Our closet has some major issues. It has a big sloped ceiling (because it is under a set of stairs). It has lots of stuff in it and it is used mainly by little boys who don’t like to put their stuff where it goes. 

A few weeks ago, I actually heard my closet having a panic attack. After weeks of wintertime apparel being thrown haphazardly all over its floor and after being chosen time after time as “the best hiding spot” in Hide-And-Go-Seek and after the unfortunate “where are the tennis balls I KNOW I put them somewhere in the back with the golf clubs last summer” incident…

Well, if I had to suffer this kind of treatment all winter long, by February I’d look terrible and suffer a panic attack too.

Almost looks worse than my hair when I walk the five yards from my front door
to the mailbox on a 45 mile per hour windy day in March, doesn’t it? 

At least there are some possible solutions for organizing the closet. My hair on a windy day? Well…let’s just stick with attainable goals shall we?

I started by cleaning out all of the unused contents of the closet. There are six people who share this closet and four of them are boy children who like to play in snow…but do we really need nine pairs of snow boots? And can anyone actually fit into these little baby sized boots anymore? And why do we have so many coats? I am SO thankful for hand-me-downs, but how about we only keep the coats that currently fit someone and put the other sizes into tubs in the attic? (Although those coats will have to be taken to the attic by my brave and fearless husband because I’m still suffering bird-in-the-face trauma).

So, paring down to one coat and pair of boots (and one pair of gloves and one hat and one scarf) per person…plus some snow suits and roller blades and heelies…

The tubs in our closet now look like this:

I realize it doesn’t look like much of an improvement…but trust me…it is. 
Big fat coats and snow suits take up an incredible amount of space. Multiply coats, snowsuits and boots by my four children and two entire tubs are full.

Why, you might ask, are you putting all of these items in tubs? Did we or did we not recommend hooks??? 

Yes, you did indeed recommend hooks, but I actually have very little wall space in my closet because of the sloped ceiling. I do have a few hooks, but they are quite high. And any other wall space that might sport a hook is directly behind where the big coats hang. Hooks, unfortunately aren’t working for me as a solution this time. 

My two big rubbermaid tubs fit nicely into the sloped space. The kids (after being gently reminded and then lovingly threatened with losing prized lego possessions) now remember to NEVER AGAIN put their coats on the floor, but to ALWAYS put their coats and boots in the correct tubs under the slope.

See, coats in one tub and boots, roller blades in the other tub…gloves and hats in the crate. 
Daddy’s boots get to go on the floor,
because he’s the daddy and Mommy said it was okay.

Since the hooks are a little bit too high for the little guys, I assigned one hook to our oldest/tallest son (who would never dream of putting his coat on the floor in the first place). I’m using the other hooks for my shopping bags so that they don’t get mixed in with the kid’s boots.

And there you go.

Are you impressed? Probably not. Tubs and crates are really not that exciting. Someone who utilized some really adorable and trendy looking storage containers should totally win this challenge. 

But after several weeks of not seeing the floor of my closet and being incredibly frustrated with my children every time I need a shopping bag and have to dig for five minutes under muddy snow boots…I’m pretty stinkin’ excited.

Oh and also, I haven’t heard any panicky sounds coming from my closet for days. In fact, if I listen very closely I actually hear the occasional, “aaahhhh.”

This post is linked to Organizing Your Way.