Tips To Organizing Your Coat Closet
Even Good Closets Can Use Some Organizing Love
At first glance, I didn’t think our coat closet was that bad: we had a shoe shelf, overhead bin storage and even cute little hooks for the littles’ coats. These basics were enough to score me a decent grade, or so I thought. Over time, our closet was bursting at the seams with endless outdoor gear and those cute little overhead storage bins proved useless when only one of us could actually reach what was up there.
After a trip to The Container Store and binging some Master The Mess from The Home Edit gurus (shout out to Clea & Joanna, my #lifegoals), I set to work installing The Elfa. I cannot say enough good things about The Elfa, or should I say, my new best friend. This unit is pretty much the super hero for all small space organizing woes like this coat closet of mine.
15-minutes later, this seriously non-handy gal had the shelf installed. No nails, no screws, just a level, a step stool, and a little maneuvering needed.
3 Simple Steps To Organizing Your Coat Closet
From here, I made a few simple organizing changes:
- Dedicated basket, shoe and coat space for each family member. Nothing drives me crazier than shuffling through big man coats or finding heavy muddy shoes crushing my ballet flats. Now each person has a basket and shoe shelf of their very own.
- Replaced my dodgy and mismatched hangers with heavy-duty wood hangers . This removed another pet-peeve of mine: misshapen wire hangers that can barely hold the weight of its garment.
- Ditched the small overhead bins for one large bin. Considering that the overhead space is far too high for most of us and the Elfa baskets can hold all of our go-to’s, I ditched the small bins. In their place, I put one larger basket to hide our umbrellas. Sure, we could have gotten away with nothing up there, but it looks a bit sad all empty like that.
The Elfa comes together with only 3 pieces: a door hinge, rail & baskets
The Elfa: Installed. Photo of my oh-so-proud face after installing this baby not included.
Closet: After
2 House Rules To Keeping Your Closet Organized
The cute coat hooks for the littles remain. These hooks are a simple way to keep their coats within reach and saves ample space in the general hanging area.
I also created two simple house rules:
- Each person has to respect their dedicated space, meaning coats return to their designated spot. Same with shoes.
- Each person can keep as many shoes and coats as their space allows. Once they max out, any extra shoes or coats return to their bedroom closet or other designated space in the house.
So far, the rules are being mostly followed and the Elfa remains my BFF. My shoes are far happier and there are no more (ok, far fewer) “Mom, where’s my x?!”. I’m giving this closet do-over an A this time.
BEFORE + AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
The Simply Sorted Home, LLC
The Simply Sorted Home, LLC
The Simply Sorted Home, LLC
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