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4[[quoteright:296:[[Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CupboardHarry_7993.jpg]]]]
5[[caption-width-right:296:This space for rent.]]
6
7->'''Mitch:''' Did you know there's a guy living in our closet?\
8'''Chris:''' You've seen him too? ...\
9'''Mitch:''' Why does he keep going into our closet?\
10'''Chris:''' Why do you keep going into our closet?\
11'''Mitch:''' To get my clothes -- but that's not why he goes in there.\
12'''Chris:''' Of course not, he's twice your size. Your clothes would never fit him.
13-->-- ''Film/RealGenius''
14
15A character who, for one reason or another, is living in another character's wardrobe/closet or another tiny space that's likely not legal to rent as a room. Due to the small size of the room, the "tenant" is usually a child or teen. Happens a lot in anime, because in Japan some people do spend time in their closets during certain types of weather. That's half the reason why even smaller houses have big closets. Of course, apartments and capsule hotels in Japan don't have closets at all.
16
17In addition, following from TropeCodifier ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'', it's a way to allow the MagicalGirlfriend to live with TheProtagonist without the two having to share a room.
18
19This can be a more extreme form of BadBedroomBadLife if the character's in the closet by force.
20
21In RealLife, in the urban areas with the highest rents, such as San Francisco and Hong Kong, landlords may illegally rent out tiny spaces made by partitioning off one room into several bed-sized
22units.
23
24----
25!!Examples:
26
27[[foldercontrol]]
28
29[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
30* While Rukia of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is in the mortal world, she stays hidden inside Ichigo's closet, to his chagrin. She eventually gets an upgrade by sharing his sisters' bedroom. She prefers the closet.
31** In some of the {{Omake}} shorts in the anime, it's not clear whether Rukia is actually renting the space, or has simply told everyone back home that providing closet lodgings and temporary storage is one of the duties of a Substitute Shinigami like Ichigo.
32* Ren-Ren-Ren-Nagusaran-Rensia-Roroonren-Nakora in ''Manga/{{DearS}}''. Since it's divided by a shelf halfway up its length, several other characters take up the bottom space (with Ren holding the upper space) over the course of the series.
33* Konoe goes into Akuto's closet at least once to "observe" him in ''Literature/DemonKingDaimao''.
34* Manga/{{Doraemon}} sleeps in Nobita's closet.
35* It's hinted that Maika in ''Manga/{{Magikano}}'' frequently hides in her brother Haruo's closet and watches him sleep, as part of her obsession with him and her ultimate goal of some BrotherSisterIncest.
36* When Ilulu joins the Kobayashi household in the anime version of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'', she chooses to take up residence in Tohru and Kanna's closet since there isn't any room in the apartment for another bed. Her sleeping arrangements (and the layout of the apartment for that matter) are slightly less defined in the manga, with Kobayashi merely mentioning that she and Kanna have a futon without any comment about what room it's in.
37* Although the floorplan for Misato's apartment [[ChaosArchitecture shifts constantly from episode to episode]], in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Asuka forces this arrangement on Shinji, comandeering his bedroom and forcing him into the smaller spare room across the hall. The supplementary books have floor plans, and according to them, Shinji got dumped into the study/sewing room.
38%%* [=NieA=] in ''Anime/NieaUnder7''.
39* ''Anime/RODTheTV'' has very tall Maggie sleep in a closet. She likes small spaces.
40* This the plot of ''Manga/{{Rizelmine}}'', where the main character's UnwantedSpouse takes up residence in his walk-in closet.
41* ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei'': Kiri Komori will randomly show up in Itoshiki-sensei's closet (or any other dark, enclosed space) when the "plot" requires.
42* ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'':
43** Ryoko is occasionally like this, only she tends to prefer rafters to closets.
44** Washuu winds up taking residence in an extradimensional space created using the Masaki broom closet ''under the stairs''.
45* Lum in ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' is the TropeCodifier, taking residence in her human "husband's" closet when staying at his house. (It's based on a pun: in Japanese, "an {{oni}} in the closet" is slang for a [[PrettyFreeloaders freeloader]].)
46[[/folder]]
47
48[[folder:Fan Works]]
49* ''Fanfic/AnAstralDropInHeatherfield'' has Will hiding her Astral Drop in the attic above her bedroom.
50* ''Fanfic/DoingItRightThisTime'' pulls an InSpiteOfANail example despite Asuka's vow to [[TookALevelInKindness "use less 'tsun' and more 'dere']] [[PeggySue this time round"]], only justified because she's now sharing a room with Rei.
51[[/folder]]
52
53[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
54* In ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' Harry lives in the closet under the Dursley's stairs before he starts getting strange letters addressed to:
55-->Mr H Potter \
56The Cupboard ''under'' the Stairs.\
574 Privet Drive.\
58Little Whinging\
59Surrey.
60::His aunt and uncle attempt to thwart delivery by finally moving him to the spare bedroom, but it predictably doesn't work.
61* ''Film/HeadOverHeels2001'': Referenced [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] when Amanda moves in with a group of fashion models. She compares the room she's subletting to a closet, so they show her that their climate-controlled walk-in shoe closet is actually ''much'' nicer.
62* ''Film/HeDiedWithAFelafelInHisHand''. The residents sharing an overcrowded Brisbane home are not happy when a Japanese student called Satomi wants to stay also until she produces a large wad of cash. So she's offered a narrow storage closet in the enclosed verandah.
63* In the Val Kilmer movie ''Film/RealGenius'', Lazlo lives in Mitch and Chris' closet. Sorta. [[spoiler:The closet actually contains a lift to his hidden laboratory in the steam tunnels below the school.]]
64* In Charlie Kaufman's movie ''Film/SynecdocheNewYork'' the main character Caden Cotard moves into his ex-wife Adele's closet after taking the place of her maid, presumably without Adele's knowledge, living out the rest of his days there.
65[[/folder]]
66
67[[folder:Literature]]
68* In the James Herriot ''Literature/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall'' series Tristan Farnon lives in the closet of James' room in Skeldale House. It seems that James got his room when he got the job of new assistant to Seigfried Farnon. This has led to amusement when some of Tristan's pranks involve him staying up later than James...
69* In a non-romantic, male example, Spider from ''Literature/AnansiBoys'' takes up residence in the tiny walk-in closet belonging to his brother, "Fat Charlie" Nancy. Or rather, his immense penthouse with a scenic view of a waterfall in the Amazon jungle takes up residence there. And Spider absolutely refuses to leave. HilarityEnsues. So does a number of other things that are mostly entertaining when they don't happen to ''you''.
70* Literature/HarryPotter lived in the cupboard under the staircase in the Dursleys' home prior to getting a bunch of Hogwarts letters specifically addressed to it in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone The Philosopher's Stone]]''. He didn't like it much, as his cousin Dudley loved to bang down the staircase just to annoy him, and it was often full of spiders. As punishment, the Dursleys would sometimes lock him inside it. Further cementing Harry's status as TheUnFavorite, the Dursleys ''do'' have not one but two spare bedrooms, but [[SpoiledBrat Dudley uses one of them to keep all of his stuff, and the other is used as a guest room.]]
71* In the Literature/MercyThompson series, Stefan once crashed for the day in Mercy's closet. Justified, as he's a vampire and it was the only space in her trailer that could be entirely sealed off from light.
72* In the book ''Literature/TheSugarQueen'', there's a woman (Della Lee Baker) living in another woman's (Josey Cirrini's) closet.
73* In ''Literature/TheWestingGame'', Turtle insists that her bedroom was designed to be only a closet. Her mother disagrees, but someone else who comes looking for the two of them asks why they're in a closet.
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
77* ''Series/TheBoys2019''. At the start of Season 2 we get a ContrastMontage of Hughie Campbell (now on the run as a federal fugitive) living in the cleaning closet of a gangbanger's basement hideout, versus the luxury apartment Starlight lives in as a celebrity superhero.
78* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': The episode "[[Recap/TheBrittasEmpireS2E2TempleOfTheBody Temple of the Body]]" reveals that after losing her home, Carole moved into a cupboard in the leisure centre, where she presumably stays for the rest of the series. A more extreme example would be her children, who Carole raises in the drawers and cupboard behind reception. Helps that by Series 5, Carole has managed to expand the cupboard into a full playroom.
79* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': With Anya gone, Spike ignominiously moves into a "spare room" in Xander's apartment.
80-->'''Xander:''' I know it looks like a closet but it's a room now.
81* The 2005 American sitcom ''Series/{{Committed|2005}}'' had a 'dying clown' living in the female lead's closet. When asked about this little eccentricity by a potential suitor, she reveals that she is subletting her apartment and a condition of the lease is that the clown gets to live in the closet until he dies. "They're used to small spaces, you know the ''[[ClownCar cars]]''."
82* In ''Music/FlightOfTheConchords'', Jemaine's ex Sally seems to be considering getting back together with him but insists that he'll have to move out of the apartment he shares with Bret, her previous ex-boyfriend. He enlists Bret and Murray to help him move a mattress to his new place, which turns out not to be big enough to fit it unless it's propped against the wall. (He later hosts a somewhat awkward party inside.)
83-->'''Jemaine:''' What do you think? \
84'''Murray:''' It's...it's not a room, it's a cupboard. \
85'''Jemaine:''' It's not a cupboard. \
86'''Bret:''' It's a cleaning cupboard. \
87'''Jemaine:''' It's not a cleaning cupboard. \
88'''Murray:''' ''(looking past him)'' Is that—what's—is that cleaning products? \
89'''Jemaine:''' [[ImplausibleDeniability Yeah, I don't know what they're doing here]]. \
90'''Bret:''' Well, it must have, at one stage, been a cleaning cupboard. \
91'''Jemaine:''' It's not a cleaning cupboard, it's an apartment. It's my studio apartment. \
92'''Murray:''' More like a ''compartment.''
93* In ''Series/TheOfficeUS'', Angela moves into Oscar's closet when he offers to take her in after she is evicted from her apartment.
94-->'''Oscar:''' When she got kicked out of her apartment, I invited her to move in with me. Ironic that now it's Angela who's living in the closet.
95* In ''Series/PigSty'', due to events leading to too many people living in the apartment, Cal was forced to sleep in the living room closet.
96* In ''Series/ProsecutorPrincess'' something along these lines happens, with a man sneaking in and eating her food, using her shampoo, etc.
97* ''Series/TheSeanCullenShow'' had Winston the Cellar Dweller, who pays Sean rent.
98* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' has Elaine pretending that a janitor's closet in a building across the street from hers is her apartment so that she can order Chinese food from a restaurant that [[WorldOfJerkass won't deliver as far as her side of the street]]. While it's {{Downplayed}} in that she doesn't actually live there, it doesn't stop her from having Jerry over for dinner or George and Kramer from promptly doing their typical DropInCharacter thing, mightily confusing the super, who's been interacting with Elaine under the assumption that she's the janitor. ("Janitor's meeting.")
99* In ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'', Cody decides to live in their suite's front closet when he gets fed up with Zack refusing to clean his side of their room. He moves back once Zack decides to clean it up ([[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome and because the fire department told him it was illegal for him to live there]]).
100* One recurring sketch on {{Creator/Nickelodeon}}'s ''Series/TurkeyTelevision'' was an ''[[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial E.T.]]'' [[AffectionateParody parody]] starring [[Series/YouCantDoThatOnTelevision Adam Reed]] as a boy with a friendly alien living in his closet.
101* In ''Series/TwitchCity'', the female lead can't afford to rent a room, so she rents a walk-in closet and redecorates accordingly. It doesn't look half bad.
102[[/folder]]
103
104[[folder:Music]]
105* The Israeli group Poogy has a song about a family who live in a wardrobe (most Israeli housing does not have built-in closets) because they can't afford an apartment.
106[[/folder]]
107
108[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
109* In one ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' comic Sara moved her bed to her closet...so she can use her room to store her ''abundant'' wardrobe.
110-->'''D'ijon:''' So your bedroom is now your closet, and your closet is now your bedroom.\
111'''Sara:''' I finally got my priorities straight!
112[[/folder]]
113
114[[folder:Podcasts]]
115* In ''Podcast/TheOrbitingHumanCircusOfTheAir,'' protagonist Julian the Janitor lives in his janitorial closet in the Eiffel Tower.
116[[/folder]]
117
118[[folder:Video Games]]
119* ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' reveals that Teddie is living in Yosuke's closet after the events of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}.''
120[[/folder]]
121
122[[folder:Web Animation]]
123* WebAnimation/EtraChanSawIt: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqQvP7bgPU Akamatsu]] sleeps in Tsutsuji's closet for several times, then it's revealed that he is only there because [[spoiler: he has been hiding his [[PornStash porn magazines]] above the ceiling inside her closet the whole time.]]
124[[/folder]]
125
126[[folder:Webcomics]]
127* In ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'', Mab takes up residence in Dan's closet after her Faery Grove gets blown up. Granted, it's more a case of using his closet-door as an entrance into her own, private pocket-dimension, but it evokes much the same effect when she pops into and out of her "home".
128* Cookie's office in ''Webcomic/FurryFightChronicles'' is the janitor's room of a soapland. It's also her living arrangements. [[spoiler: As of Chapter 19, this is also Muko's home until she gets an apartment.]]
129[[/folder]]
130
131[[folder:Western Animation]]
132* In ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers,'' Louise apparently ''hates'' people going into her personal space, and thus chooses to sleep in a converted walk-in closet rather than share a room with Tina. She once gave her mother the SilentTreatment for a week when she went in there to vacuum.
133* For several seasons of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', an apparently evil monkey lived in Chris's closet. It's later revealed that he's not evil, he's just crashing there until he sorts himself out emotionally from his divorce. ItMakesSenseInContext.
134* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. Fry moves in with his RobotBuddy Bender, but it turns out that robots live in closet-sized apartments which they don't use for anything except "sleeping" standing up. For Fry's sake, they both move into a human apartment with plenty of space and lots of amenities, which Bender doesn't like until he finds a "homey" closet to claim as his bedroom. The episode ends with them having to move back into Bender's old place, with Fry resigned to the tiny space. It's then revealed that the wall of Bender's apartment slides up to reveal a "closet" of its own, which is the size of a human apartment and has multiple rooms.
135-->'''Fry:''' This is huge! Bender, why don't I just live in here?\
136'''Bender:''' [[HypocriticalHumor In a]] ''[[HypocriticalHumor closet?]]'' [[HypocriticalHumor Oh, humans!]]
137* A variation from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''; during the family's trip to Tokyo, they have an uncomfortable stay crammed into what they believe is a stereotypical tiny Japanese hotel room. It isn't until they're checking out that they discover that it was merely the foyer, and that the back "wall" was really a sliding door. Behind is a full-sized suite with several rooms (and one very rotten fruit basket that has been sitting out on the table the entire time).
138* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', Lincoln's bedroom is actually a converted walk-in linen closet. While he sometimes complains about the size, Lincoln's at least happy to have his own room, while his [[MassiveNumberedSiblings ten]] sisters all have to double up. It also appears to be a fairly large closet--or at least subject to YourSizeMayVary--since all of the siblings have fit inside at times.
139* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb,'' Norm, Doofenshmirtz's robot henchman, lives in a janitor's closet with his name on the door at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.
140* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice:'' According to the tie-in comic, Comicbook/{{Superboy}} spent his first night of freedom sleeping at [[Comicbook/TheFlash Wally]]'s house. When Wally wakes up, he finds him [[AnOddPlaceToSleep sleeping upright in his closet]].
141-->'''Superboy:''' Your closet reminded me of my Cadmus pod. Except for the funny smells...
142[[/folder]]
143
144[[folder:Real Life]]
145* TruthInTelevision: There was a case in Japan where a homeless woman secretly lived in a man's closet. The man noticed only when he realised that the amount of food he bought and ate didn't match up and set cameras around the house.
146* Creator/GeorgeClooney admits he used to live out of friends' closets when he was broke and couldn't afford rent while struggling to break into show business.
147* A property-for-rent advert in London aroused serious outrage when apparently a central London landlord was happy to rent part of his attic to a tenant for around £900 a month (about $1500 US). The space was painfully small, allowed no room to stand up, and as angry viewers pointed out, was illegal because there was no egress in the event of fire, limited access to shared bathroom and kitchen, and no external window. It turned out the advert was a prank by someone interested to see how far the housing crisis in the capital went -- he had over a hundred serious replies.
148* Hong Kong's 'coffin apartments' are tiny apartments about the size of a single bed. About 200,000 people live in these cramped units. These units, which are made by subdividing apartments with partitions, violate fire codes.
149* Japan's 'capsule hotels' is the example of these done (arguably) right. The COVID-19 Pandemic bring the 'capsule hotels' fad to an end, however.
150
151[[/folder]]

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