Come On In and Stay Awhile!

Like everything else in my house, my front hall closet is small.  Small, small, small.  It's behind the front door, too, so when anyone comes to visit, they must walk in, squeeze around the door while they attempt to close it, whirl around doing a 360, try not to trip over the single step up into the living room, take their shoes off, and manage to open the closet door to hang up a jacket.  That's a lot of work.

That's it, folks.

This is probably why I have never used my front door to enter the house since moving in.  I take that back.  Here is picture proof that it was used, ONCE.  We bought the house, I yelled at Dave that we needed to document our opening of the door with "our" key for the first time, and this is all we've got.  One, single entry into the house using the front door.

Yay for first time home ownership!

Because Dave and I don't use the front door to enter/exit the house, we've got a whole organizational setup going on next to the side door that I'll discuss in a later post, but this one is about my front hall closet.  For the purposes of this post, I just took a count of what is actually in the closet.  Here's the rundown:

55 pairs of shoes (boots, heels, sandals, flats- all mine) Lest you be worried that 55 isn't enough, I have more shoes hidden away in the basement and my bedroom closet.  
16 coats (Dave's and mine)
12 hats
8 prs of gloves
5 scarves
1 bin of tablecloths, cloth napkins, napkin rings
1 jumprope
2 dog jackets
1 yoga mat

Despite not using the front door every day, I do actually use the closet next to it.  Here's a picture to show how I fit everything on this list inside (neatly!)

Margot will NOT leave my side to let me take pictures!

Alright, first and foremost, the black monstrosity attached to the door...I bought this piece at IKEA a few years ago.  Because the door is a 6 panel wood door, I couldn't attach the storage container directly to it without driving the screws clear through to the other side.  Dave and I attached 4 strips of wood to the thick parts of the door, and then attached the bins to the lumber.  I probably should have painted the wood pieces to match the door, but just have never quite gotten around to it.  Maybe one day.  The bins themselves are singular bins that can be attached and stacked on top of one another.  We chose to do three bins, but probably could have fit four if we really wanted to.

Each bin pulls outward, and has a deep tub to hide your things.

For my purposes, each bin is divided up.  The bottom bin holds summer sandals, the middle bin holds flats, and the top bin holds frequently used hats and gloves.  Looking at these pictures makes me want to label my bins.  Good thing I know someone who does that...shameless plug here.

Down to the floor:  I bought a cheapo shoe rack for the bottom of the closet.  I'm still dreaming up ways I can make this closet more efficient (i.e. so it can hold more stuff), but this works for now.  My heels are arranged on the rack back to front to make it possible to hold more pairs.  And yes, they are organized by color.  You only make the mistake once of wearing one dark brown and one black shoe to work before you learn to keep things separate!!  The floor on the left side of the shoe rack houses all of my black boots, and the floor on the right side houses all of my brown boots.  I really don't ever wear sneakers unless I'm exercising, which is why there are only two pairs at the bottom of the picture.  That's all I've got.  I will have crippled feet by the time I'm 50, but I'll have a closet full of fun shoes to trade off in exchange for not wearing sensible shoes.  Such is life.

DSW and I are VERY good friends.

It's like a beautiful shoe rainbow.  Sigh.

Not sure if you can see from the picture or not, but I also use old wrapping paper tubes to keep my tall boots from falling over.  You can use paper towel tubes if you've got those.  They're free, and they work.

Last on the list is jackets and miscellaneous.  There is a window in the middle of the closet (houses built in the 40's and 50's didn't usually put a light in the closet), which makes hanging a full row of jackets difficult.  You can see the hangars and tops of the jackets from the outside of the house if I string them all the way across the bar, which is why they are pushed to each side.  This also allows me to see the top row of my shoes much more easily.  In my dreams, I have painted the inside of the closet a shockingly bright yet pleasant color, there are built in shoe racks, and the window is frosted or tinted to be reflective so the coats can be hidden.  All in due time.  Maybe this post will be a push in the right direction for me to actually make it happen!  One can wish, right?

Now, after all of my ramblings, I do actually have a point to make in this post.  If you organize and use your space wisely, you CAN actually fit a ridiculous amount of things in a tiny space.  Fifty-five pairs of shoes in one small closet is nothing to sneeze at, right??  I can't wait to do an update post when I figure out a way to double that to over 100!  Until then, I will refuse to admit that I have a shoe problem.  Right now, it's just a collection.