Do you struggle with how to organize kids’ winter gear? Yup, I feel your pain!
There is so much bulk! And although it’s all necessary for those of us in cold snowy climates, it can be a pain to organize and store.
Look no further my friends, I’m sharing my top tips to quickly and easily organize kids’ winter gear, along with one extremely simple change that made our mudroom so much more functional for our entire family!
TIP #1 = Hooks, Hooks, and More Hooks!
Our kids don’t love using hangers — especially not when they are excitedly bursting through the back door. They WILL, however, use hooks, so we have lots and lots of hooks in our mudroom!
The kids each have one designated hook at their height. They can (and do) quickly and easily hang their coats, backpacks, sweatshirts, hats, etc.
We also have many other hooks for adult coats, snow pants, wet clothing, guest jackets, etc.
There are times when all these hooks allow our mudroom to LOOK somewhat messy, cluttered, and disorganized. But the hooks are practical, and they are the best and easiest way I have found to organize kids’ winter gear (and their all-year-round gear too!)
TIP #2 = Benches (preferably with storage!)
Our mudroom is not overly large, but we have 3 different benches that all serve multiple purposes in our room.
They are (obviously) available to sit on when putting on boots or snow pants. They also provide valuable storage all year round, and they offer a practical off-the-floor option for setting things that need to go out to the car (bags, luggage, donations, etc.)
Two of the benches in our mudroom have ample storage!
We use the huge bench below (built by my uncle) for storing off-season items (it has swimming and beach items in it now). This allows us more room in our closet for the current influx of snow pants, coats, gloves, etc.
We use another bench to store shoes and smaller kids’ boots so they aren’t all over the rug.
Speaking of rugs — we put an extra rug in the mudroom during snowy winter months. This helps to absorb the melting snow so we don’t have puddles on the floor.
TIP #3 = Over-the-door Shoe Organizers
Over-the-door shoe organizers are one of my most favorite organizing tools ever — especially to organize kids’ winter gear! We have them in almost every room in our house — none of them actually have shoes inside though!
I specifically designed our mudroom to accommodate a French door closet so we could hang over-the-door shoe organizers on the back of each door.
We use the mini pockets to organize SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS — hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, umbrellas, small bags, sunscreen, bug spray, wet wipes, sunglasses, keys, flashlights, etc. etc.
These shoe organizers make it convenient to quickly reach inside, grab what we need, and shove things back inside when we’re finished.
Again, it’s not the most beautiful system, but it works SO well for us (you could easily hang one of these organizers on a wall if you don’t have French doors).
One Extremely Simple Swap I Made To Better Organize Our Kid’s Winter Gear
We’ve been organizing our kids’ winter gear this way for years and years. But as I mentioned above, this year I made one very small, very simple tweak to our system that had a dramatic effect on how well our children are able to utilize the system.
Now that Clara is old enough to use our system, we have even more gear to organize, and our old over-the-door system wasn’t working quite as well… so I made a change.
Can you see the difference in the photos below?
Both pictures contain exactly the same items… I didn’t purge anything. I didn’t really even store them more neatly.
The difference is simply HOW I arranged each of the cubbies.
Previously, I allotted each child one COLUMN for their things. The face masks on the top, hats and ear warmers below, then thick gloves, and finally thin gloves at the bottom.
However, James couldn’t reach his own face masks, hats, or ear warmers. Clara couldn’t reach anything other than her thin gloves.
Since the younger kids were not able to get their own gear out OR put it away again, it meant Dave and I were constantly picking up and putting away their hats, face masks, etc.
Not ideal — but I figured it would stop eventually once they got older and taller.
However, as I organized everything into the proper cubbies earlier this fall, I realized that I could just switch how I arrange the cubbies. Now instead of using one column per person, I use one ROW per person.
This is now how we organize kids’ winter gear…
It took me roughly 5 minutes to make the switch. Now everyone can reach (and put away) their own things!
Our mudroom is neater and more organized, Dave and I have fewer messes to pick up, and our children are able to do more independently (here’s a huge list of tasks our kids already do on their own)!
Such a quick and easy switch!!!!
I know you don’t all have mudrooms or even the space to hang a shoe organizer… yet I would encourage you to look for ways you can implement hooks, benches, and over-the-door shoe organizers in your own home.
Also, always be on the “lookout” for organizational systems that aren’t working as well as they could be right now — you never know when a super quick fix might be just what you need!
Ashley Urke | Domestic Fashionista says
I put over the door organizers in our hallway closet closest to our front door as inspired by you! A game changer. We keep swimsuits and goggles in the summer and winter gear for the winter. And organized as you suggested here. We even have everyday socks in here so that when it is time to leave the house, my kids can get their own socks on without having to go upstairs! It has become so handy! I also have them sleep in their school clothes. I love your practical tips! Thank you!
Andrea says
yes, these over-the-door organizers are SOOOO handy! We use them in many closets in our home. Glad you and your family are benefiting from this simple (and frugal) organizational too, as well 🙂
Saebom says
It looks like instead of hanging the clear organizers from the top of the door with the hooks provided attached to the organizer, you attached them to the inside of the door itself? How did you do this? I worry that the organizer would get too heavy and fall off and damage the door
Andrea says
we have solid wood doors — so the screws are secure. If you don’t have solid wood doors, you probably wouldn’t want to risk it if your hanging organizers are quite heavy!
Jennifer says
We have overdoor hooks for backpacks (mine and our sons) and I was just wondering this morning how to store his hat and mittens. We are in Texas so that’s really the most he needs here! I might add a pocket organizer under the hooks, I think it would fit perfectly and accommodate other small stuff we frequently need really well.
Jennifer says
Annnnd I just realized that this would be perfect to hang in our pantry for dog stuff! Woohoo! I can get rid of the kind-of-in-my-way shelf!
Andrea says
oh yes — definitely. There are SO many uses for this organizational tool!
Andrea says
Good idea! You can always cut one row off the bottom if it hangs down too far — I’ve done this before and no one could tell!
Julia says
How do you keep your kids from losing their mittens and hats and face masks? Do you have a system for labelling it all? I feel like I spend a fortune each season replacing these items.
Andrea says
well, first of all, we buy most of our items used (for $1 each at thrift stores) So IF they lose anything, I don’t care all that much. That said, the kids have been really good (so far) about bringing all there things home from school. We’ll see if this continues through the years or not!
Mary says
We have the indoor/outdoor digital weather stations made in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They have a version with a digital pic of kids dressed for the weather, depending on the temp. I always thought it would be a fun thing for kids to refer to so they might start to look at the temp and understand what it meant.
Andrea says
that is awesome! I’ll have to look into it! I’m sure our kids would think it’s super cool too!
Linda Bolt says
I made a chart like that when our kids were young, and posted it near the back door, with outdoor thermometer in view. This ended any whining or battles over what to wear outside, and took the focus off me as the enforcer. My kids liked knowing what to wear when.
Andrea says
thanks — I need to look into this. It’s such a fun idea!
Carla says
I read this years ago in a magazine and have implemented it… take a bar (long) towel rack and hang it on the ceiling centered above your bathtub. This becomes a place to hang wet coats, snowsuits, etc… It also works to hang clothes that need drip-drying. This is particularly helpful for people who do not have a dedicated mud-room.
Speaking of drip-drying, could you explain what your heavy mittens are drip-drying on? That’s what I struggle with. I have a place for things when they are dry… but it’s the where to put them (hats, scarves, face-masks, mittens, gloves, etc…) while they dry.
One other thought… I love that Simon is expressing his individuality and I love how you honor him. If long pants continue to be an issue, you might consider, especially with your experience with Nora’s sensory sensitivity, that for some reason his pants are not comfortable and he can’t express it. I knew a little boy who threw a tantrum every time he had to put his socks on. Turns out he was very sensitive to the seam at the toes of the socks and they had to be perfectly aligned for him to be able to tolerate wearing them. 🙂
Andrea says
Thanks for these tips Carla!
As for Simon, he’s just CRAZY STUBBORN right now! He has no sensory issues and loves wearing pants. He just had a week where he randomly refused pants — he’s “back to normal” now 🙂
Carla says
Here in Colorado it’s not uncommon to see young people in shorts and no coats in snow and cold. I don’t know how they do it! 🙂
I think my question might have gotten buried in my first response…
“Speaking of drip-drying, could you explain what your heavy mittens are drip-drying on? That’s what I struggle with. I have a place for things when they are dry… but it’s the where to put them (hats, scarves, face-masks, mittens, gloves, etc…) while they dry.”
Thanks!
Andrea says
oh yes, the heavy mittens — they are on shishkabob skews over our floor-grate heater 🙂
Ashley says
We’re planning to switch our bifold doors to “French doors” (modifying the existing doors) so I can do exactly this! I’m so excited to not have to dig through a basket of hats and gloves shared by everyone, and that the kids will be able to get their own things out. Never would have thought of this if not for you! I too would love to know how you actually hang the organizers.
Andrea says
yay — you will LOVE the French doors over bi-fold doors!
To hang our organizers, we just screwed screws into the door to match up with the 3 holes in the shoe organizer (the holes where the “over-the-door” part connects). It took 5 minutes and now we don’t need to have the clips over the door
We do have solid wood doors — but I’ve done this before with hollow-core doors too!
Kari says
Can you tell me how you hang the over-the-door organizers? I’ve always noticed in your pictures that it never looks like you use the over-the-door hangers. I’m thinking about utilizing this idea for our hat/glove storage this year.
Andrea says
yes, we just screwed screws into the door to match up with the 3 holes in the shoe organizer (the holes where the “over-the-door” part connects). It took 5 minutes and now we don’t need to have the clips over the door 🙂
We do have solid wood doors — but I’ve done this before with hollow-core doors too!
Margaret says
I really respect the way you let your kids figure life out for themselves. Maybe it’s worth it to James to be cold; maybe he’ll make a different choice next time. I’m also sure that there’s a -50F windchill (safety rather than comfort, an analysis he’s not mature enough to make) he’lll be wearing snowpants over his shorts.
Good parenting call, IMHO.
Andrea says
oh yes, if it were blowing and snowing, he would not be going out in shorts — but on a 50º day, I’m OK if he’s a little cold 🙂