Organizing your children’s winter gear is a task that seems as monumental as, well, that mountain of winter gear! Much like bunnies and feral kitties, mittens, scarves and hats seem to reproduce when they’re tucked away during the warmer months. Come the first snow fall, it’s a scramble to dig through the bins and find matching sets so your posh tot can build his first Olaf of the season. Don’t let a crazed closet keep your kids indoors gazing wistfully at the falling flakes while you try to find their other boot and favorite gloves. Check out our tips for organizing your children’s winter gear!
Tips for Organizing Your Children’s Winter Gear
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First of all, what belongs to who?
There are things that are adult sized kid sized in there for sure. Make piles based on who the owner is. Next, pick a pile to go through. Does it still fit? Is it old and ragged? Has it served it purpose? Can you get another year out of those gloves? Put things you no longer want, need or do not fit into a new pile.
What is left? Surely the kids need new things as they have grown out of them. Take inventory of what you have that still fits or you can get another year out of. Most likely, boots and coats won’t fall into this category, unless you can pass them down to another child. Hats, gloves and scarves may still be good though.
Start organizing
You can organize your items in one of two ways: by like items (mittens with mittens) or by child if you have more than one. Let’s start with by like items. You will likely have mittens/gloves, hats and scarves/neckwarmers. You can purchase a plastic, 3-drawer tower at stores like Wal-Mart or Target for little money. You can even use vintage milk crates to create your own system, like this awesome Pinterest pinner did:
Whatever method you choose, label the drawers or crates for easy access and so everyone knows what goes where. If you have things like ice skates, snow boots, ski boots and other large items, you can store these in a storage bench in the entryway. Even better, get an outdoor storage bench and stick it right outside your door.
Don’t have an entryway or maybe no space for a bench? You can use a storage bin to hold the stuff you are not going to use on a regular basis, but want easy access to for the long winter. Now let’s talk coats, shall we? Ideally, you have a nice big entryway closet to hang them in. That’s not always reality, though. You can go with a simple coat rack if you’re short on space. Got a bit more room to play with? Opt for a pretty coat rack with a bench.
If you opted for the outdoor storage bench for boots and bigger items, use this one for smaller gear, or for storing backpacks. You can also ditch the bin and store the lesser-used items inside.
Get rid of the leftovers
So what about that pile that is left over that you have no use for? You can either sell them or donate them to a family in need. When trying to sell your items- whether it be at a consignment shop or via Facebook- you want to do this when people are thinking about winter. No one is buying winter gear in summer and consignment shops typically only take in-season items.
Yes, stores start selling winter gear in August it seems, but second-hand stores don’t usually have room for extra inventory, so they stick with seasonal items IN the actual season. Keep that in mind when you’re looking for a coat in December and only find bikinis in WalMart! At least you’ll know where to find them!
Have you started organizing your winter gear? Do you have any great tips to share with our other readers? Tell us in the comments!
Thanks for the tips!! Things can get pretty messy if we don’t take care
What a great way to do it!!Thanks for sharing
great tips! I don’t have kids yet, but I will have to remember these!
I found some really great storage pieces at hobby lobby this year and world market. Really getting into the whole organizing thing more and keep it clean around the house. Love your ideas, too!
These are some super helpful tips! Thankfully here in Texas we don’t have winter gear we have to pack away.
I’m trying to get into a better routine of sorting through everything right at the door. It makes life so much easier.
My kids stuff is always all over the house. I’m going to get it organised now cos I’m sick of looking at it ha ha.
Oh seriously, it takes over doesn’t it! We actually built in a storage system strictly for seasonal gear. In the winter, summer stuff goes in totes in the basement and the boots and snow pants get put up. It works pretty well!
We don’t always get snow in NC but when we do, the winter stuff takes over. I love these ideas to get it organized, especially that white coat rack. Wish we had space for it in our entryways.
Loving your tips! I keep ,my kids clothes pretty organized because it definitely makes life easier.
The coat racks with the bench looks great! We didn’t have too much winter gear growing up since we live in Texas, but I think we just had one giant box and always hung up our coats :)
it may seem like a simple thing but I finally put a couple set of hooks by the front door – even though we have a closet, it seems people like having at least one hook to use, so why not ;)
I actually miss the days of pulling out the snow gear and trying it all on. Passing items down from one child to the next. Since we only used it for ski trips it was always an exciting time to be pulling it out. Now that they have all quit growing – we don’t do the hand me downs :)
When I read a post like this I think that Mothers are superheroes, so hard to imagine that someday I will also be organizing mittens by every kid! )
Oh my word. The winter gear is out of control over here, it gets left everywhere because they say it is drying out! Drives me crazy!
That is pretty awesome – thank you for the suggestions. I feel that the winter gear is already all over the place and iit is hardly a winter yet
I love the look of the white hall tree. I have yet to get the kids winter things in order and I really need to do that.
Yeah, it never looks like that, does it?! No matter how organized you try to make them, the coats end up on the back of a kitchen chair somewhere.
It took me a while to realize it, but if I put storage where they drop their stuff it’s easier to keep it all organized. The bottom of the stairs and buy the front door were always a mess until I designated spots for everything.
I love the look of the coat racks with the bench. Sadly I don’t have floor space for one.