what is in your front closet?

Ours is a DISASTER. Like one of those sitcom / careful when you open it DISASTERS.

I went bin-happy @ Target yesterday, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to attack it.

For those of you w/little kids: how do you handle their tiny, omnipresent shoes, coats, hats, and mittens? I want my kids to hang up their own coats (mommy does not = maid) but when I don't really have anywhere I can put hooks, unless I put them straight into the back of the closet.

We have a basket like this for the hats and gloves:


I hang scarves on a hook.

I just cleaned out the hall closet and with all the stuff in it, it sounds bigger than it is. You can actually see a little bit of the floor now and can safely get a coat out.

Besides coats, it contains: an ironing board, step stool, rain boots, paper shredder, fax (it's the home office!), various notebooks of records, all those hats mittens and earmuffs, backpacks and briefcases, dog leashes. And perhaps some cassette tapes?

[Meenah]

I'm not sure!!

[Sheherezade]

We re-organized last year. We took out the hanging bar and went with a row of hooks, shoe cubbies and a colorful bin for every family member plus two extras. This winter, we have the hats and gloves for each kid in their bin. Backpacks, coats and scarves go on the hooks. Mom and Dad have multiple coats, so we have to actually hang one in a separate closet in the house if we want to switch looks. Luckily, we are up to that. The top shelf of the closet is reserved for sports bag, ballet bag and briefcases for Mom and Dad.

The shoe cubbies have been great. We seem to have WAY to many shoes and boots in the winter. We keep a shoe tray at each door for really sloppy shoes. We keep all the "gear" for activities in the appropriate bag. It makes getting out the door so much easier - and it's easy for me to put the stuff away. I also have a big tote bag hanging in there with overflow snow stuff. I just have no plan or the snow PANTS - but that's a minor issue compared to last year.

okay ... those sound AMAZING. I'm having trouble visualizing how that works. Ours in not a tiny closet, but has space to the left and right of the door, so accessibility can be a problem.

Would either of you be willing to take a picture of your closet ? I really want to make this functional. If you don't want to post it here, that's cool. You both have my email address.

signed -

loser who wants photos of nice closets

Sure, but my camera is still blurry so you'll have to fill in the blanks. Or fill in defined lines.

[Sheherezade]

I'll try. Here's the closet. The kids aren't home, so you'll have to imagine the backpacks and coats on the hooks...and the dirty socks on a heap at the bottom.

For lots of guests we have to hang the coats in an upstairs closet (obviously).

[/url]

Are those shelves fixed or is it a unit that hangs up? Can't quite tell.

Looks great!

ooooh .... serious closet envy. Mine isn't that deep (the only stinkin' closet in the house that isn't massive!). But that gives some ideas.

Okay - blurry Nellie - you're next.

[DCJenn]

I converted ours to storage/stereo cabinet since it was totally useless as a coat closet (this is the one in DC, there is not front cloest in the rental here in TX)

When I had Closet Stretchers do the upstairs closets we had them do the downstairs closet, too. We divided into thirds and have the two sides w/ floor to ceiling shelves and then the middle we had electical outlets installed and then more (bigger and deeper) shelves for the stereo units. One less item of furniture to have to deal with.

The upstairs hall had a closet and that became the coat closet.

Jenn

[SuzySunshine]

This is one reason I think it is a good thing we don't have kids - where in the world are we going to put all of their stuff? We have an 1,800 sf house and it isn't even big enough for all of DH's and I stuff, oh and the dogs!

[Phoebe]

Our front closet has vacuums and some hanging coats. We don't really use it. The closet off our garage and laundry room is where we store things. We have a cubby similar to Angie for shoes. I got it at Target and it was easy to assemble. Each family member has a row with 5 cubbies for shoes. I have two baskets with the girl's socks on top of the shoe cubby because they hate wearing socks and having them close to their shoes alleviates several trips upstairs for forgetten socks.

For seasonal items such as gloves, hats and summer items I have baskets like Nellie that I rotate according to time of the year. In our laundry room are two rows of hooks where we hang kid's coats and their backpacks high enough to where they can be responsible for putting them away. We come in the house and they take off their shoes and coats and put them away immediately.

The situation isn't ideal because we don't have a lot of space, but it saves on clutter. I would love to have space for those tall wooden cubbies that look like lockers in a mud room area. However, we don't have a mud room. A must in our next house.

Holy Clutter Batman!

No wonder this puppy is a disaster! I just took everything out and am ASHAMED at the myriad of stuff that was in it (and is now all over my foyer and dining room). Here's just the tip of the iceberg:

2 portable dvd players
3 phone books
a storage crate of stemware that hasn't been used / needed in -FOREVER
wrapping paper
gift bags
a 2 sided light saber
kites from India
old camera bag
asundry decorative curtain rods
toy musical instruments that i hid from the boys
several canvas bags
2 travel light brights
a can of glow in the dark paint
a bag of paint chips to mull over colors

.... I haven't mentioned any coats or shoes yet, have I???

probably 4 coats of varying weights for dh & I each
3 or 4 for the boys each - who knows how many fit
shoes for all of us ...

this is shameful. but, since I asked people to post pics of their closets, I figured I should out myself.

I went to Target and bought a 3 shelf unit that is supposed to be a bookshelf (on BIG clearance -- originally $70, now $14.99!), and managed to shove it in the closet sideways, and have bins I will be using to sort stuff. All of the stuff that was in semi-permanent storage in there will now being going downstairs to the actual storage room (which I cleaned this morning BTW).

I'm going to whip this place into shape. Right after I get off of the internet, go pick up Quinn, and FINALLY mail the Little People to Jane!

Show that closet who is boss!

[Stella]

Okay, I don't have a hall closet at all so everything is just jammed into a tiny closet in my bedroom (including the vacuum and my skis ).

I put a couple of pairs of shoes in each of the plastic bins on the left and on the right, the top bin is for winter hats and gloves and the bottom bin is for my scarves. (All purchased at target!!)