Clean up your coat closet
As we head into colder weather, it’s the perfect time to take a good hard look at your coat closet.
- What are you hiding in there? Could you play “one of things is not like the others; one of these things doesn’t belong” in your coat closet? Find the right home for things that have migrated into the closet over the last year.
- Sometimes the coat closet is the logical place for things that seem not to belong – a card table or vacuum cleaner or luggage or sports equipment. It depends on your home, the available closet and storage space, and the way you live. Make sure you have space for the oddball things you’ve designated for your coat closet.
- Warm weather coats can be moved to the less accessible areas of the closet, or to storage. Be sure to wash everything, or have cleaned, before storing it during its off-season.
- Cold weather outerwear includes a lot of extras – mittens, gloves, hats, scarves, shawls, boots, umbrellas. Our favorite storage system for the mittens, gloves, scarves, hats and shawls is one of those hanging shelf organizers, sold for shoes (narrow) and sweaters (wider). They hang from the rod, but give you shelving almost to the floor. Assign a shelf per person, or store all like things on a shelf (mittens on one, gloves on another, etc.).
- Add hooks for umbrellas – on the door or on the side wall of the closet.
- Our favorite place for boots is on a boot tray – a rubber tray with raised edges, so the wet mess boots leave behind is always contained. We like the boot tray by the door, but it works just as well inside the closet.
- Make sure the cold weather coats are clean, in good repair and ready for use.
- Add extra hangars for guests’ coats. Get nice sturdy hangars for the coat closet – we like wooden ones – to take the weight of heavy coats and to help hold the shape of the coats.
- Tote bags seem to procreate in closets. Check yours. Do they need to be laundered or wiped clean? Is the coat closet the best place for your grocery bags (or do they belong in your car, where you’ll remember to use them)? If you have too many bags in good condition, check around for organizations that could use them. We’ve heard of libraries, schools, churches, and charity groups reusing donated bags.
- Clean the closet while you’re decluttering it. Vacuum the floor, baseboard, and shelves. Dust the walls and ceiling. Wipe down the door. If you’re really ambitious, give the closet a fresh coat of paint inside. (Remember, there’s no rule about what color it has to be – if you want it a fun, bright color, now’s the time!)
