What Does Your Closet Say?

Somebody won't like this, but here's what I've noticed through the years in closet design and reading shelter magazines. . .

If the closet belongs to an entertainer who is seen as well as heard, there will be a lot of clothes.

If I'm touring an old landmark home that may no longer be occupied, the closets will likely be surprisingly small, even if the lady's closet is in a dressing room/private sitting room where a friend might come to talk fashion and have tea.

In an upscale magazine closet ad, we will see very few clothes.  The "rich" signal is fine cabinet work, even if the plan seems inconvenient to us.  It will be clear that the fictitious "home" has  a lot of room for closets.   The clothes in the ad photo are never crowded--there is empty space.  I wish I'd had a couple of those pictures in my real estate days, to show to people who wanted a great price for their houses.

Conversely, the most jam-packed closets I ever saw were in very modest homes where the budget didn't allow me to make extensive changes.  And these were often the very customers who refused to lay out their clothes and consider thinning them out to get more room.

I'd love to hear your ideas on what this may mean.  Are the rich more likely to thin out their wardrobes?  Can they say goodbye to clothes more easily?  Do they feel secure because they expect to afford more clothes next season?  Or do they feel insecure if they don't make room to shop often?  Or were most of their clothes at the cleaners?    

There are exceptions, of course.  But the contrast makes me think.