No one likes putting on cold, wet mittens on their way to the bus stop or a second round of outdoor snow play. Get prepared to keep all of those coats, mittens, hats, boots and snow pants organized and dry! Here are a few tips:
Winter Gear Organization Tip #1
If you want your kids to actually hang up those soaking wet snow pants after a long day, make it easy and accessible. Hooks and hangers that are out of reach are just asking for those snow pants to end up in a ball on the floor. Allocate a hook for each family member where gear is usually taken off and use double hooks for kids – one side for a coat and one side for snow pants.
The picture below is a great example of having the rod in place for hang drying heavy items along with plastic bins for wet pieces of clothing.
Winter Gear Tip #2
Winter salt and sand can scratch and damage floors. Place a heavy-duty rubber boot tray under each hook to store snowy boots and allow water to drip from snow pants above. Or, if you have the space, add plastic containers to the shelves as shoe storage similar to the picture above.
Winter Gear Tip #3
A practical way to handle the mass of wet snow gear is to have some handy collapsible, waterproof bags that can come out of hiding for very active snow days. This system works really well for keeping everything organized.
Having this system in place will save time from mixing up wet and dry clothes. Use the one crush can for wet gear that needs to go in the dryer and the other crush can for the freshly dried items. On snow days, your dryer can get quite a workout and you don’t want to mix up the wet and dry clothes. Keeping items separate and off the floor is necessary to keep your sanity.
These tips can help you to achieve peace amongst your household. Along a great mudroom design and organization from My Custom Closet, you can have a stress free, attractive, “work horse” of a laundry and mudroom system, like the example below.
