The coat closet (dun dun dunnnn)

Hey there! How are ya? I finished up a little organization project yesterday that was an easy one, but it ended up taking me weeks. I started at the end of August and just did little bits at a time. I guess organizing exhausts me all the sudden? I don’t know. But it’s finally done so I thought I’d share how I got from messy to organized in there.

Our coat closet is one of those weird spots – we really don’t need to access most of the stuff inside all that often, but the vacuum is in there, so I see it a LOT. And a few weeks ago I opened the door and all the sudden was totally fed up with the mess growing inside:

For awhile this is where the box hid, and since I’ve just started stuffing stuff down in there, and up on top. Out of sight out of mind right? Sometimes this is a good thing. ;)

Thing is the stuff on top would fall on me every two or three times I’d open the door, which was fun:

And it was to the point where I was having to force the vacuum in there to put it away:

And then the cords would sneak out under the door when I (shoved it) closed and of course that’s always pretty.

I started by taking everything in the closet OUT. Cleaning supplies included three brooms (two big ones and one little) and two vacuums (one big and one little):

WHY three brooms? I don’t know. I decided to keep one in there for easy access from the kitchen.

I pulled out all the stuff off the floor and kept saying, oh yeah…wondered where that went:

It’s quite fantastic all that you can fit at the bottom of a closet.

These were down there too – one is a bag full of stuff from my last car clean out. And by car clean out I mean throw everything in a bag, bring it inside, stuff it in a closet = clean car!!:

That’s not how you do it? ;)

You’ll never guess who I found as well:

Um. Wow. Mom of the year. A new Elf “twin” would have had to show this season because I would NEVER have found him.

Next I went through everything I had pulled out. I think I got rid of 10 pairs of gloves. I think two or three pairs per person in this household is just plenty. Am I wrong? Same went for scarves. I love my cutie scarves for the fall and spring, but the heavier winter ones – I think I can get by with four, yes?

If I hadn’t worn a coat in five years (and yes, there were some in there), it went to Goodwill. Coats that didn’t fit the Bub anymore were pulled out too.

I even went through the pool bag – we hardly ever go to a pool and it was quite evident. The Bub’s arm floaties were in there and he doesn’t even use them anymore. There may have been some year old fruit snacks inside. May have been. And earlier this summer I found mail from last summer inside. Yet again I must remind you how ON IT I am.

The pool bag will live in the garage till next summer. And the shoe cubby I use up above the shelf got organized and labeled. The left side is for summer items (things I don’t keep in the bag), the other four are for winter. And I labeled them so, cause that’s how I do:

One line of “winter” cubbies is for the Bub, one for me, one for the hubs. The fourth is just extra stuff.

I had tiny hooks in the closet for scarves that held about…one scarf. Not so helpful. So I decided to use some more drapery tie backs (I use them for organizing all the time because they are so deep):

I installed them inside the closet door – one for the hubby, one for me:

This is the hook I tried to fit them on before:

We all see why that didn’t work so well. ;)

It only took three weeks and $10 spent on the tie backs (I’m using all my other ones elsewhere), but we now have a nicely organized coat closet for the winter:

And the best part is the at least a few of the coats will go into the mud room here in a few weeks, so there will be even more space in here! We don’t use it for coats all winter – they stay hanging on hooks in the mud room.

For a hot second I considered painting the inside of the closet a fun color, but we car barely see the walls in there anyway, so that was a no go.

Here’s a before and after:

Nothing earth shattering, but it FEELS so much better when we open that door!

And I had to keep the little bitty vacuum. :) The Bub loves to vacuum (I know, he rules) and uses the real one now, but I’m not quite ready to let go of the little one quite yet. Kindergarten was hard enough.

Have you tackled a declutter project lately? How do you organize your winter and summer STUFF? Feel free to share any great ideas!