What do you do if your house has no coat closet?

[Anonymous]

We use a good-sized armoire as a coat closet.

[Anonymous]

I am thinking of doing something like this in addition to the coat tree we already have:
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/projects/easy-storage-project-customized-entryway-mini-mudroom/

We have a very narrow space (typical dc rowhome) behind the door, and need to keep backpacks etc off the ground.

[Anonymous]

We got something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-128738-Four-18-inch-Wooden/dp/B0033AHK6Q/ref=lp_3744281_1_6?s=storageorganization&ie=UTF8&qid=1396359938&sr=1-6

and put out of season coats in an upstairs closet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Throw the coats to the floor.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-128738-Four-18-inch-Wooden/dp/B0033AHK6Q/ref=lp_3744281_1_6?s=storageorganization&ie=UTF8&qid=1396359938&sr=1-6

and put out of season coats in an upstairs closet.

The problem is that in DC, you use all your coats in a single week! I think last week I literally used all my coats. Stupid weather!

[Anonymous]

That mini mudroom cracks me up! Like anybody only has a couple of little doodads and bags to hang up.

I did take the door off of our coat closet (it was opening into the entry door, so it was poorly placed to begin with). I put in some shoe shelves and hung two BIG baskets on the right side. One of the baskets is out of the kids' reach, so that's where all the out of season stuff goes. Right now, it's full of goggles, swim hats, flip flops, etc... The basket that they can reach is full of mittens, hats, etc... All 65,000 of them.

We hang the coats on the regular rod and put our shoes on the shelves. Every once in awhile the shelves get crowded with everybody's extra pair or slippers or something. Then I purge and remind everyone that only the primary shoes are allowed in the closet. Everything else has to go up to their rooms.

Without the door, it works pretty well.

[Anonymous]

We did a coat rack and some baskets too. I used Apartment Therapy as well to give us some ideas.

[Anonymous]

We have a large house with two coat closets, one by the front door and one by the garage door. The problem was that we only use the closets for the coats were not the ones in current use. The ones in current daily use often got thrown over the chairs that are near the door. Plus we wanted our toddlers to learn to hang up their coats. So, in the little alcove that leads to the garage, we hung hooks that I got from Ikea. This is what it looks like from the hallway. The door you can see goes into the garage and the coat closet is on the wall to the right (facing the coat hooks).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We use a good-sized armoire as a coat closet.

Great idea, PP! I am in the same situation as OP, and I never thought of using an armoire! But we do have a space where a narrow one will fit!

OP, right now we have a coat rack and a shoe rack in our living room, next to the front door. It looks messy and I hate it, but it's better than the huge jumble of shoes that sat near the door and the coats that used to be strewn all over the living room furniture!

I hate not having an entry/mudroom/coat closet! That's the worst thing about our house! When we have more money, we're going to build one onto the front of the house. I like the rest of our house, and our location is perfect, so we're muddling through this.

Now I'm going to look for an armoire! What a simple solution!

[Anonymous]

Look on Craigslist for armoires - there should be tons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-128738-Four-18-inch-Wooden/dp/B0033AHK6Q/ref=lp_3744281_1_6?s=storageorganization&ie=UTF8&qid=1396359938&sr=1-6

and put out of season coats in an upstairs closet.

The problem is that in DC, you use all your coats in a single week! I think last week I literally used all my coats. Stupid weather!

This is so true, we had everything from windbreakers and fleece, to down jackets and wool coats in our closet until last week, when I started bringing the heavy ones down to the basement closet. With four people there is barely space for them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look on Pinterest for mini mudrooms. We have a small cost closet but never used it because it was behind the front door and also we're lazy. We had a coat rack but it always looked messy and it cluttered our already tight entryway, which was basically just part of our small living room. We had this awkward alcove next to the stairs and did something kind of like this: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.ca/2013/03/reader-space-mini-mudroom-makeover.html?m=1

We also bought an Ikea Expedit for keys, work bags and badges,, change, and baskets to catch shoes, mail, umbrellas, random junk. It looks a lot better. We'll probably have to lose the Expedit to sell the house, but it makes the space look less like a drop zone.

Word from the wise, real-life mudrooms never look like the pictures, because they don't have actual coats on the hooks!

You could do this if you were single. Or maybe if you were a single parent with an older child.

[Anonymous]

I'm the one with the Pottery Barn iron coat rack. Forgot to add that we also have a bench with baskets for hats mittens etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look on Pinterest for mini mudrooms. We have a small cost closet but never used it because it was behind the front door and also we're lazy. We had a coat rack but it always looked messy and it cluttered our already tight entryway, which was basically just part of our small living room. We had this awkward alcove next to the stairs and did something kind of like this: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.ca/2013/03/reader-space-mini-mudroom-makeover.html?m=1

We also bought an Ikea Expedit for keys, work bags and badges,, change, and baskets to catch shoes, mail, umbrellas, random junk. It looks a lot better. We'll probably have to lose the Expedit to sell the house, but it makes the space look less like a drop zone.

Word from the wise, real-life mudrooms never look like the pictures, because they don't have actual coats on the hooks!

You could do this if you were single. Or maybe if you were a single parent with an older child.

We are a family of 3, plus dog, and put in 5 larger double hooks. That plus a basket under the bench (which has also has an air vent under it), the bench itself, and the Expedit (4 cubbies for bags, 4 for baskets for shoes, junk, leashes, etc.), our entry way rarely looks messy. Our little one is a toddler and has a lot of stuff....more than the rest of us combined! You can customize this to the space you have.