Monday, September 22, 2008

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.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is totally inspirational! Now if I could just find me a coat closet around here LOL

I love how simple and basic yet pretty and organized everything is. Not plain just simple.

Nice job!!

Aisling said...

Looks good, wish we had closets but houses over here don't tend to have them! booohoooooo. Our coats are all on hooks in the hallway, messy but not really any other option.

Kim @ Homesteader's Heart said...

Oh man one thing our house lacks is storage space. They need to do a show called "When you have no storage space how do you organize" LoL. YOu did a great job!
Blessings to you!
Kim

Susie said...

What a great tackle!! I love the idea of keeping the messiest place in the house (keys here, slips of paper there, etc.) in the closet!! Great idea!!!

The Proverbs Wife said...

We too use short dresser for the lower portion of our closets. I hope that this station will be of great use for you and your family. Great tackle.

This week I tackled laundry. I do hope that you will stop by to checki it out. Have a blessed day.

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

Wow! It looks wonderful! :D I have a closet that needs tackling. Hopefully sometime this week. :D

Have a great day!
Sherry

Anonymous said...

This looks so great! Makes me wanna tackle our closet... I love how tidy and cheery and practical it is!

Anonymous said...

Very good idea!

Frugal Finds said...

Oh how cute!!! Our coat closet has about 20 too many coats in it! Yours is much nicer!!

Allie said...

Wow! That's fantastic! I love that you used things you had.

Stacey said...

love it! simple changes with big results!

Jennie said...

Oh, now come on!!! That is so cool! (Bob has a VW? I had one too...loved it so much!) Can't wait for the new VW minivan to come out, so that I can wait two years and get a used one!

heidi said...

Oh that just ROCKS!!! We hzve a box for shoes and then a closet for coats. Your idea is so darned cute and ORDERLY!

Hillary @ The Other Mama said...

Love it! That's a great one, Alana. I love the tip for constant diaper bag refills. I'm running upstairs every day for a few more diapers. Why didn't I think of that?? And the socks are a great tip- esp. now that they are starting to wear tennis shoes instead of crocs. Notice I did mention that our kids DO wear shoes in Alabama... :-)

Peggy said...

Looks good! I have a closet in the foyer that needs a lot of attention! You are giving me ideas:)