This week, I think I finally mastered the winter outerwear chaos.
Despite living in New England all my life, I have always struggled to manage all of the accessories and extra clothing items needed during the cold weather months.
Because we experience major temperature and weather shifts during the four seasons here, the coat closet in our house is constantly shifting. We honestly don’t keep much in the closet during the summer months, but during the winter, it feels like my kids and I are rummaging through the closet ten times a day.
For several years, my “organization system” for winter wear was a big bag stowed in the corner or on the top shelf.
I’d shove the gloves and hats and snow suits inside, and any time we needed something, we had to sift through the bag.
Of course this meant that my kids were constantly leaving the contents of the bag strewn across the floor and no one could ever find that one matching glove or their favorite hat.
Plus, the closet became a black hole for spare jackets that no one wore. At one point, I think my husband had four jackets in the closet – and he doesn’t even wear jackets. (This year, we finally donated those jackets during a purging spree).
Well, this week, I finally found a solution to our closet chaos that I think might stick long-term!
A Simple Solution Hiding in Plain Sight
A few years ago, I moved one of those plastic three-drawer organizers (you know the kind that everyone has in college?) to our basement to store gloves and hats during the off-season. Every spring since, I would find all the gloves, match them up, and store them neatly with the hats and scarves inside the drawers.
Everything was nicely organized and we didn’t have to drag out any big storage totes or bins to find our winter accessories when the cold weather returned.
But when that cold weather returned, I took the items out of the drawers, stuck them in that big bag, and shoved it in the corner of our coat closet so the snowsuit and accessory explosion could repeat itself.
It never occured to be until this week to move the entire drawer system to the closet…
Poof.
All our problems were solved.
OK, not ALL our problems, but the winter wear chaos has definitely been curbed.
We still need to bring our snowsuits upstairs and stow them in the closet, but I think my smaller kids’ suits will fit in the drawers along with the gloves and such, and the older kids are big enough to hang their items or stash them on the closet shelf.
It hasn’t snowed yet, but already this drawer system makes it easier for the kids to find their accessories – and put them away when they are finished with them.
Here’s hoping we stay organized all winter!
I’ll report back.
