Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew
The reason so many houses from this time don't have closets is due to taxes. Homes were taxed by how many rooms they had and closets counted as a room.
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This is a common misconception. People didn't have closets because they didn't need them; typically they owned only a few outfits which could be stored in furniture pieces like chests or armoires. Clothes were highly expensive and the time/labor to wash them was minimal, since servants or slaves did the work.
There's also no evidence to support the existence of a tax on closets.
source: Colonial Williamsburg