Appropriate age group(s):
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School
Middle School
High School & Beyond

Description:
If you are lucky enough to have a walk-in closet, what you really have is: Playhouse/Train Station/Cave/Rain Forest/Space Station...a place where a kid can hang a "kids only" sign and hang out on a rainy day.
---OR---
Some wide, Ordinary closets with sliding doors might serve children (and adults) better with the doors removed. One side of the closet can have hang-up clothes, and the opposite side might allow for tucking in a card table house, or simply draping a curtain on that side, so children can "hide in the closet" with ease, and pretend away.

Older kids/adults: scroll down to "instructions."

Materials:
Closets need safe lighting, to facilitate reading and play, and can be furnished with: soft pillows, a few storage cubes/boxes, and whatever daily comforts/props are desired. Cardboard boxes with stickers on them can be space ship control panels. A grocery store can be furnished with soup and veggie cans that were opened from the Bottom, so they look Full sitting on the shelf...and individual serving boxes of cereal are also naturals for the Store. I haven't read Harry Potter yet, so if you are furnishing Hogwarts Academy, I can't help, but surely the kids have ideas! Budgets have limits, but kids' minds don't seem to have the same constrictions.

Instructions:
My neighbor took the sliding doors off her closets because she was painting. When she finished, she liked the room-expanding look, vs. the Big Brown Doors that sometimes fall off-track and jam up. So, she didn't rehang the doors; they may be jammed into the attic in case she ever sells the house someday, and wants to rehang 'em. Anyway... she can still hang a reasonable amount of clothing on one side of her closet. On the other side, she added an extra chest of drawers. Everything's accessible, and because it's all open to view, neatness is encouraged. Her jr. high son's closet is also minus doors, with added chest of drawers.

The high school-age daughter declined the offer of an extra chest of drawers (she's into blue jeans and tops 99.9% of the time) and chose to fill that new space with a professional-style tilting drawing board and a bench. Her art is all over the walls of her room.

Having seen my neighbor's "un-closets," I am now seriously considering the Closet Sliding Door Removal and added dresser for at least one kid's room, to see if it helps. Nothing's lost in the effort, and the results might be very pleasing to All of us.