BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Cleaning Cleaning your Coat Closet

Our coat closet is so jammed full of stuff that we can't use it! We just hang our coats on our chairs. Which seems really silly. And the shoe tree is overflowing with shoes. We don't even own that many shoes, compared with many people we know! But I think every single shoe we DO own (including summer shoes!!) is out on the active shoe tree. Which is silly.

Do people put their coats away into the attic? Do you actually remember to go get them in the spring?

LOL, this made me laugh. You really keep out your off season stuff all year? ;-)

You have a basement, yes? Put up a rod from the rafters and hang your off season coats and jackets right there. :-)

For shoes, I will need more data. What categories of shoes do you have out there on your tree?

I think maybe it's because there's only two of us, and we don't have a lot of clothes? So normally it doesn't seem like it's worth it to move things around. For example in the winter I only wear 2 coats - my ski jacket for casual occasions, and my long wool coat for more formal ones. That's it. Bob really only wears his one thick yellow jacket.

So we wear those from say November through about now.

I suppose even moving those three jackets out would help a bit, I would just need to figure out where to put them. The basement gets mildewy - it's not really a functional basement, so I wouldn't want to put clothes down there. The attic gets REALLY hot (like plastic-melting hot) so that's a different problem.

I did just pull out three HEAVY leather jackets with their linings, which is our motorcycling gear. So those can go somewhere until we get the motorcycles fixed. We keep meaning to fix the motorcycles - and it keeps getting not done - so those jackets have been sitting there for about 4 years now without being used. So that will help.

DO you have a garage or utility/laundry room you can have an rod from?

For puffy stuff like ski jackets, I highly recommend the vacuum bags. I have some that you just seal & roll up (no vacuum required) and I use them when traveling--they really reduce the space in the suitcase and I put t-shirts, yoga pants, sweats & undies in there.

I think they'd be great for big jackets and coats. They will wrinkle some if they're in there for awhile, depending on the fabric, but if you get them cleaned at the beginning of the season, that would take care of that.

And, then, you can put them on a shelf or into a storage container in a closet, or probably even in your basement as they should be safe from mildew if sucked & sealed. They advertise pouring water on them.

I got a package of about six from Target or Walmart for maybe $15. My daughter uses tons of these for storing baby clothes, off-season clothes, etc. She packs up several of the bags in big rubbermaid containers to store.

Oh, and my coats do stay in my coat closet (front closet) year round. I have two "coats" and a bunch of jackets -- fleece, rain, warmup and it's just the best place to store them. I wouldn't hang anything else in there in warmer weather anyway so that's just their home.

I keep shoes in my bedroom closet. I do have to pick a few pair up from mostly the bedroom but often in the living area once a week or so & take them back to the closet. I've read it keeps your house cleaner to take them off at the door and store them there. I just haven't ever tried that.

But, I'll keep it in mind for my dream home to set that up. I'd also need a bench or something to put down the stuff I'm always carrying to & fro -- groceries, laptop, purse, books. Otherwise, I'll do just what I do now--distribute everything and keep my shoes on till they bother me (usually when I want to put my feet on the ottoman or curl up on the couch.)

I'm inspired by Jilly's video - maybe I'll do a short photo tour of the kitchen / dining area while it's fairly clean so you can see what I've been doing

OK first, the eating area of the kitchen. I got a new tablecloth because the old one was all stained. This new one is made out of recycled plastic bottles! It is so neat! It makes me happy New place mats, same reason. I think we ran the poor Scooba 5 times in a row before the floor was reasonably clean. He's sitting in the back left corner.



Here's the liquor area which was really overflowing before and now is just slightly overflowing. I use these all for my Champagne cocktails and sangrias I make for my WineIntro website.



So this area along was a TON of time to clean. It used to be jammed full of corks, giant pieces of wood, sword pieces, crafting supplies, and all sorts of other stuff.

OK facing the other direction is the cooking part of the kitchen. It is mostly clean except for the area on the immediate left which is "Bob's Area". It seems like he is not going to clean it out. So either it stays all messy or I have to do it myself.



On the center counter is our sprout maker which I *love* - I highly encourage everyone to make their own sprouts!

A close up of the stove/microwave area. I had to scrub both down quite a lot.



Oh and the egg shaped thing on the counter is a microwave egg cooker which is AWESOME, I highly recommend it for making hard boiled eggs in your microwave.

WOW, you did a great job cleaning that up. Where did all the crafting stuff end up?