…so you can get outside fast and keep your sanity.

But…

There’s just too much gear.

How do I store it all?

I don’t have space.

It just ends up in a pile on the floor.

I don’t know how to keep it organized.

WE GET IT NoBads. We know. Because we were saying these things and asking these questions once we were outfitting all our kiddos.

We had the piles of gear and the coat closet from hell.

How do I even get started?

The simple solution to these organization woes, and the one we’ve implemented, is to create a place for the gear to go (to be put away). Nothing fancy required. And once it has a place to go, you teach your kiddos where it is supposed to go, so they can help manage their gear. It’s a beautiful thing.

So how did we implement this? We don’t have a very large home with empty rooms, or a massive garage or mudroom even. So we created the space. We have closest, walls and doors, we decided we could reinvent these spaces.

Here’s where to start:

1. Identify places in your home where your gear naturally builds up
2. Identify places in your home where it makes sense to store your gear (ex. Near the garage door…if it’s the same location as #1, great!, if not, no biggie — it wasn’t for us, either)
3. Do the locations where it makes sense to store gear already have storage? Or, space/area to create a storage system? (This is the fun, creative part!)
4. Make decisions
   • Choose the locations where you want to store your gear
   • Choose how you want to store your gear (what hardware or bins or whatever you need to make this happen…hello Ikea and the Container Store, amiright?
5. Set it up! (“My absolute favorite part” – NBWfam Mom)

Remember, it doesn’t have to be super sophisticated and there are amazing and minimal storage ideas on the internet to copy cat. We actually made a Pinterest organization/storage inspo board just to help get the creative juices flowing.

Here’s what we did…

1. All our gear piles up on the floor near every exit of our home, the entire kitchen floor (I don’t know why, don’t ask) and the bathrooms. In addition, we had one coat rack (hall tree) that was oversaturated with the whole family’s outerwear.
2. We wanted to keep the organization of our gear near the exits.
3. We recycled wall space to create more coat rack storage. This allowed us to spread out the gear to make it easier to store and find items. In addition, we re-used a shoe organizer for smaller gear.

Let’s start with coats, rain gear, snow gear apparel storage:

We are a family of 5, that’s a lot of jackets and coats (and rain bibs). One hall tree was not enough, we proved that. Since we don’t have a spare room or mud room, I reimagined what made sense. The design of our hallway allows for an exposed mudroom of sorts.

I bought few wall coat racks, drilled them to the wall. Threw up some peg boards and shoe racks and voila….

A new mudroom for all the kiddos’ gear was born! Each child has their own section and enough hooks for ALL the things.

Where’s mom and dad’s gear? On the hall tree? Yes, some of it. I also reorganized the coat closet by the front door. Added a clear plastic bins to the top for small, loose gear (ex. crampons, snowboarding goggles) storage. Moved our heavy rain boots and snow boots to bottom of the closet.

Here’s a lil before and after business >

BEFORE

AFTER

Ain’t she a beaut, Clark?

But what about all those gloves and hats? There’s 1,000 of these pieces laying around.

That, my friends, is where the glory of the good ole shoe organizer comes in. Throw it up on door. Add names to the side (to maintain the sanity). Even add labels to each pocket if your type A self so desires (ex. hats, gloves, scarves, etc.).

You can shove so much into one of the pockets. For example, one pocket can hold 3-4 beanies or 2-4 pairs of gloves (pending on the size). This is actually a storage hack we used in my childhood home.

And now, everything is organized, all the gear has a place to “be put away” and my kiddos understand how to keep their gear organized.

Here’s links to items we used (or similar items):

• hanging shoe organizer option 1
• hanging shoe organizer option 2
• hanging shoe organizer option 3
• wall coat rack hooks (these are the ones we have)
• wall peg boards (these are the ones we have)
• clear storage bins
• clear storage bins with lids (if you have room to stack)
• ikea shoe racks (what we have) – Love these and their modular nature. The Swedes get it.
• shoe rack option 2
• shoe rack option 3
• ikea shoe trays (what we have) – and use them for so many things.
• shoe tray option 2
• shoe tray option 3

But there’s more!

We have a little surprise for you! An easter egg of sorts.

When we were redoing our entry way and coat closet, I wanted to add some art to warm up the space. With the help of canva, we made an outdoorsy themed framed quote (a fav quote from one of our fav tv shows).

“When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead” -Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)

And we’re sharing the image file for free with you, NoBads, if you want to also use it! There’s a few different mock ups as we debated what would fit the space.

So stop beings sad, be awesome instead AND don’t cancel plans, make more…Just get that gear organized!

Love,