Tackle It Tuesday - Coat/broom closet

So today I'm going to tackle my coat/broom closet. This kind of acts as a 'catch-all' as well since it's kind of in the middle of my house and things tend to get tossed in there when I'm not sure where else to put them, lol.

Here's a 'before' shot that I took last night:

It doesn't help that I also use this closet to store our winter gear during the off-season. Plus, I pretty much have to keep all of the girls' old spring and winter coats in here since they'll get handed down and there is no room in the girls' closets for bulky coats.

I didn't have much time to work on it this morning before we left - all I got done was to take out the little folding table and chairs and put them back downstairs where they belong. We generally only use them when we have company for dinner - and when Mary comes to visit for the weekend with her kids. Usually we just leave it out in the kitchen for her visit and then I put them back downstairs when she leaves. But when she came up in July, we had to take down the little table and chairs after every meal since little miss Becca had learned how to climb on them, so I just shoved them into this closet in between meals and they never made it back down where they belong after Mary left.

Here's how the closet looks at the moment after taking out the table and chairs. All that pretty much did is reveal all of the stuff sitting on the floor behind where they were! Which includes last year's winter boots - guess I'll have to finally deal with those.

The rest will have to wait until I get home tonight, so I'll update here later as I get more accomplished. I'm looking forward to having a clean, organized closet though!

Hmm, I will have to figure out where to put the girls' new backpacks and Abby's new lunchbox that I'd just thrown up on the top shelf to keep them out of the way until school starts... At least I've got all day here at work to think about it (wink).

Here's the update! I did manage to get the rest of the closet done yesterday before my marathon snooze-a-thon on the couch after the girls went to bed (I'll post about that later, LOL). And once school starts, the girls' new backpacks and Abby's new lunchbox will come out of here as well, so it'll be even less cluttered on the top shelf. I still think I'll work on getting the coats more organized (thanks to Karen for the space bag idea!) once we can afford to.

The closet floor was nasty from all of the cat toys and things the cats think are toys that got caught under the door of the closet - it was so nice to sweep and mop in there and have a nice shiny floor again. Here are the 'after' pics!