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OT: winter gear
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Ugg, I hate winter. Not because of the snow and ice and cold, but because of the boots,and coats, and hats and gloves that end up soaking wet and piled in my entryway. So does anyone have a brilliant solution for dealing with winter gear?
Move to the sunshine state, Florida! 😉 I’m sorry, couldn’t resist. We only use winter gear when we go skiing. My fave rental houses have had mudrooms with plenty of hooks for everything to spread out.
Before we moved, we kept a cute bin in a nook in our hallway for scarves, gloves, and winter hats. Now that we live in East TX, I doubt we’ll need that gear much. Snow boots were typically kept in the closets after they were defrosted and dried in front of the fire place. Winter coats were kepts in the same hallway nook on hooks. In the off season, they were stored in a plastic tub in the garage. Snow pants were also dried in front of the fire and then hung up in the closet and stored in the tub in off season.
Hooks placed somewhere that allows snow to drip off are the best, and extra hooks for hats & scarves are helpful, too. For boots, we used to just kick them off down the stairs into the basement, and then the last one in would go down the stairs to stand them all up in a cardboard box lid.
However, no one wants to leave boots in the basement anymore (too many spiders and such), so we bought a shoe rack that’s like a little shelf, and we stick it on top of something to catch all of the snow drips. There is a little room next to them to place a couple of the wet gloves/mittens. The rest we either hang over a door knob or drape over the top of our heating registers to dry. (We have a forced air furnace, so a heating vent with a grill over it in each room.) Those dry quickly because the warm air from the furnace cycles on often.
I use an over the door shoe organizer for hats, gloves, scarves… it hangs on the inside of the tiny hall closet. Each of the kids has a row and if it does not fit then we give something else away. The pockets also hold their sunglasses and summer hats. Snow boots hang out in the hall closet. Snow pants are in their bedroom closets
They each have – snow hat, mittens, light weight gloves, scarf, sun hat, baseball hat, sunglasses… in each of their pocket rows going down (so each child has 6 little pockets). It makes it very easy and simple for them to be in charge of their things and it prevents things from getting into the wrong spots. Also prevents me from collecting too many things. I like to crochet, hats are just fun, but now if we make something (or are given something) we have to give something else away.
Things that are wet I put on the small close drying rack in my bedroom. We live in a small ranch floorplan house so access to my bedroom to dry wet outerwear is simple and easy.
I bought a hanging rack and hang all the mittens hats and scarves by the wood stove. Wet boots, snow pants and jacket also go by the wood stove for drying.
We use hooks for coats and hats and under it a large 3 portioned bin for boots and gloves (which doubles as a bench). I bought an “Open Box” deal on this bin last year and labled each one with the kids’ names (I have 3 kids):
My mudroom area used to have a coat rack, but I switched to hooks because hangers were too much work for everyone (including us parents!).
Also, I buy back seat car floor mats from Walmart and put them by all the exterior doors and they make great places to dry boots. They are only like $3 I think.
Thanks for all the ideas. I wish we could get the move to Florida one to work! Part of the problem is we have not hall closet. I do like the idea of the cubbies. I wish houses still had mud rooms that would be awesome!
We have a boot tray by our front door since that area is carpeted…It’s mostly DH who uses this door. The kids usually come and go by the side door and fortunately it’s not carpeted there. I keep a large lined basket for shoes (dress shoes and sneakers), but we usually just line winter boots up down the hallway. It’s not the most beautiful site, but with 7 of us, I’m not sure what else to do. For hats/gloves/scarves/etc, I have an over-the-door shoe organizer that holds them. We also have hooks to hang them on as they are drying. I keep out one coat per person on the hooks as well.
It’s not the best solution and it looks like a huge mess whenever we come inside from anywhere!
We try to staighten it up a few times a day. I’m in florid also so no winter gear but polemic bathing suits and towels are common. What about a folding drying rack or like a PVC towel rack. I know they aren’t pretty but neither are moldy stinky clothes.
Ugh! Don’t make me think about this! LOL
Mittens and hats are stored on the air vent in the laundry room (where we come in and go out) since they are in use again almost as soon as they are dried out. Boots are lined up in front of the dryer. Again, permanently, since that is our winter footwear for day to day use. I put a bunch of 3M hooks up on the tiny wall space and on the front and back of our small closet door for all the coats and snowpants plus we have an over the door set of hooks for dh and my coats and snowpants since there is so much winter gear drying all the time that we can’t usally get into the closet!
My dream is to have a HUGE mudroom / laundry room. 🙂 With an extra large closet, boot dryers, drying rack for mittens… and on and on… You know you are a mother when a mud room becomes your top priority in a new house!
We try to staighten it up a few times a day. 
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