Coat Closet Organization Ideas Learned From My Small Closet Makeover

In this article, Coat Closet Organization Ideas Learned From My Small Closet Makeover, I will show you that just making a few simple changes can transform your coat closet into something functional and you will able to store more of your personal belongings. A typical coat closet is often a small space but it does not give you a reason not to keep it organized. In fact, small spaces like your coat closet need good and effective organization in order for you to fully maximize its use.

In my article, How To Organize Your Small Kitchen, you do not need to have a lot of cabinet storage or a huge amount of storage space to have an organized kitchen. Just like your kitchen or any part of your house, organization can be achieved through efficient arrangement of your everyday essentials and effective utilization of your available space. Below are the closet organization ideas to help you to make full usage of your small coat closet without doing a major closet makeover.

6 Coat Closet Organization Ideas:

1.Measure Your Coat Closet Dimensions – Grab your measuring tape and measure the dimension (the depth, the width, and the height) of your coat closet. The dimensions of your coat closet will give you an idea of what size and function you should look for when looking for organizing products to help you to use every inch of your small coat closet.

2. Know What Items To Store –  Coat Closets are usually located near your front door or side door or both. This means that items stored in these areas should be limited to items used for the outdoors such as jackets, umbrellas, gloves and everyday shoes. Take note of your small items that you need to store in your coat closet and plan how you would want to store them!

3. Buy Organizing Products To Help You Store More Items – Once you have taken inventory of the space and identified organizing needs, the next step is to look for organizing products that match with your storage needs and match your space availability. If you have a small space like mine, you need to look for space saving and adjustable organizing products. These space saving and adjustable organizing products will help to use your space effectively.  Below are some organizing tips to consider when buying organizing products for your small coat closet:

• A closet rod, wire shelving or hooks mounted to walls are some of the budget-friendly ways to organize coat closets. Hooks and rods allow jackets to hang, which will eliminate the need for coats to be laid on your couch or chair in your living room.

• Baskets can be stored on shelves to store accessories such as scarves, gloves, and umbrellas.

• A hanging fabric shelf organizer is good to store and organize your small essentials if you don’t have enough space to store baskets. It comes with different sizes which offers great flexibility for storage as you can store most of your items from folded clothes, shoes, umbrella, bags, toys, pet supplies and more.

• A free standing shoe rack/shoe organizer that is expandable and adjustable is a must have if you have a small and narrow coat closet. Place it under the hanging coats in your closet.

4. Remove Items That Do Not Belong – After you have identified the items that you should only store in your coat closet, now it is time for you to remove everything that does not belong. If you have a really small coat closet just like my coat closet, you need to remove out of season outwear in order to give a space for your outerwear that you currently use. You also need to do the decluttering process by making  4 piles:

• Piles For Items To Keep : Items That Will Store In The Coat Closet
  • Outwear and personal belongings that you and your family are currently using.
• Piles For Items To Keep But Do Not Belong To The Coat Closet
  • Outwear and personal belongings that are out of season.
  • Personal belongings that belong in another room.
• Piles For Items For Donation or For Sale
  • Outerwear and other personal item that are too big or too small but still in good condition.
• Pile For Items Not To Keep
  • All items that you do not need anymore and are not in good condition.

5. Define A Space In Your Small Coat Closet For Every Outdoor Essential – When designating a place for your essentials always follow the F-F-L (Function, Frequency and Location) Method even for small spaces like your coat closet. It is basically grouping your essentials according to their function and then placing the items that you frequently use in the most accessible area and store them where you use them. See 4 Organizing Steps To Know How to Put Things in Order the Japanese Way, to know more about the F-F-L Method.

• Coat Closet Ideas – Utilize The Space You Have
  • Many homes do not have an entry coat closet which can often lead to having outerwear tossed onto a living room couch or chair which of course, leads to a cluttered looking living room. This is why an entry coat closet, even a small one is important to have because we all need a place to store our jackets, coats and other outerwear and most especially to hang guest’s coats during their visit. So you will need to figure out the space you have available and how you can utilize that space where you can hang coats. In our case, we do not have an entry coat closet where we can hang our visitors’ coats, so what I did is to utilize the closet in the bedroom beside our front door that we are currently using as my husband’s office area . I took the left side of closet and transformed it into an entry coat closet. However, I knew that my husband also needs a space for his office essentials and I did not want to take that space away from him.
  • I bought the garment rack that comes with 4 open shelves. The garment rack will be used for hanging clothing or coats and the 4 open shelves will be utilized to store my husband’s office essentials.  By doing this,  I was able to have space to hang guest’s coats without taking away the space for my husband’s office essentials and therefore, I now have a dedicated space for guest’s coats and a dedicated space for office essentials using the same area.
  • Or use your hallway wall for hanging coats using decorative hooks and underneath place a space saving shoe rack bench.

• Coat Closet Ideas – Invest In Some Good Organizing Products
  • Organizing comes with different sizes and forms, some are affordable and some are expensive! You need to really look for  organizing products that matches your storage needs in order for you utilize your space and make organizing easy to maintain.
  • I bought 2 modular stackable drawers from The Container Store to store office essentials. Besides the fact that it looks good, the drawer comes with block drawer dividers that you can customize the storage space which makes it ideal for storing small office supplies.

• Coat Closet Ideas – Repurpose Your Shoe Box As A Slippers Station
  • Using your shoe box as a slippers station is the most effective, space saving and cheapest way to store your slippers. One tennis shoe box can fit 3 to 4 pairs of slippers and then placed on the top part of a shoe rack and placed in the end corner of the closet. However, if you do not like this idea, there are a lot of organizing products you can buy to organize your favorite flip flops like the pocket organizer, Hanging Shoes Shelves and more. But for me, I am happy using the shoe box as a slipper station for my slippers.

• Coat Closet Ideas – Save Your Boot Shoe Box
  • Anything taller than ankle-height boots are very tricky when it comes to storing them! When boots are not stored properly, they tend to deform their shape and could take up a lot of space. However, I found out that a good way to store them is to place them on their original boot box and stack them on your shelf so they would not take up a lot of space. But make sure you clean them first before you put them back inside the box.
  • This is my favorite 8 year old pair of boots and they’re still in good condition! When its time to put them away, I always store my boots into their original boot box and wrap them like when I first got them. I then place them on the uppermost shelf of my coat closet. So, do not throw your boot box away because it will help you to store them properly without taking up a lot of space!
• Coat Closet Ideas – Use Matching Hangers and Hangers That Fit
  • Hangers just like any other organizing product, come in different sizes and forms. Some hangers can take up a lot of space in your closet but look beautiful, some are best space savers and some are versatile but do not look as nice. There are many styles to choose from. Choose your hangers wisely, look for hangers that will perfectly fit into your closet, that will hold your coat efficiently and will not take up too much space.  Do they need to be matching hangers? Actually No! But there is something about matching hangers that make them appealing to the eyes and makes you feel that you are in a shopping store every time you open the closet door. I think that is enough reason for me, why it’s good to have matching hangers. Take a look at my before picture of my coat closet and you will definitely agree that matching hangers are truly needed.

6. Put Your Organizing Products Into Use – This is the fun part of organizing which is putting your organizing products to work! Place and use your organizing products to arrange your essentials efficiently and utilize every inch of your available space, so you can store more of your items. The more organized your small space is the more items you can store. It is also advisable to take BEFORE and AFTER photos of every organizing job that you have accomplished.  Why? Because it will give you instant satisfaction of what you have accomplished and it will act as a great motivator to get every space of your home organized and to stay organized.

• The BEFORE PICTURE was taken a few months after we moved into our house. During that time, I was still busy organizing the kitchen and other parts of the house. I know beer bottles and many of the other items in the picture do not belong in an office room. That’s why I knew that I needed to do something about this area and that’s when I decided to make use of the closet beside our side door as the extension of our pantry (to make a space for every pantry essential including the beer  bottles). See my article, Small Pantry Organization: From Unorganized Mess To Organized Bliss, to see how I was able to find a place for the beer bottles and how I transformed the small closet space into a well stocked pantry.
• The AFTER PICTURE showed that I was able to utilize the same space (after removing everything that does not belong) to designate a place for hanging guest’s coats during their visits using the garment rack. I was also able to find a place for my husband’s work essentials by utilizing the open shelves that come with a garment rack and by using the modular drawers.

• The BEFORE PICTURE showed that I can only place 4 pairs of shoes on the floor and if we place more than that, the side door hallway will be a mess. Aside from that, I did not have a space to place the other small essentials such as gloves, mittens, umbrellas and others. Hangers were all different sizes and forms and some were wider than the closet width which took up too much space.
• The AFTER PICTURE showed that with a few changes and with the help of few organizing products, I was able to accomplish the following:
  • Increased the number of shoes that I can store from 4 pairs of shoes to 11 pairs of shoes plus 4 slippers (inside a shoe box).
  • Added additional storage space for other essentials such umbrellas, gloves and mittens from none to 8 small compartments.
  • Retained the number of hanging coats by getting rid of all the old hangers and replaced it with hangers that fit inside the closet.

Coat Closet Ideas: Final Thoughts

We may all have wished to have a bigger coat closet space so we can store more of our outerwear and still have enough space to hang guest’s coats. However, you can make use of your available space.  With a little bit of creativity, following the coat closet organizing ideas, and with the help of a few amazing organizing products, you will have a enough space for your outerwear essentials and enough space for your guest’s coats. Now that you know this, you do not need to have a bigger space and you can be contented and happy that you have a house that you can call home! Not just a home, but an organized home! So lets just enjoy being at home!