This idea was posted on Thursday, November 2, 2006.

When I was a youngster, one of the standard family jokes was to comment wistfully on the need for a closet stretcher.  The closets were never big enough and there were never enough of them.  One day, I figured out how to make a closet stretcher.  There wasn't a shelf in the top of my closet, so I had plenty of room for the contraption.

I installed some pulleys in the ceiling, making sure that they were installed into rafters.  I installed two hooks in the wall, one high and one low, making sure that they were installed into studs.  I disconnected the clothes bar from its brackets and tied a rope around each end.  I ran the rope through the pulleys, across the ceiling, and down to one of the hooks.  See the sketch.

In operation, I could either raise or lower the clothes bar.  When it was raised, it was all of the way up to the ceiling, keeping my hanging clothes well out of my way.  When it was lowered, it was at a convenient elevation for access to my clothes.  Then, I elevated the clothes bar and shoved my chest of drawers into the closet.  Normally, I kept the clothes bar elevated, giving me easy access to the chest of drawers.  When I needed clothes from the clothes bar, I lowered it.  Thus, I was getting twice the use out of my closet.

When relatives would come visiting, I'd invite them into my room and show them my closet stretcher.  They'd usually walk away shaking their heads.