How to Organize: Winter Edition

I inspect my fingers as they move across the keyboard, and I notice signs of the cooler weather.  My hands, reddened around the knuckles, already showcase the effects of cold, dry air and more frequent handwashing.  Even though I'll faithfully slather them with lotion for the next several months, they'll likely remain this way until spring.

My hands aren't the only things serving as an indicator of the pending winter.  Our house shows signs, as well.  Currently, we have more hoodies, windbreakers, and jackets migrating throughout our home than is reasonable for a family of five.  Jackets multiply to the point that I can't tell what belongs to who.  They get draped over backs of chairs and dropped onto floors.  They are stripped off when we enter any establishment, only to be wrangled back on when we exit.  They end up being carried -- by me -- in the interim.

Eventually, as the temper plunges lower, we'll add hats, gloves, and scarves into the mix.

It's forced me to brainstorm the most effective way to organize our winter paraphernalia, which leads me to today's How To post.

We have a small closet near the door to our garage.  (We rarely enter our house by the front door.  Does anyone who has access to an attached garage ever enter their house by the front door regularly?)  In this closet I've hung an inexpensive plastic shoe organizer.

Each pouch is the perfect size to hold a pair of gloves, a rolled up scarf, or a few warm winter hats.  Our items get placed higher, while the lower pockets are reserved for the girls so they can find (and hopefully, stow away) their own things.

It looks organized now, which is solely due to the fact that the weather hasn't been cold enough to use most of these accessories yet.

It will come.  Oh, it will come.

And then, the organizer will appear more like a disorganizer with scarves dangling from the pouches like garland and mismatched and mateless gloves haphazardly jammed together.  Still, it beats the alternative, which is having these things scattered across the floor.

The best part?  It's a closet.  You always can close the door to a closet.

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