21 Days of Getting Organized: I'm Behind!

I think that I have only lasted a couple of days on this 21 Days to Getting Organized!  I started out late, and now I am getting more behind!  I am just so busy with a newborn and 4 other kids (3 of which I am homeschooling), that I am finding several of these to be very challenging.  It seems that I can only do a little at a time!  Well this is Day #8: The Coat Closet Challenge.  

Here's my confession:  I didn't get this one done on that day, but I did the next day, Day #9.  I also started Day #9: Toy Organization, but got really overwhelmed and had to go to bed!  So, I am sharing with you today, Day #8 - The Coat Closet and have the Toys on the back burner for now (I hope to get that done soon though!)

The dreaded floor of the Coat Closet!

Boy isn't that terrible?  We actually clean this up about once a month!  It's a dumping ground that no one sees!

The coats don't look too bad, but look at that stuff that has been thrown up there on top of my boxes to just get rid of things.  Yes, Mr. Right and I had a big fight about that one!  It happens to be his sweatshirts that always fall off the hanger and end up on the floor.  So instead of hanging them, he throws them on top for storage.  It grates my nerves! To get to the bottom of the problem, we basically had too many things hung up on the rod, so they would get knocked off when we went to find our coats.

Another issue with this closet: all those coats belong to Mr. Right and myself, only!  We have a hook hang-up for the little kids coats, but we have two older kids that have to run their coats to the basement to put them in their own closets!

A closer look at that stash up there.  I started using these paper boxes about a  year ago for overstock of Health & Beauty and Air Fresheners that I stock up on.  I love it because they are out of the way, but I can tell exactly what is in the box and they are uniform.

I almost forgot the door, but I like these door hangers for all the gloves and hats.  This can really only be used for adults, because the kids rip them.  See that pocket on the third row up on the left?  That's what happens.

After of the Upper Closet

I left those boxes up there because they work. I just put them back how they were supposed to be.  I did find a new, free storage container!  Ice cream pails that are square.  They have three sides that are blank and work great for storing things because they are square and have lids!  That one up on the shelf has all the dog stuff that was just thrown up there.

Now Mr. Right has only 3 coats and I have one in there!  The spring coats went to our closets and we got rid of quite a few!  We let our older kids move in their coats with a limit of 2 coats each. 

You can actually see the floor now!  There are two garbage cans that have the recyclables in them, we bag ours up, so this works.  The small can with a green lid is the dog food.  This is the only closet for  vacuum and the floor cleaner.  That stack of ice cream pails are the kids candy.  I know seems excessive, but they have gum (sugar free), candy that lasts forever because they get one piece after each meal and also, jerky (don't ask, the boys love that stuff and will eat it instead of candy!)  This way, they have a marked container and it's not cluttering my kitchen!

Finally, the door.  Do you see that pocket on the door?  I sewed it back in place!!!  I really didn't think it would work that well, but it did.

The best thing about this make over for me was when Mr. Right opened the closet to go to work and said "This is gorgeous!"  Worth the whole argument we had over it, I think!  (Don't worry, we kissed and made up!)