Tame Your Coat Closet

Spring has sprung, allelujah!! I was reading Martha Stewart Living’s March issue last week when I came across an article about how to clean out your front hall closet for spring — Declutter the Coat Closet. There were some useful ideas for all personality types — hooks and baskets on doors — and then ideas certain personality types should never attempt — color tagged hangers for each family member’s coats. I think the latter would last maybe 30 minutes in an Organic or Smart Freedom household. Although for that matter, it really would only work for an insanely uptight, organized, unemployed Classic.

Martha (or rather the consulting organizer) is in italics. I’m in regular font: 

1. Use baskets for smaller or less frequently used items. (Color code by contents with stripes of craft paint). The paint idea sounds great if you’re living alone but if it’s a multiperson household, nobody is going to remember what color bin is for what unless they’re labeled. Buy some tags or labels on Etsy.com and tie them on to baskets to identify what goes where. Organics and Smarts don’t have to be obsessive about labeling but Classics and Funs would appreciate the order labels will create. Remember to store away your winter gear somewhere, get rid of unmatched gloves etc. Enjoy an emptier closet while you still can.

2. Keep towels or bath mats in the closet: When you or kids come in wet or muddy, you can clean off. This sounds like a harmless idea but only Classics, Organic Structures, and then maybe Smarts (WITH housekeepers) are likely to keep a fresh supply of towels on hand. The rest of the world will likely have a ratty, dried mud towel sitting there, which in a pinch works. Love that they’ve put nice Turkish towels there because everybody has a few extra Turkish towels hanging around right?

3. Screw hooks to the inside of the door at a height your kids can easily reach. Yes, yes, yes. It doesn’t matter who you are, this is the only way you’ll ever have your children hang up their coat. 

4. No more wire hangers invest in sturdy ones. Get some sturdy wood ones. Hardest people to sell on this notion are Organic Structures — not practical to spend money on hangers if you already have them. Classics might think it’s a waste of money too but you’ll all really appreciate the visual order it creates. This is where they suggest putting color coded tags on hangers. Why this is handy or organized I have no idea. They’re all the same hangers and the coats are usually pretty obviously different so seems a lot of bother for not much added benefit.

5. Use a basket to stash small seasonal items. Put these baskets on the door. You can also use Elfa over the door baskets here too. Gives more storage options than just baskets 

6. You can never have too many umbrellas. She essentially tells you to get a basket and a bunch of cheap black umbrellas and put ’em in a basket. This is a brilliant idea for Organic Freedoms, Smart Freedoms, and potentially a few Smart Structures. I’ve never met an Organic Freedom or a Smart Freedom who doesn’t frequently lose umbrellas. Everybody else can just do the old fashioned umbrellas in an umbrella stand.

7. Wait until things are dry to put them away. Umm, duh.  

8. Protect off-season coats from moths.  Pack away jackets in breathable cotton garment bags, … hang a cedar plank — a natural moth repellent — in each one. Hmm, this is great advice for a Classic without a job or anyone with a fulltime housekeeper. 

9. Make peace with the vacuum cleaner. Vacuum storage may not pertain to coming and going but in many homes this is the only place to store one. The organizer gal is right on here with her advice to accept its presence and drill a hook for it in the back of the closet so it’s not falling over every time you get a coat. We do this all of the time in so many client’s closets. 

They also discuss bins for shoes. You can line up shoes in the closet and they’ll stay that way for maybe one day. Classics (and maybe a few Funs) will regularly straighten them but for everyone else, the easiest way to have shoes always corralled in a communal closet is to have multiple shoe bins. Labeled. Organic and Smart Freedoms should be weary of using bins that are incredibly deep because you might just fill them to the brim and never find the shoes that lurk beneath the surface.

Now go throw some stuff out.