Coat Closet Re-do

One blog I follow on a regular basis is The Nest Effect written by Tiffany. This year she has started monthly challenges to get organized in 2012. So far she has tackled time organization, financial organization, and paper clutter. I had planned on participating in all her challenges but the first few months of the year were extremely hectic for us so I wasn't able to keep up.

The April challenge is closets and when I saw this I knew I had to make sure I followed. B and I are normally clean individuals. However, our builder basic home has a lack of storage. Well, let's back up. I think it has a lack of storage, but the truth probably is the fact that B and I don't use our storage to the max potentional. As seen below in exhibit A...

Welcome to our coat closet! It's the first closet you get to when you come into our house since we enter through the garage. This closet is in our kitchen "hallway" area. It's where we hang our coats, throw  put our shoes, keep a dog blanket for car rides, two card tables (the chairs are in another closet also downstairs) and anything else we want to keep out of view.

I hate opening this closet because of the sea of shoes. We take our shoes off as soon as we come in and they find a new home in this closet. Why do we need so many pairs of shoes downstairs? I can't tell ya why. I ask myself the same thing.

First thing I did was take everything out of the closet and sweep the floor. Since the shoes covered the floor I am ashamed to say this closet floor hadn't been swept in some time. Between all the dog hair I swear a swept up a small animal. 

At this point I went and apologized to B - I always blame the shoe problem on him; however, the picture above reveals that the top two rows of shoes are mine. Whoops.

Since the shoes had to stay due to frequent outside trips with the dogs and quick errands without going upstairs to our bedroom closet, I knew I had to find some type of shoe storage. Then it hit me, Nate Berkus is always saying to go vertical with your storage. I remembered a few months back I bought this SKUBB organizer with 9 compartments at Ikea for only $4.99. My intentions for the organizer were to hold my purses in our bedroom closet, but I didn't look at the measurements and it was to small. So, it's been hanging in our closet upstairs not being used. The perfect place for it was this coat/shoe closet.

B's shoes are to big to fit, I think I was able to fit one pair of his sneakers in the organizer but his work boots had to stay on the floor. I hung up our two coats, our outdoor blanket and two standium seats. The 9th slot in the vertical organizer is like a small basket so the dog blanket fit perfectly. The top shelf is now completely empty. I placed the two card tables up against the right wall because I don't think they are so "in your face" as soon as you open the door. Again, I was able to do an organization project "free" by shopping our house first. The best thing about this little project, besides it's being free, is that it only took me 10 minutes to complete.

One day I would love to paint the inside of this closet a fun color or stencil but atleast now it is organized and functional. I don't know how many minutes of my life I have wasted digging through the pile of shoes looking for a matching pair.

Do you have a closet that needs to be organized or that you have recently organized? If so, join the monthly challenge held by Tiffany over at The Nest Effect! Even if you don't join in on the challenge I recommend adding Tiffany to you daily or weekly read list. She has great organizing tips for anyone.