How do you organize your winter gear?

[8circles]

I've tried different setups for several years and nothing really works that well. This year I've got more room since I no longer need to use the front closet for anything homeschool realated (kids are all in PS). So I'm hopeful that this will be the year.

 

What do you use to store all your hats, gloves, etc? There are six of us with many items per person. 

 

[Guinevere]

We tend to store ours all over the floor. Every now and then, a good fairy comes and puts the hats, scarves, and gloves in a basket in the entryway. Sometimes she also puts the coats on the hooks in the entryway.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Guinevere

[8circles]

We tend to store ours all over the floor. Every now and then, a good fairy comes and puts the hats, scarves, and gloves in a basket in the entryway. Sometimes she also puts the coats on the hooks in the entryway.

 

Yeah, I think our fairy quit. lol

[MEmama]

We have a large closet in the front entry. I switch out winter and summer coats between it and an upstairs hall closet. So our coats and shoes get stored there, wet boots on a boot tray under a radiator (turned off) next to the door, and hats/scarves/mitts etc in baskets on a small bookcase opposite the closet. We each have a basket, keeping it super easy to just our stuff in the right place.

For a larger family I would use one of those cube bookcases and do the same. I love love love open baskets for organising. Even my teen boy can consistently manage it. :)

[AMJ]

For foul weather gear here (not a lot of winter here, but we do get rain) we have a line of coat hooks in the hallway to hang wet things.  Sloppy shoes get taken off and put near the door to dry.  There's the bottom 2 shelves of a bookcase in our downstairs hallway that hold dry shoes.  We have an old farmhouse washstand with one door and some drawers that hold gloves, mittens, cold weather hats, some sun hats.  We have a small coat closet and hang dry coats not currently in use in there.  The builders of this house didn't give a thought beyond the coat closet to where various things should be stored, so we use multiple spots in this way to take care of it all.

 

When the kids were little some of the coat hooks were hung at kid height.

[Acadie]

I hang one of those over-the-door shoe organizers on the inside of our front hall closet, and that's where we put gloves, mittens, hats, scarves, etc. This works 10,000 times better for us than having baskets or drawers to fish through--items are easily visible, and mittens and gloves are always with their mates.

 

We're a family of 4 and everything fits. For 6 you might fit the most-used items and put the rest in overflow storage, or create separate storage for the adults.

 

Amy

 

 

[bolt.]

One pair of mitts on kiddie strings per person. One pair of boots per kid (more for me) with specific "parking spots" and baskets for everything else. One basket is mixed kids stuff, and the other is adults'.

 

Kids that are too old for kiddie strings put their primary pair of mittens into the tops of their boots.

[Selkie]

When my kids were little, I got wire mesh baskets with nameplates on them and hung them on the mudroom wall at kid height. Each member of the family had their own basket for hats and gloves and a hook for coats and snow pants. Now that everyone is older and taller, we still use the baskets but we keep them on the shelf in our coat closet.

[Btervet]

Gloves and soft hats go in coat pockets, hung in front closet. Wet shoes in front of fireplace. Sometimes wet coats/gloves/hats hang on blanket rack in front of fireplace.

[J-rap]

With 7 people and lots of winter gear, we had two wicker laundry baskets in the front entry -- one for hats and mittens, the other for wool socks and scarves.  We had two boot drop-off places... one in the front entry lined up against the wall, and the other by the back door near the heat vent.  Jackets went on pegs that my dh added to the wall of the front hallway, lower ones for the younger kids and higher ones for the taller kids.  Gear definitely wasn't out of site but at least it was organized.

 

 

[skimomma]

Drawers of some type work well for us.  Everyone in my family is into several winter sports so we have ridiculous amounts of gear. Like 10 pairs of glove/mitts per person, 10 hats, rechargeable hand warmers, leg warmers, etc.....  And no closets!  So, we have an old chest of drawers with a large drawer for each family member.  It is nice looking so sits in our living room near the front door.  There is still clutter because the gear often has to dry before it can be put away but at least there is a way to put it away and segregate everyone's stuff to make the hunt for specific items as easy as possible.  If I could put it in a closet, I would put a drying rack on top of it.  I have tried to train my family to put their wet stuff in the laundry room to dry, but that requires 10 steps and so it usually all ends up on the floor next to the dresser.  

 

We have hooks for coats/snowpants but those are pretty overloaded.  Once a week or so, I go through and remove the lesser used coats and put them on hooks in individual bedrooms.  They usually all migrate down again within a week.  Boots and ski boots are the biggest challenge.  Our front door opens directly into the living room.  We have a big boot porch so I can contain the boot clutter out of sight, but we do have to bring in the pair we will be using next to pre-warm/dry them, so there are always two pairs of boots (one winter, one ski) per person sitting on a rug in my living room.  Sigh.  

[SKL]

Each of my kids has a bin in a shelving unit for her accessories (gloves etc.).

 

We have a pretty large rug next to the front door.  When people come in and shed wet stuff, the stuff stays on the rug until it dries enough to be put away.  If it's really soggy or nasty, it can hang over the utility tub in the laundry room until it's washed.

 

We have hooks inside the door of the coat closet and a plastic mud catcher on the floor inside said closet.  That is where the kids' coats and boots go once they are no longer dripping wet.  (Well, theoretically - we aren't that great about putting things away.)

 

Adults - we are much less likely to come in dripping wet.  Personally I do not have boots; I wear the same shoes for all casual purposes and they stay on the rug until the next use.  My gloves live in my coat pockets.  I don't really use other accessories.  Same for a second adult here.  The 3rd adult has boots and accessories, and she handles them similar to the kids, but she comes in a different door, so uses a different drying rug before she finds a home for her stuff.

 

We have a mud catcher inside the garage for any boots that are just too awful to allow inside.  It is rarely needed though.

[Amira]

I moved to Saudi Arabia and put everything in boxes in the garage. :)

 

When we live in a cold place, the coats are hung on a coat stand, and there’s a cloth grocery bag hanging there too where people can put hats and gloves when they’re dry. Wet shoes/boots are left out to dry then stashed on the shoe rack.

[HomeAgain]

I have a box near the front door that has a divider in it - like those boxes for the trunks of the car.  Hats and scarves go on one side, gloves on the other.  Extra hats and gloves are kept in sock drawers up in our rooms.  Jackets are hung, but I have a drying rack next to the fireplace that they are draped on while they dry.  We each also have a bag that contains skating gear.  The youngest's has the most in it: pair of gloves, skates, snow bib, lesson book, long underwear, and helmet attached to the side.  The rest of us just have a sweater and skates in ours.  The bags are kept in the hall closet, stacked and zippered.  Boots line the floor next to the doors, front and back.  Nobody is allowed to walk across my floors without taking boots off first. 

 

I need to get a boot tray.  Right now I use cheap dollar store mats to catch the mud, but a boot tray would be much nicer.

 

[underthebridge]

I love these types of threads. In our home, boots are placed on a tray in the hallway. Everything else goes in a closet with double doors. On the inside of one door are hooks for kids’ coats. On the inside of the other door is a hanging shoe organizer that holds kids’ hats, mittens, hand sanitizer, lip balm, pocket sized tissues, mints, sunglasses, band aids, etc. Adult coats are placed on hangers and adult mittens and hats are in one of those cloth shelved organizers that hang from a closet rod. We also store sports gear and uniforms in the organizer. Keeping it organized requires constant vigilance!

[My4arrows]

I hang one of those over-the-door shoe organizers on the inside of our front hall closet, and that's where we put gloves, mittens, hats, scarves, etc. This works 10,000 times better for us than having baskets or drawers to fish through--items are easily visible, and mittens and gloves are always with their mates.

 

We're a family of 4 and everything fits. For 6 you might fit the most-used items and put the rest in overflow storage, or create separate storage for the adults.

 

Amy

This is what we also do for our family of six. It is tight as we have a lot of gear, but it works much better than just thrown somewhere and I've found things get lost less.

[OrganicJen]

I've tried different setups for several years and nothing really works that well. This year I've got more room since I no longer need to use the front closet for anything homeschool realated (kids are all in PS). So I'm hopeful that this will be the year.

 

What do you use to store all your hats, gloves, etc? There are six of us with many items per person.

We have a big Rubbermaid type tub that we keep on the coat closet shelf. We also rotate things out that go on a coat rack type thing by the coat closet.

[Guest]

We have an entire mud room. It has two walls of hooks, with rows and rows of Sorels, muck boots, irrigating boots, riding boots, Nordic boots, downhill boots, board boots, etc. 5 drawers of mittens and hats. And soon, the annual pile of things drying in the kitchen. It's SO cold here (-5 last night, soon to be -35) that everyone has to have multiple pairs of boots and liners. Everyone has to have multiple coats and overalls. The ski hill will soon open, so at least 5 pairs of skis and boots will move there to the employee closet. That helps.

I love a lot of things about CO, but when you post these temps, I am suddenly totally happy to leave Colorado to you!

 

Signed,

A Freezing Person

[Kassia]

This is what we also do for our family of six. It is tight as we have a lot of gear, but it works much better than just thrown somewhere and I've found things get lost less.

 

Also a family of six and this is what we do (the over the door shoe organizer for gloves/scarves/hats/sunglasses).  

[Acadie]

This thread also inspires me to say how much I love our cast iron radiators--they're the best place to dry snow pants, mittens, coats, etc. After a few hours everything's toasty and dry enough to put away.

 

Amy