But my closet. Yikes! It was awful. In Texas I had my diva closet. Everything was hung up neatly and organized according to color and sleeve length. Shoes were all off the floor. Not here. I could barely get everything in and the corners are dead space. When I brought the laundry in to hang it up, I just shoved it anywhere I could find space. Forget about colors and sleeve lengths. Handbags were up so high that once I'd used them, it was too difficult to put them back and they ended up on the floor. I bought a shoe rack for the back of the door, but the shoes often fell off onto the floor, making the closet anything but a happy place. I couldn't stand it.
But I also didn't want to pay a king's ransom to California Closets or The Container Store. I can make this a DIY project. After carefully measuring the space, I went online in search of a design tool. I tried the big box stores first because I wanted to order it online and have it delivered.
I tried several of the online design tools but found that ClosetMaid's was the easiest to use. I'd accessed it through Home Depot and didn't even realize that I was on the ClosetMaid website until nothing was going in the cart. The design tool produced a shopping list and I was able to phone Home Depot to tell them what I wanted.
It was going to be perfect. These pieces would solve the problem of the dead corners and give me all kinds of space. But as I went through the list with their customer service rep, we encountered a serious problem.
"The corner unit isn't sold online. You'll have to go to the store to get it. The nearest store to you that has it is in Orlando."
Well, that's just not going to happen. I'm ordering online because I don't want to be in contact with people. Especially people I don't know. I'm not going to a Home Depot store and I'm sure not going to Orlando.
When I made that clear, the customer service rep suggested that I order the pieces that were available for online order and then go to Ebay to see if I could order the rest.
Really? What if I can't find the other pieces? Then I've got my closet mucked up for an indeterminate amount of time. That's not a likely scenario. I will order it all together from the same place, or I won't order it at all. (They clearly don't realize that they're dealing with a woman who refused to redo the dining room in her home for over 7 years because she couldn't find the right wallpaper.)
It took a day or two because some of ClosetMaids lines are exclusive to Home Depot - probably a mistake - but I did find one that was not exclusive to Home Depot that fit the bill perfectly - SpaceCreations Plus. It's direct from ClosetMaid and it's arriving today. I think it will be perfect.
The other part of the plan was plastic shoe boxes that could be stored on the top shelf of the closet - the only wire shelf we're leaving in place. Should be fine but I counted the pairs of shoes that I needed to put in those plastic boxes (the over the door rack is awful - must go!) and it came out to 44 or 46. The best price on those boxes was at WalMart. Normally I'd just drive to the store, pick them up and head home. But these are not normal times and I didn't want to go to the store. Under normal circumstances I can brave the WalMartians but not during a pandemic. I would have to order the boxes with two different color lids.When you're OCD as I am, this is disappointing but I was prepared to work around it. I could get 36 with white lids and 10 with titanium lids. Fine. Whatever. But then I got the message that some (if not all) of the items could not be delivered but would need to be picked up.
Maybe I can do that. Depends on whether I have to get out of my car and go into the store. If they'll bring it out and put it in the car, we'll have a deal. You would think that with the COVID 19 pandemic that allowances might be made. But you don't know until you ask.
The website indicated that I could pick it up the same day. I only wanted to know if I had to get out of the car. I couldn't figure it out just looking at the website so I decided to check with customer service. The fastest option was the online chat. I waited for over 30 minutes to be connected. It didn't happen. So I tried email. That was supposed to be answered in four hours. In the meantime I figured I had nothing to lose by trying the phone number but I didn't think anyone would answer. To my surprise they did. Unfortunately, I got a call center that I suspect was in the Philippines. I don't mean to be rude, but I have yet to be helped by anyone in a Filipino call center - no matter what company they represent. She clearly didn't understand my question - which was "do I have to get out of the car and go into the store to pick up an online order that cannot be delivered?". She advised me to call back tomorrow when the website was refreshed. WHAT???? What does that have to do with it? In typical American fashion, I assumed that if you say it louder, they will understand it. Well, they don't. First she said she was "warning me" (not because I said anything rude, but because I raised my voice). I told her I didn't think she understood my question. Then she warned me again and hung up. At that precise moment, I decided I was finished with WalMart. Forever. And Always. If that is their idea of customer service they can keep it.I might have to pay twice as much to order it on Amazon, but I won't have the aggravation and frustration. I will pay extra to maintain my sanity. So I'll be waiting until April 1st to get my shoe boxes from Amazon that cost twice as much. But that's okay. I don't have to go into a store and I don't have to put up with Filipino "customer service".
By the way, I sent an email to WalMart to complain about the whole thing and never got so much as an automated response. I'm seriously done. (And when I'm done, I'm really done. I haven't set foot in Target in over a decade and I can live just fine without WalMart.)
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