Home Improvement : How to Create a More Efficient Bedroom Closet : With ingenuity, wasted space can be converted to additional hanger and shelf storage.

A conventional bedroom closet with a single clothes rod and an upper shelf can quickly become overcrowded.

With a little work and ingenuity, however, it can often be revamped to hold the contents more efficiently. Here are a few principles of closet redesign:

--Single rods at the standard 6-foot height are necessary for women’s dresses but wasteful for most men’s and children’s wear. By installing bilevel rods you can double storage space.

--A narrow case with open shelves from floor to ceiling can house folded items, shoes, hats and other accessories.

--Shelves above the clothes rods add valuable storage space.

Remove Existing Fixtures

Here’s how to go about installing additional rods, shelves and an open case. Remember to start any closet revamping by removing all existing rods and shelves.

You’ll need three-quarters-inch plywood, 1-by-2 and 1-by-4 lumber, 1-inch hardwood dowels, dowel sockets, shelf edge moldings, L-brackets, screws and nails. Quantities and sizes will depend on the dimensions of your closet. The basic tools you’ll require are saw, hammer, screwdriver, drill, drill bits and carpenter’s level.

The sides of the accessory case are made of plywood and extend from floor to ceiling. Place the good face of the plywood outward (facing the clothing) and fasten it at the floor, wall and ceiling with steel L-brackets. Try to line up the wall and ceiling brackets with the studs, or use hollow wall fasteners.

Cut the shelves about one-sixteenth-inch shorter than the space between the uprights. Cut the shelf cleats that support the shelves from 1-by-2 stock and fasten them to the inside of the case sides. Use screws rather than nails for greater strength.

The shelves can rest on the cleats or if you prefer pull-out shelves, add another cleat above the shelf. Leave enough clearance for the shelf to move in and out easily.

Mounting New Rods

For clothes rods use 1-inch wood dowels. Mount each rod in metal clothes-rod sockets which are fixed to 1-by-4 cleats. Mount each socket so that its center is 11 inches from the back wall.

If a shelf will rest on the cleats holding a dowel, place the dowel sockets near the bottom of the cleats. This will allow clearance above the rod to manipulate the hangers. To make sure that the rod is straight, install a socket at one end, insert the rod and place a level on it to determine the exact position for the socket at the other end.

Shelves can be up to 22 inches deep. Shelves above the height of the closet door may have to be shallower to allow easy access.

Use three-quarters-inch plywood for the shelves. Mount them on 1-by-2 cleats. Secure all wall cleats to studs.

Finish exposed plywood edges with one-quarter-inch-thick shelf edge molding fastened with glue and brads. The molding conceals the raw edge of the plywood and eliminates the possibility of splinters.

For information on the source for this article, write Reader’s Digest, P.O. Box 700, Pleasantville, N.Y.