RTTPYO #3: The Closet Door That Wouldn’t Open (And the Fix That Changed Everything)
- nvilu7
- Apr 23
- 6 min read
Updated: 16 hours ago
The Problem I Ignored for 12 Years
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About the RTTPYO Series
RTTPYO stands for Removing Things That Piss You Off — the small home problems we tolerate for years before finally fixing them.
In this series, I tackle one everyday annoyance and show how a simple design change can make a space work better.
In this post: a closet door that wouldn’t open.
My coat closet, located in my condo living room near the front door, was handy and generously sized. But, for the 12 years I’d been living there, I had never opened the door more than halfway.
The door wasn’t defective. The problem was that the furniture arranged next to the closet door took up too much space for the door to open completely.
When I moved to Portland, with its “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute” climate, my outerwear collection exploded. There were countless days where I would have to reach into the back of the closet to get the jacket or coat best suited for the weather of the moment.
This is how that would go:
Look at the weather app on my phone.
Cuss.
Move the furniture so I could open the door and get what I needed.
Put the furniture back.
Close the door.
Put on outerwear and exit the condo.
What should take less than 30 seconds was instead a ten minute exercise in futility.
Why did I put up with this stupidity for 12 years? Two reasons. First, because I traveled two weeks out of the month for business, my inconvenience was cut in half.
Second, because I really loved the stuff in that corner—a vintage Scandinavian lounge chair; a brass bar cart with an enormous, strange, and wonderful lamp on the top tier and a large vase on the lower tier, and a 5’ tall pothos plant, one half of a pair that flanked my front door.
So I lived with it. It didn’t piss me off until the pandemic marooned me at home, where my Pandemic Sanity Walk forced me to deal with the door on a daily basis.
When summer came, and I could take my walk sans coat, I forgot about the door.
Toward the end of the summer, I decided to repot the pothos plants, which were getting rootbound, top heavy, and depressed.
The first pothos popped out of the old pot cleanly and completely and settled happily in a new pot. The second one fell over during the operation, ripping most of the plant away from its roots, ultimately killing it despite several months of intensive care.
The only good outcome was the extra light that flooded the living room courtesy of the front door sidelight, which had been covered by the (now dead) plant.
I assumed that with the plant now gone I would be able to fully open the closet door.
When the weather cooled, and I needed a jacket for my walk, I tested my assumption.
No.
I resolved when I got home I would RTTPYO that corner, whatever it took.
Measure Before You Buy Furniture
I started this RTTPYO by actually measuring the available space with the closet door fully open, something I had never done before.
I know.
Then I put a few stakes in the ground:
The closet door had to open all the way.
The new armchair had to be comfortable (the current one wasn’t)
The arrangement had to include a side table to hold a guest beverage
The side table had to be big enough to hold my fabulous lamp
The sidelight window had to be as unobstructed as possible to maximize light
Time for math.
The wall next to the closet had roughly 40” of wall space to work with when the closet door was fully open, without blocking the sidelight window.
My current bar cart/lamp combo was 24” in diameter.
That meant that I was restricted to an armchair on the small side (31” or less), possibly even less comfortable than my current chair.
It also meant that, if I kept the lamp and bar cart, the new arrangement, even with a teeny armchair, would block the sidelight.
So there it was. In order for me to align my RTTPYO priorities, everything currently in that corner would have to be replaced.
Did I want to do that? I looked at the closet door, still wide open, and thought, HELL YES.
I made size constraints part of my shopping list:
An armchair 30” wide or less. I wanted it to have some texture and pattern to pop out from the grass-green wall. And of course it had to be comfortable.
A side table 14” in diameter to accommodate a side lamp and a beverage.
A side lamp no more than 22” high to light the area at night but not block the daylight coming in via the sidelight.
Selecting Furniture & Lighting
At the time, my only option was to shop online.
Even though we thankfully are back to shopping IRL, looking online first for furniture allows you to easily view zillions of products in a few hours.
Even better, many sites provide enough filters to let you to narrow down your choices in just a few clicks and avoid being tempted by pieces that just won’t fit your space.
I decided to shop for my chair first and build my other purchases around it.
Within a few hours I had found excellent candidates for my RTTPYO fix—which all fit within my constraints.
A boho-style wing chair with colorful embroidery, 26” wide, well-reviewed, especially for comfort.
A simple two-tiered side table 14” in diameter that would hold a new lamp and my existing vase.
The 22” high Dolly Accent Lamp from Robert Abbey in a vibrant peach shade.
But, before I clicked the Buy button on any of them, I had to make sure they would actually fit on the wall. The last thing I wanted was to create another RTTPYO.
Then it came to me. I went old-school.
First, I cut out a 14-inch circle using newsprint and put it on my dining room table. I put my existing Dolly lamp on it to see if the side table would accommodate the lamp and a beverage.
I actually tried several glasses with an actual coaster on that paper circle.
Then I used painters tape to outline the armchair on the floor next to the open closet door. I put the paper circle next to the “armchair”.
Before buying furniture, mock up size and placement with paper and painter’s tape.
Everything fit, with room for the door and the sidelight.
I clicked several Buy buttons that night and waited for my new furniture to arrive.
No More RTTPYO
When it all came together, it was perfect.
After I arranged my new items, I opened the closet door.
All. The. Way.
It was mind-blowing. I stood in front of the closet for a full minute, reveling in the fact that the door no longer pissed me off. Over the next week, I found myself opening the door several times a day just to savor the feeling.
I wasted a lot of emotional energy and time on that door. If I had applied even a smidgen of thought or effort I could have solved it in less than a day—which is what I eventually did.
Why did I wait so long to fix it?
Simple. The original items had worked for me in other homes, so I expected them to work in the condo—even though it was clear that they did not and never would.
We’ve all had unrealistic expectations that held us back. Letting go of those expectations was incredibly liberating.
I loved the old items. But I loved the new items more—because they were functional and beautiful.
BTW, the family verdict on the new chair’s comfort rating? According to my sister-in-law, who snagged it on the first post-COVID get-together, sitting in the chair was like getting a soothing hug.
RTTPYO Quick Fix Kit
If you want to solve a layout problem like this, you only need a few basic tools.
25-ft tape measure —for accurate wall and furniture measurements
Painter’s tape —to map furniture footprints on the floor
Graph paper notebook —helpful for sketching room layouts
Mini Guide: Small-Space Furniture
Armchairs
Compact: 22–30” wide
Standard: 30–40” wide
Oversized: 40”+
Side Tables
Small space: 12–16” diameter
Standard: 18–22” diameter
Table Lamps
Shade width should be smaller than the table
Shade height roughly equals the lamp base height
Small-Space Furniture That Works in Tight Layouts
Chairs
Modern or traditional upholstered accent chair (under 30” wide)
Side Tables (14”–16”)
Pair of small-footprint nesting tables
Small modern end tables (Yamazaki Home--super-cute and minimal assembly)
Table Lamps (Small Scale)
Ceramic accent lamp (the crystal base is very cool)
Minimalist metal table lamp
If you have a space in your home that almost works—but not quite…
that’s your next RTTPYO.
Download The RTTPYO Method to walk through exactly how to measure, rethink, and fix the problem (without wasting time or money on the wrong solution).
Grab the guide and start with the one thing that’s been bothering you for way too long.
Up Next
I eliminate a gloomy kitchen by painting my kitchen cabinets.
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