The Coat Closet Conundrum

I was serious about getting ready for the pool.  May is sneaking up on me already.  It's February people!  I've got closets to de-clutter, cabinets to sort, and rooms to organize. 

Here is my coat closet.  Appalling, I know.  Pick your jaw up off the floor.  Now try to make some sense of it.  Okay, don't.  It's really not worth it.  I'll sum it up for you....I do make the kids put away their own coats.  They are short so they can't reach the hangers.  "Putting away coats" = shoving them on the floor of the closet. 

I have a confession to make. 

I am not short and I can reach the hangers, but I often shove my coat on the floor of the closet too.  Why?  Why does the sun set at night and why does it rise in the morning?  Why do birds fly south in the winter?  Why can't the Walmart people hear cameras clicking and see flashes going off all the time?  Who knows, I am just trying to distract you.  But think on that last one a bit. 

In the winter, I fill the shoe hanger with hats and gloves.  But, I have not done that this year, so there are some hats and gloves....and some jump ropes, sidewalk chalk and bubbles from the summer.

Those are games and tote bags....tote bags for the POOL!

These are all of our coats.  Who needs that many coats??  And, who knows how long that poor fella has been in my closet?  Maybe he came for our open house back in 2000?  I should really check on our guests more often....

Halloween, Christmas AND summer decorations.  Can you believe all this stuff fit in this one closet?

I used the same process as I did when I cleaned out the cabinet under our sink.  I took everything out, sorted things into like piles and tried to containerize as much as possible.

What did I do with all that stuff???

The tote bags are now on their side so they take up less room and I can see them all. 

I took out the pool stuff (which was all in one bag, but it was a giant bag so it took up a lot of room) and put it downstairs. 

I moved all of the seasonal decorations into the storage area in the garage with all of the other seasonal decorations! 

I put all of the summer things that were in the over the door hanger in a box and stored them in the basement.  Then I sorted all of the hats, gloves and scarves.  There is now a nice little bag to send to a friend with a 6 month old.  There are also several mittens without mates (sounds like a support group to me) that will be thrown out. 

We had too many coats in that closet.  I kept the coats we actually wear, in the closet.  The coats that are too light weight for this time of year are now hanging in wait in our bedroom closets. 

I moved the kids games back to their closets where they belong.

The Outburst game?  We hadn't played in at least 8 years.  Hopefully, it will find some nice young couple without small children to lose the pieces.  It's now waiting patiently for that couple at the thrift store.


And, I did something cuuuuh-razy!  I drilled a couple of holes in the wall and hung a towel bar next to our front door for the kids coats and backpacks.  Now they can reach!  No more coats piled up on the floor!  I bought S-hooks used for shower curtains to hang on the bar so they are pretty, yet functional.

Being organized pays.  Literally, it pays.  Look what I found. 

TEN DOLLARS!  Woo hoo!  That's three grilled cheeses and one ring pop at the pool.  And, a grill cheese from Bluegrass Swim Club is five stars.  The butter.  The golden bread.  The melty, gooey cheese. 

Oh, and the hoodie! 

I found the Second Grader's Old Navy hoodie he got for Christmas.  The poor boy has been asking me for three weeks "where is my hoodie?"  He thinks he looks super cool in it if he unzips it about 3 inches and wears it over a tshirt.  Boys.  So, now he can be super cool again.  I have wasted so much time and energy looking for that hoodie, and I would have never found it unless I cleaned out the closet.  It was on the very, very bottom of the coat pile.  For shame, for shame. 

What do you have hiding in your closet?