Tackle It Tuesday #16 - Our Coat Closet All Grown Up

We weren't taking advantage of all the space in our coat closet. We don't have a mudroom, so I wanted to create a space that would allow us to do more than just hang our coats. Here's pictures of the before:

And the after. Just like Kale's changing station closet, I used things from around the house we already had on hand.

I created a "landing" place for the mail, keys and cell phones. The bulletin board holds the items with deadlines or due dates. The baskets up top house baseball hats, phone books and a few manuals (my dear husband can often be found reading his VW car manual).

Bob and I each get a drawer in the dresser for papers and things. There's a drawer for things I routinely put in the diaper bag and my shoes are in the bottom drawer.

The kids have a place for their shoes and socks (a little tip I learned awhile back from a fellow blogger is to have a couple pair of socks where the shoes are kept). Of course, Meg's is the pink one! Their school tote bags are easy for them to grab on the way out the door. I'd still like to put a little bulletin board above the bench for them to display their school work.

I posted the kids' school calenders on the side of the dresser so we can see what they'll be learning about that day. There's also a container in between the dresser and bench to put paper in for recycling. I might tweak it a little more, but overall I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Check out some more great tackles over at 5 minutes for mom.