How To Organize and Declutter Your Coat Closet

Back before mud rooms were a regular feature in homes, most people had coat closets. Or maybe you call it a hall closet? Whatever you call it, whether it’s a closet or a room – it’s time to organize it for spring!

Since there are only two people in our house and we don’t live in a very cold climate, we don’t have a lot of bulky winter gear. That means our coat closet serves lots of purposes besides housing our coats.

That’s when it gets dangerous. The coat closet can become a catch-all for all kinds of random junk, making it a door you hate to open because you never know what kind of mess is going to fall on your head!

You can certainly use your coat closet to store random things, just make sure that is really the best place to store those items. Here’s what we keep in ours:

• Coats and jackets
• Gloves and winter hats
• Upright Vacuum – there is literally no other place to store it
• Handheld Vacuum & Accessories – there’s room to store both of these together, making it easy to charge the vacuum as needed. I could store the vacuum on the shelf, but then I’d need a step stool to get it down (#underfivefeettall). It’s much more accessible on the floor and doesn’t keep the door from closing easily.
• Card Games – stored in shoe boxes on the top shelf. We don’t use these often, but I can get to them easily if want to.
• TV Trays – easily accessible for eating in the living room, which Paul loves to do.
• Folding Chairs – another item that doesn’t fit anywhere else. We only use these a couple times a year. Paul plans to renovate our outdoor storage this spring, which will make room for these out there.
• Dining Table Leaves – These fit nicely against the side wall of the closet and are pretty easy to pull out when I need them.
• My Grandmother’s silver set – there is literally no other place to store it. I’ve never used this but I want to hang on to it.

(you can tell which coats were hung by the right handed person and which were hung by the lefty!)

The other thing I have in this closet is room to grow. I have room on the top shelf that I can use for temporary storage as needed, and there is room to hang additional coats on the rack.

If your coat closet (or mud room) has gotten out of hand, here’s what to do:

1. Take everything out of the closet and sort the items by type
2. Relocate anything that really doesn’t belong there
3. Set aside coats or items that you can donate or get rid of
4. Sweep/vacuum the inside of the closet
5. Put things back in an organized fashion – group items in bins, hang things neatly and label containers as needed

Need more organization ideas?

• Laundry Room Tour: Organizing in a Small Space
• How to Maximize Storage Under the Kitchen Sink
• The Secret to an Organized Life