Coat Rack & Broom "closet" ~ Day 8 Organizing Challenge.

I don't have any closets. None. Unless you count my bathroom cabinet I organized here. But as for clothing hanging closets, or broom closets or linen closets, we just done have any. We are ok with this. It was part of the design plan of the loft, to keep it feeling open, big and airy.

We do live in Oregon though, so coat storage is a nessesity.

There are 2 hook racks in our loft we use for hanging jackets, coats and hoodies. Scarves, hats mittens and umbrellas live in drawers in the entryway.

This was a pretty easy challenge day, which was nice because today we are hosting the BCS Ducks vs Tigers game for probably like 50 people in our shop. Which means my house needed a quick cleaning, some food needs to be made and then I get to relax.

Also since neither hubby or I should be carrying boxes up stairs, when our football buddies show up, they will be toting Christmas bins up from the shop then up into the attic (gotta make them work for their nachos). I was super organized with my packing this year, we got some new red/green bins for most of the Christmas stuff and wanted to label the bins before they get stored. So I went to Avery.com and printed some labels like I did under the bathroom sink for each bin, this should make life much easier next year because I will be able to send some boxes down to the shop and leave some up in the apartment. I could have taken pictures and blogged the organizing and packing process, but I was ready to be done with Christmas decorations.

Without further ado, lets see some coat rack BEFORES:
The one on the left is behind our front door, in the kitchen, the one on the right is right inside the office, which is right next to the opposite side of the kitchen.

Both racks were a little over packed. I pulled all the coats and hoodies and bags and feather boas off of racks, packed a jacket that wont fit until after Ellie is born, moved the striped gym bag (havent been to the gym in months!) into the bedroom to be reused as a hospital bag. My bathrobe was hung inside the bathroom, a sweater was moved into the wardrobe. I found a new home for my bowling ball bag (been bowling 1x in the last 3 years a few weeks ago, but intend on going more often). Nothing mind blowing, but looks much better:

I also installed a Command Hook (there are printable coupons at their website) to hang my greenbags, usually they sit on the little step stool, but thats one more thing I have to do, lift the bag off to use the step stool, it also would often fall off. The hook contains it where it goes, and I can use the step stool without messing with it.

AFTER: I gave the scarf hat and gloves drawers a quick touch up:

BEFORE AND AFTER:

I then decided its time to clean out my purse, since it lives on the coat rack and this job was pretty easy.

I dumped it out, picked out all the trash and sorted, pulling a few things aside that wouldnt go back in. (duplicate water bottle, extra lip balm, candy and hair clip)

(no after pictures, because i just put everything back in my purse, utilizing the different pockets on the sides and inside for different items. Not too mind boggling)

Still thinking this challenge day was pretty easy, and wanting my home to be more presentable for people who might come up to the loft, I decided to tackle my broom "closet" too.

BEFORE:

(this picture was taken after cleaning my kitchen, there was some random cardboard recycling on the floor, i hadnt decided to include the broom wall in the blog post at that point, so I didnt get a true before, but you get the idea)

Installing more command hooks for the broom and dustpan has been on the ever growing to-do list since we moved in. I installed one, for the swiffer, but usually it held the dust pan, or recycling bag or whatever was hung on it. I finally finished the job! (only took 5 months)

The big bag hanging is pop bottle recycling, doesnt really need to be that big, we really dont drink that much soda, and we have a big recycling can down in the shop for when we host parties that I can dump them in to, so I used another Command hook and made a place for a smaller bag in that space:

Broom wall AFTER:
the broom and swiffer will quit falling over, and the dust pan can move off the floor!

The entire challenge took me maybe 45 minutes, doing small parts at a time and made a decent impact. We have more space to hang coats, hopefully keeping them off the back of chairs, I should be able to find my keys in my purse pretty quickly, and everything looks prettier!

I am linking to DAY 8, Coat Closet~ A Bowl Full of Lemon's 21 Day Organizing Challenge