Getting Organized: The Coat Closet

I'm maintaining two new year's goals right now; blogging twice a week and getting organized. Alright! :) And while I'm doing this, Joe is finishing prepping the living room floors for hard wood. Earlier we went running at the YMCA for our 1/2 marathon training and I finished a cake so I'd say it's been a very productive night so far! Too bad they aren't all like this. Oh well. This isn't really a long (or very interesting) post but I just wanted to share that I am in fact starting to organize small spaces around the house.

This weekend while Joe was on his way home from St. Louis, I went on a house cleaning spree. The kitchen needed the most work after finishing the puppy birthday cake, then making a huge mess on a failed hummus recipe. Then I did some laundry and actually PUT AWAY the folded clean clothes. When I went grocery shopping on Sunday morning I picked up a couple things I'd need for my two little organizing ideas that were floating around in my head. I started with the coat closet. Here is the before:

Not completely offensive, but also not super functional. The previous owners had 2 little hooks on the door that I had been hanging my scarves on. Then on the shelf above the coats we had been throwing all of our gloves, hats, more scarves, and who knows what else. The floor of the closet had gym bags, tennis balls, tennis rackets and a few other odds and ends.

The first order of business was to completely empty the closet and remove the 2 door hooks. Then I vacuumed the carpet and dusted the shelf. Next I unwrapped and hung up the first of my organizing purchases. A cheap, clear plastic shoe organizer. I actually got this idea from Mom and Dad since they also have a shoe rack hanging in their coat closet. It's just so good for taking advantage of unused space!

With the shoe rack in place it was time to start putting things back in. Pretty much everything that had been on the shelf went on the door organizer. The gym bags and tennis rackets went on the shelf and the only things left of the floor were the vacuum cleaner and Joe's work bag. There were a few items that didn't make it back into the closet at all, like the scarves. But I had a plan in mind for them anyway. Here's the finished coat closet!

The 2nd organizing tool I bought was this funky little coat hanger that is supposed to be used for ties or belts. My plan was to use it for all my scarves. And since it came as a 2 pack, I was actually able to use one for Joe's ties as well.

All I did was gather all my scarves (there were 15, yikes) and start putting them on the hanger.

Then it got placed in our closet  next to my purse holder and jewelry organizer.

Do you guys get excited about having things organized and neatly placed? I do! But I am easily amused. These projects made me feel like our house is a little less chaotic, and I'm happy to say that I have been using them everyday and putting things back in their place when I'm done with them. Funny story though, on Monday morning, I went to get my gloves out of the coat closet and although I KNEW that they were now on the back of the door in the shoe rack, I still got scared and jumped when I opened the door because when I first saw the shoe rack it looked like someone was in the closet! Needless to say I felt pretty stupid. Oh well. I guess that's it for tonight! Hope you all are having a great week and staying warm. It's been freezing here in KC! Talk to you later!