Tuesday, January 25, 2011

21 Day Challenge-Day 8 {the coat closet}

Okay I'm on a mission to catch up with my organizing posts.  Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons is being gracious enough to leave the linkys up until the 31st.  So it looks like I will be doing a couple of posts a day if I want to link up.

Day 8's challenge was the coat closet.  The company who built our house were apparently a big fan of tiny closets.  Our coat closet in our tiny entryway is the same size as our pantry.  I have tweaked and tweaked this closet numerous times.  Here is a picture of my last attempt before the challenge:




Before this I had a basket on the floor where we just tossed all our shoes.  This made finding shoes a pain in the you know what.  I'm not a tyrant about it but I like to have shoes come off before going upstairs to the main level. So we keep a majority of our shoes down here. The kiddos and mutts produce enough of their own dirt that I try to keep the outside dirt that comes inside to a minimum.  It's a losing battle but I'm not waving the white flag yet!!


Here's a shoe pouch I bought at the dollar store a while back.  I just used those command poster strips, you know the velcro type ones, to hang it up.  I use it for hats, dog collars, sunglasses, sunblock etc.  Things we need before walking out the door.


One thing that irked me about this closet was that our long wool coats were too long for the space and therefore half of the top shelf that I had put in couldn't be utilized.  I really didn't want to get rid of the shelf and buy something new so I was determined to work with what I had.  Then I had an ah-ha moment actually more like a duh! moment.  Just move the shelf that the coats hang on, up!  So that's what I did, about a foot higher.

The coats were actually still touching that shelf!!  Grrr....I almost gave up then I decided just to take off the top shelf completely.  Here's the end result:


Up high are two baskets.  One holds out of season shoes like flip flops.  The other basket holds hats that aren't worn everyday.

The large basket below holds the girls' shoes.  It's like a make shift drawer.  Natalie can easily get her shoes when she needs them.


Below is a another small basket that holds extra scarves.  I kept the pockets on the door because I love them.


Oh and btw, we live in a townhouse with one thermostat on the middle level.  We have a teeny tiny furnace that is the original (13yrs old) so that makes for a chilly middle level if we don't want it hot as hades up stairs and then the lower level is fraaa-eeezing!!!!!! I swear it feels colder then outside. Here's what our thermostat is set to so that it's not 80 degrees upstairs:


Brrr!  Why am I telling you this?  Well because our coat closet is on the fraaa-eezing level.  I had to prepare myself before venturing down into the frigid entryway:


Now that my friends is dedication!

3 comments:

  1. baskets just make everything look much better and give it uniformity! and you look pretty darn cute in your hat! i look stupid in hats like that, but you look adorable!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks great, Andi! Our girls have the same flip flops and rain boots:) I like your hat!

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  3. So does that mean the lowest level gets you ready to meet the temperature outside! Just think it is probably better for you than going straight from hot to cold. Great job with your organising.

    ReplyDelete

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