How do you keep your winter gear organized?

[Samiam]

Our first real winter, having moved from FL to NC.

 

I've been gradually getting the winter gear, heavy coats, snow pants, hats, mittens etc.

 

Wondering how I am going to keep this stuff organized, no lost mittens and accessible for the children.

 

I hate a mess by the door, so don't see it just "hanging" on hooks there. What other options do I have besides having it stuffed in a closet. BTW, my options for keeping in by a doorway, are the front door, which opens into a formal room which we use as a play room, or the kitchen door to the garage, which no space in the kitchen for anything...hmmm, perhaps right in the garage???

[RoughCollie]

Will the garage be cold? Will the outerwear (especially wet things) freeze?

 

I have a mitten tree for wet gloves and boot trays from Plow & Hearth.

 

http://www.plowhearth.com/product.asp?pcode=1832

 

http://www.plowhearth.com/productform.asp?q=boot+tray&name1.x=0&name1.y=0&search_type=normal

 

Coats are hung on hooks like this example, only I made mine -- before I found out they sell them at Home Depot and other stores:

 

http://www.coatracksandmore.com/HCR-5BLO-HCR-5BMH-HCR-5BMO-WML1132.html

 

I store dry gloves and hats in a chest of drawers -- one drawer per person. DH is the only one who uses scarves, and there is room in his drawer for those. Actually, I think DH and I are the only hat wearers too; the kids' parkas have detachable hoods that always stay attached.

Edited November 12, 2010 by RoughCollie

[sleepymommy]

We have a shoe cabinet from Ikea next to the door. I keep all of our gloves and hats in there along with the kids' scarves.

 

It's similar to this, we got ours a long time back so they don't carry the exact one anymore. We have one with four compartments.

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80169561

[kalanamak]

Honestly? Every night before bed I go to the mudroom and sort it all out. Without me, chaos ensues.

[Tohru]

We have SO much cold weather stuff--it's regularly 35 below here. Work clothes and boots stay in the back porch unless the felt liners are wet and then they come into the kitchen. Wet gloves are put on the tops of the kitchen chairs to dry. All of us have coveralls, double mittens, work boots, etc. and I'd prefer they not come in. However, they simply won't dry out completely that way. Once they are dry, we have three dressers in the back porch for them. Ski boots, ice skates, board boots, helmets, goggles, ski pants, x-c boots all come into the kitchen and once dry, head to the basement. It's dry in the winter. Skis are hung on the back of the house but my dd's board pretty much lives in her car. Snowshoes get put by the back door. X-c skis are hung up too. Once our little ski hill opens, the skis stay there (one of the perks of having given the land to the city) I just resign myself to having wet stuff all over the kitchen 4 months out of the year. It's what you do when you live in Siberia...

 

That's so fantastic! What part of the state do you live?

 

For us, we just have a plastic bin for gloves, hats, scarves...but then again we're a small family.

[lisabelle]

There are only three of us, so this works: We have a wicker basket on the floor by the front door for gloves, hats and scarves. Above that is a hanging system the dh made for our jackets. We don't use our front bedroom as a bedroom; it's a gaming room, so we use that closet for jackets (living in the PNW we have *all kinds* of jackets). On the shelf in that closet we store our snow/ski pants or overalls. Shoes that are worn frequently are dropped at the front door by the basket.

[fairfarmhand]

I'm no help. My kids regularly wear mismatched mittens because we cannot find any that match!

[Hunter's Moon]

There is a small hallway connecting my parents' room, the bathroom, and my sister's old room where we hang our winter coats for guests, or ones we use when shoveling but not going out. It is right off the kitchen. The ones we wear normally are hanging in our own closets.

 

Mittens, shoes, hats, scarves, and ear warmers are either on a heater (we live in an old house so we have heaters that have heater coverings big enough to sit on) or hanging over a chair.

 

I wouldn't suggest the garage unless it generally doesn't get too cold. Mittens and such would freeze and the jackets wouldn't feel nice going on, especially the swishy material (sorry, not sure what it is called).

 

ETA: Also, right by our kitchen door is a night stand like cabinet, and we keep random mittens, hats, ear warmers, and gloves in there. Those are generally for guests or when we can't find our usual winter apparel. We also throw mismatch items in there, because really, if it is cold and I need to shovel, I don't care if my gloves are mismatch.