating hiring a professional for the project. It could be the garage project, regardless of how well it is executed, is seen as a bit more forgiving
than a project within the dwelling space — bedroom, kitchen or laundry.

About amenities?
Each year consumer preferences for amenities shifts a bit, a reflecting of design trends, fashion needs (e.g., ties in business dress are staging a comeback) and perhaps, in the case of lighting, technology — LED has made accent
lighting much more practical and much less expensive. Here’s how consumers rank amenities for 2010 versus 2009:
Another indication of a rising trend is the growing popularity of Murphy Beds. In 2009, some 5% of consumers
told CLOSETS magazine’s survey that they added a Murphy Bed. In 2010, that showed a rise to 7% who say they are
planning a Murphy Bed addition — a statistically significant 40% rise.

As anyone who has quoted on a home organization project knows, men and women differ mightily in priorities and concerns. According to a Pew Research Center report, a large plurality of couples (46%) jointly make decisions about buying major items for the home — which would include home organizing projects. But in families in which one person makes most of the decisions, it’s the woman and not the man who has the last word when purchasing big ticket
 items (30% versus 19%).

Controlling money
The Pew study found fully two-thirds of all couples say one partner or the other mostly manages the household finances
but, in the aggregate, men and women disagree about which partner takes the lead. Overall, women are somewhat
more likely than men to manage household finances (38% versus 30%). Fewer than three-in-ten couples (28%) equally
share responsibility for making family financial decisions.

However, comparing how men and women answer this question suggests that there is a good bit of gender disagreement over who ultimately controls the family’s purse strings.

By nearly 2-1, women say they and not their husbands control the family purse strings (45% versus 23%). But a narrow plurality of men say they, not their wives, are managing the family finances (37% versus 30%). How do the sexes differ in organization projects? Generally speaking, the study found women are more familiar with home organization systems, and the demographic for organizational projects is skewed to those 55 and older. Women are most influenced by friends and family, while men are more influenced by advertising and articles that they have read.

When it comes to planning a garage organization project, men are more concerned about utility, including flooring and workbenches; women are more focused on storage aspects: overhead bins and hanging racks. Both sexes see cabinets and shelves as the most important amenities.

When it comes to cost planning, again the sexes differ: men are more likely to plan for safes, moulding and decorative trim; women care more about cubbies for shoes, and slide-out baskets. Consumers in the more affluent segment of CLOSETS magazine survey put a higher priority on accent lighting and shoe cubbies.