Simple Organization for a Messy Coat Closet

Hello my friends and happy last week of August! Wow I cannot believe that this weekend is already Labor Day! We’re squeezing in one more camping trip this weekend to finish the summer off. And then it’ will be time to start planning our fall activities–and of course pumpkin everything! 🙂

So this past weekend I tackled something that I’ve been meaning to for a long time. I feel like most of us have at least one closet that tends to get completely out of control. We actually have a couple (**insert sigh of frustration here**) but the worst by far was the coat closet in the front room.

This is a peek inside of it back in January when I shared the tutorial on how we hung the new slab door.

I didn’t let it get too out of hand while it had no door. So ever since we’ve had a door it’s looked very pretty from the outside…

but was total chaos inside!

I was soooo tired of the pile falling out every time we opened the door. Not to mention it was next to impossible to find anything we needed!

I decided to document the process to a. keep my momentum going, and b. provide some inspiration for any of you that may be dealing with a closet like this!

The Floor

I began by pulling out all of the stuff that was on the floor and put them in piles as I went.

Can you believe that was ALL crammed on the floor? How?!

I made a seperate pile for the hubby, me, the boys, blankets, bags and randoms.

Even though it looks like a huge mess, knowing that they are all divided out is reassuring that progress is in the works!

I grabbed a couple of baskets that I had and placed them on the floor to help us keep it more organized. I used the big one to store bags.

And the smaller ones to store things like umbrellas, my tripod and whatever else may find it’s way in here! By having the baskets on the floor I am hoping that it stays more organized than it was before.

Although it’s hard to see in the picture above, I folded all of our spare blankets and stacked them in the back. So anytime we need them it will be a lot easier to pull the baskets out of the way rather than piles of junk like before!

I even went through and emptied all of the bags. I dumped them all in to a huge pile and then sorted them out according to where in the house they needed to go. As with any organizing adventure things will usually feel worse before they feel better. Just keep the end result in mind you WILL get through it!

Hanging Items

Once the floor was done I went through all of the coats and jackets. I tossed any broken ones and hung up the rest grouped by family member.

The Top Shelf

Next, I pulled all of the baskets down from the top shelf and dumped them out on the floor. We each have a basket for winter hats, but I previously stacked them all on top of each other and most of them ended up mixed as we sorted from one basket to the next. So instead, I used the KonMari method to stack them vertically so that they are all visible. It’s amazing because you can save yourself from making a mess when you’re trying to find a certain one!

Pretty neat, huh? If you haven’t checked out Marie Kondo’s books or series on Netflix I HIGHLY recommend it! She comes up with some great ideas and is sooo sweet and inspiring.

I used the same method with my scarves.

I also learned that the hubby’s hats can fit in two rows if I face the basket the other direction and it makes it a lot easier to find a specific hat when they are more broken out this way.

These baskets are so pretty now! When winter hits I won’t cringe every time we need to grab something from up there.

I noticed that we actually have room for an entire second shelf up top, so that is now on the list of future projects.

This closet extends allllll the way back behind that wall where the mirror is until it meets the staircase. I love that it’s so roomy but I don’t love how easy that makes it to stuff it full of crap!

Now that there’s some actual organization in here we’re going to make a real effort at keeping this closet clutter free from now on!

Here’s a quick timeline that’s kind of fun to look at:

• 

It may not look like a huge difference, but when you are going in there to find something, I’m telling you guys it’s like night and day!!

And the amount of missing items that I found in here was astounding! Lens covers, some of Lucas’ favorite shorts, and even our dang beach bag that I’ve needed several times this summer!

Thanks for stopping by today my friends! I hope you all have a very nice Labor Day weekend and I’ll catch up with you all next week!

Linking up to these fantastic link parties!