As we all know, with winter come swirls of snowflakes, roaring fireplaces, and playful snowball fights. However, winter also means lost mittens, wet hats, salt stains on carpets, and scrunched up tuques. So the question is—how do you keep an entryway free of jumbled piles of outerwear and elude the endless pleas of “Mom, I can’t find my gloves!”? The following storage tips will ease you into the season and help you to conquer the chaos that often accompanies colder weather.
For starters, it’s hard to deny the pure practicality of bins and baskets. Simple and tidy, they store mittens, tuques, and scarves in one central location. Sort clothing and accessories according to colour or family member, and presto, you’re done. We love the idea of placing baskets under a bench. Here, function meets form to create a pleasant home for boots!
Get the kids involved by giving them wall hooks customized to their differing heights. This way they’ll learn that their coats are much happier hanging than laying on the floor. Better yet, install an open closet where each of your clan has plenty of room to put away and retrieve their belongings. This, of course, only works if family tricksters restrain themselves from moving things around.
To group all scarves in the same spot, add shower curtain rings to a regular hanger. Every scarf gets its own ring and is liberated from the crumpled quarters of the dreaded coat sleeve.
For a good overview of everything at once, transform a clear plastic shoe rack into a winter accessories organizer. Even if stuff isn’t placed in pairs or in a logical order (which is often the reality!), you’ll spend less time searching for your little girl’s neck warmer, hat, or earmuffs.
There’s hardly anything worse than starting off the day by putting your hand in a cold, wet mitten. Save yourself the bad surprise by hanging your gloves and mittens on a line with clothespins in a well-heated room. This idea also makes for an appealing decorative installation.
So, despite all your good intentions, there will still inevitably be a mitten or hat that will find its way to the floor. At the very minimum, you can circumvent indoor puddles with the use of a pebble filled tray. Melted snow will drain into the bottom of the tray, thus avoiding the always unpleasant wet-laces scenario.
In the end, although we can’t guarantee that these storage tips will help you sidestep all the little challenges of a cluttered entryway, you’ll at least be able to say, “Well, I did my best!” as you don your mittens for outdoor fun. Happy winter to all!
