Giving Everything a Place: Coat Closet

Project #2 on my 'Place for Everything Mission' was the coat closet. Again, it was another small project with big results. LOVE those kinds of projects.

Here is the before:



The very first thing I did was to remove all the winter coats & snow pants from the closet. Due to very limited storage elsewhere {my house has exactly 3 closets total including this one} I had thought this would be the best place to store all our outdoor stuff whether in season or out. But, as you can see, there really isnt room here, so I took the winter stuff out.

Next thing was to draw a limit. 2 coats/jackets per person. As it turns out Charger had 3 that I couldnt decide between and Mustang only owns 1 {we lost her good jacket *sigh*}, so my 'limits' werent strict, but they worked. I hope this number will work come fall/winter, if not I will change then. The only one not on the limit is DH, he doesnt so much care for limits...I'm working on this!

Then I labeled. Too often when we are going some where, DH will yell from the closet...which coat is Chargers? Now, I would think this was obvious, but to be fair, I BOUGHT the coat, I WASHED the coat, I HUNG it up, and I also have put it on Charger a bunch of times. DH doesnt have the same frame of reference and is trying to help me get the kids ready to go somewhere, for which we are usually running behind and very stressed. So, he opens the closet, sees 12 coats and gets overwhelmed. He doesnt, at that point, notice size or color, just a vast sea of coats.

My answer was to find 3 different colors of hangers. Mustangs are red, Chargers are white and Mini Coopers are green. I even went so far as to hang a sign on the inside of the door with this list. We will see if it helps. If nothing else, a helpful grandma will be able to use this sign for reference.

I have a box up at the top of the shelf that holds off season accessories {currently gloves, hats, etc}. These had been in the bins by the door, so I took them out of the bins, washed them all and then put them into this box for fall. The ones I dont think will fit in the fall were put in storage. I even pitched a few. I further labeled the outside of this box with EXACTLY what's inside. Its not the most fun to pull down a box and weed through it when what you are looking for is not in the box. I do hope to eventually add some higher shelves to this closet for more storage.

The other thing on the shelf is my backpack. A couple weeks ago I streamlined my diaper bag and purse into a backpack. Not an original concept, and I have no idea what took me so long. I might blog about this more in the future!

So here's the after:



In the bottom of the closet are still all our boots. I dont have enough to worry about moving them elsewhere, I'll worry about that when we do.



I re-purposed an extra magazine rack to hold daddy's work gloves. They get dirty and gross and I wanted them separate from the kids' gloves. The magazine holder wasnt being used for anything else and fits well at the bottom of the closet.

When I finished my mission, I even had enough room to store Mini Coopers car seat carrier at the bottom!! And CLOSE the DOOR! It's the little things in life that excite me :)!

The only thing that could make this project a million times better, is if I could figure out a way that the kids could hang up their own coats. This rack is way too high. I am working on a plan. I'll let you know what I come up with.

My next project is the guest bath. God Bless!!